BIG STORY: Committee to mull anti-vax measure March 14

By Jack O’Toole  |  A state Senate committee on March 14 will consider  legislation that would dramatically curtail the authority of state health officials during future public health emergencies, such as pandemics or biological terror attacks.

Dubbed the Medical Freedom Act by supporters, the bill would prohibit the state’s health department from securing and distributing vaccines or other drugs during a public health crisis unless they had received full Food and Drug Administration approval — a complex regulatory process that often takes years.

In 2021, Covid vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna were produced and distributed under an FDA emergency use authorization, which offers streamlined review procedures during declared national health emergencies.

Critics of the legislation, which was approved last week by a Senate subcommittee, say such emergency authorization saved tens of thousands of lives because it got vaccines quickly to people across the country.  

The legislation, proposed by conservative Upstate Sen. Shane  Martin, would also limit health officials’ power to order and enforce quarantines, restrict the right of pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions and outlaw vaccination mandates by private employers for vaccines without full FDA approval.

Debating the merits

Supporters and opponents debated the bill at a Feb. 28 Medical Affairs subcommittee hearing.

“I wanted to do something to protect myself and all the constituents we represent,” Martin, R-Spartanburg, told committee members, citing concerns about the use of “novel” vaccines.

Other supporters of the bill, including committee chairman Sen. Tom Corbin, R-Greenville, referred often to testimony by University of South Carolina biochemist Dr. Phillip Buckhaults, who told an S.C. Senate panel last  September that DNA fragments in Pfizer’s mRNA-based vaccine could potentially invade the nucleus of healthy human cells and cause serious health problems, including cancer.

Pfizer strongly disputed those statements in an Oct. 16 letter. 

“There is no evidence to support these claims and they provide the risk of being misconstrued by either Committee members and/or the public at large,” wrote Dr. Annaliesa Anderson, senior vice president and chief scientific officer. 

Anderson’s letter went on to observe that the issue of DNA fragments is neither new nor unique to Covid vaccines. 

“It is important to note that similar quality standards regarding residual DNA are applied to other vaccines. Small amounts of residual DNA can be found in several approved vaccines, including influenza and hepatitis vaccines, which have been administered globally for more than 30 years,” she wrote.

Later that month, a fact check by the University of Pennsylvania’s factcheck.org found Buckhaults’ testimony to be inconsistent with the best available evidence and the views of most experts in the field.

Among those testifying against the bill were S.C. Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Bob Morgan and S.C. Pharmacy  Association CEO Brian Clark.

“South Carolina has a long and proud tradition of allowing private sector employers to businesses without excessive government interference,” Morgan told committee members in reference to the bill’s ban on employer vaccine mandates. 

“Pharmacists have gone to school for a long time and deserve the right to exercise their best judgment in the best interest of their patients,” Clark said of the legislation’s requirement that pharmacists fill prescriptions that they believe could be harmful.

At the conclusion of testimony, committee members approved the measure 3-2, with Corbin, Sen. Richard Cash, R-Anderson, and Sen. Billy Garrett, R-McCormick, voting yes.  Both of the panel’s Democrats, Williamsburg Sen. Ronnie Saab and Charleston Sen. Deon Tedder, voted no.

Also passing along party lines that day was a bill permanently outlawing public employer vaccine mandates, and a resolution calling on the United States to withdraw from the World Health Organization.

• Jack O’Toole reports on statewide issues for Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper.  Have a comment?  Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.