The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would allow the federal government to know each and every single American’s vaccination status — knowledge it supposedly needs to “prevent future public health crises.”
In a 294-130 vote on Tuesday, the House approved the Immunization Infrastructure Modernization Act of 2021, or H.R. 550, which provides $400 million for “immunization system data modernization and expansion, and for other purposes.” Every Democrat voted in favor of the bill. It was also supported by 80 Republicans, while 130 Republicans voted “nay.” Now the bill is sent to the Democrat-controlled Senate, where it will likely be passed.
The legislation defines “immunization information system” (IIS) as “a confidential, population-based, computerized database that records immunization doses administered by any health care provider to persons within the geographic area covered by that database.”
The bill starts with and specifically outlines an expansion of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Public Health Department capabilities and enhances the ability of state and local health departments, as well as public and private healthcare providers, to share immunization data with the federal government.
Per the text, the legislature would direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to:
- (A) conduct activities (including with respect to interoperability, population reporting, and bidirectional reporting) to expand, enhance, and improve immunization information systems that are administered by health departments or other agencies of State, local, Tribal, and territorial governments and used by health care providers; and
- (B) award grants or cooperative agreements to the health departments, or such other governmental entities as administer immunization information systems … for the expansion, enhancement, and improvement of immunization information systems to assist public health departments.
The “assistance” would relate to such aspects of the vaccination databases’ “expansion and modernization,” particularly in “bidirectional exchange” of the immunization data between the local and federal systems. This includes:
- assessing current data infrastructure capabilities and gaps among health care providers to improve and increase consistency in patient matching, data collection, reporting, bidirectional exchange, and analysis of immunization-related information;
- improving secure data collection, transmission, bidirectional exchange, maintenance, and analysis of immunization information;
- improving the secure bidirectional exchange of immunization record data among local and federal governments;
- supporting the standardization of immunization information systems;
- supporting real-time immunization record data exchange and reporting, to support rapid identification of immunization coverage gaps
- supporting the development and implementation of policies that facilitate complete population-level capture, consolidation, and access to accurate immunization information;
- supporting expansion of capabilities within immunization information systems for outbreak response; and other technical and organizational assistance. [Emphasis added.]
The bill’s main sponsor, Representative Ann McLane Kuster (D-N.H.), said in a statement that the legislation will help “to better prepare our health care system for future public health crises.” Kuster claimed that
Immunization Information Systems (IIS) are secure, multi-faceted systems that allow for the sharing of crucial information and maintenance of records. These systems can allow providers to keep vaccines and supplies in stock, prevent over- or under-vaccination, remind patients when they are due for a recommended vaccine, and identify areas with low vaccination rates to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines.
According to a Breitbart News report, IISs “have been around for decades” and operate in all 50 states.
The CDC notes that IISs provide “consolidated immunization histories for use by a vaccination provider in determining appropriate client vaccination” and aggregates data “on vaccinations for use in surveillance and program operations, and in guiding public health action with the goals of improving vaccination rates and reducing vaccine-preventable disease.”
The CDC also provides that it “does NOT” have personal vaccination records — only state IISs do.
H.R. 550 is about to change that.
Representative Mary Miller (R-Ill.), who was one of the 130 Republicans to vote “no,” told the outlet the legislation would enable the federal government to “track” unvaccinated Americans. She said,
These systems are designed to allow for the sharing of crucial information and maintenance of records. Do we really trust the government to protect our medical records?… This was clearly a legislative tool to enforce vaccine mandates and force their [Democrats’] Orwellian rules onto those who do not comply.
Representative Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) noted the Democrats’ “habitual pattern of reckless and wasteful spending” and argued the legislation “only serves to expand the power of the federal government and trample individual rights,” per Breitbart. Donalds added:
This legislation would unnecessarily appropriate millions of taxpayer funds intended to expand bureaucracy in Washington. A database solely created to record and collect confidential vaccination information of Americans explicitly encroaches upon individuals’ fundamental right to medical privacy.
Representative Michael Burgess (R-Texas), who voted for the legislation, said the updated IIS was not a “tool to target unvaccinated Americans,” and that it “establishes guardrails that make it unconstitutional for the Biden Administration to track any American’s vaccine status.”
Mark Bednar, a spokesman for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), has similarly stated that “the bill does not create any new system or spend any new money, but it does ensure that immunization data is de-identifiable and confidential.”
Both statements are suspect, given the bill explicitly establishes a standardized federal database of the vaccination status of all Americans.
