The Idaho state house passed legislation that will enable people to receive workers’ compensation if they fall ill due to an employee-mandated COVID shot.
House Bill 417 was approved overwhelmingly in a 67-3 vote on Tuesday. The bill seeks to amend Idaho’s code pertaining to workers’ compensation to “provide that vaccine-related accidents or injuries shall be compensable” by employers or insurers.
Per the text,
(1) When an employer requires an employee to receive a vaccination in the course of employment or as a condition of hiring or continued employment, any accident or injury caused by such vaccination shall be compensable.
(2) In any claim for compensation where there is unrebutted prima facie evidence that the employee received a vaccine in the course of employment or as a condition of hiring or continued employment, and where such employee suffers an accident or injury that is or may be related to the employee’s receipt of such vaccine, it shall be presumed, in the absence of substantial evidence to the contrary, that such accident or injury arose in the course of employment.
The bill specifies that its provisions “shall be construed in the light most favorable to an employee with respect to a claim for compensation” for any injury “caused by a vaccination received in the course of employment or as a condition of hiring or continued employment.”
Proponents of the legislature said workers are getting sick after being vaccinated for COVID, and some are having problems receiving compensation, per Associated Press. The bill will make it easier for the employees to receive compensation for claims such as illnesses caused by COVID shots.
“If the employer is telling you, you have to do this in order to work here, if they’re doing that, then, by golly, I think our system ought to provide a fair compensation method,” Democratic Representative John Gannon said, per the outlet.
Bill opponents argued Idaho’s worker compensation law has worked well “for decades” and that employees “sickened” by vaccines are already being compensated.
While the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that common “mild to moderate” side effects of getting the COVID vaccine can include tiredness, headache, muscle pain, chills, fever, and nausea, the Vaccine Adverse Effect Reporting System (VAERS) is bursting with tens of thousands of much more serious injuries. Such cases include severe cases of cardiac, neurological, blood, and lymphatic system disorders, and many others. While the raw data from VAERS on adverse events does not necessarily imply causality, of more than 16,000 deaths reported to the system, more than 5,000 of them occurred on Day 0, 1, or 2 following vaccination.
Reportedly, in fiscal year 2021, the U.S. government paid $246.9 million in claims for vaccine-related injuries and deaths, but not a single payout was related to COVID shots.
The workers’ compensation bill was one of seven related to the issue of COVID vaccinations that were passed on Tuesday, according to the AP.
Also heading to the Idaho Senate was House Bill 414, which would prohibit questioning the sincerity of people’s beliefs regarding religious exemptions from COVID vaccinations.
Among other bills advanced on Tuesday was H 419, which prohibits employers from asking employees about their COVID vaccination status.
Another bill, H 412, which passed 48-22, adds to existing law to prohibit certain discrimination based upon immunization status. The bill provides it would be unlawful to
refuse, withhold from, or deny a person any local or state government services, goods, facilities, advantages, privileges, licensing, educational opportunities, health care access, contract work, or employment opportunities based on the person’s immunization status or whether the person has an immunity passport.
In addition to that, the Idaho lawmakers passed H 415, which would add medical, religious, philosophical, and natural-immunity exemptions for employees from vaccine requirements by employers. That bill applies to all employee-required vaccinations, not just against COVID.
Also, the Idaho Senate on a voice vote approved a declaration stating opposition to President Joe Biden’s executive orders of September 9 regarding the COVID vaccination mandate for federal workers and contractors and vaccine requirements for large employers and healthcare employers.
The Gem State is involved in three lawsuits against the Biden administration in regard to the so-called Emergency Temporarily Standards (ETS) issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Agency (OSHA) on November 4. The ETS requires all private businesses employing 100 or more people to have their employees vaccinated against COVID or submit to mask-wearing and weekly testing.
Idaho Governor Brad Little signed onto a multi-state lawsuit challenging President Biden’s vaccine mandates for federal contractors on October 29.
Today, OSHA has suspended implementation and enforcement of the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for private employers after a federal court blocked the measure.
