Deep Pharma has not gone away: Idaho Governor nixed Medical Freedom bill passed by both houses & West Virginia House nixed bill to return religious vaccine waivers to the state, despite Governor’s EO

Leslie Manookian crafted the Idaho bill. I have discussed it before. After passing both houses, Idaho’s governor vetoed it, using a specious argument made by an education NGO, one no doubt sponsored by you-know-who.

Hat tip to Big E for the following links:

And let Idaho’s Governor know you are not happy.

Details:

– Idaho Freedom Caucus Substack: https://tinyurl.com/393wbhwp

– Governor Little Tracking Sheet for Saturday, March 29, 2025: https://tinyurl.com/2spssmws

– S1023 – Medical Freedom: https://tinyurl.com/3462c4np

Contacts:

– Find Your Idaho Representatives: https://tinyurl.com/y6yvete8

– Idaho Senate Membership: https://tinyurl.com/jx8e7tmn

– Idaho House Membership: https://tinyurl.com/3czmtacr

– Idaho Governor Brad Little:

—— Email: governor@gov.idaho.gov

—— Contact Form: https://tinyurl.com/yhwmstx6

In West Virginia, the governor had allowed religious vaccine exemptions by Executive Order. Then he brought a bill to the legislature to cement the religious exemption. (For decades, only Mississippi and West Virginia denied allowing students religious exemptions from vaccine mandates. In the past few years, several other states withdrew religious exemptions, while an ICAN lawsuit in Mississippi brought them back, there.)

After the WV Senate voted in favor of religious exemptions, the House voted against.

https://westvirginiawatch.com/2025/03/24/west-virginia-house-rejects-vaccine-exemption-bill-a-priority-for-morrisey

A spokesman for Morrisey said his executive order is still in effect and will not be rescinded. It was not immediately clear Monday what that means for the future of religious exemptions for vaccination requirements. The state Bureau for Public Health did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Del. Ian Masters, R-Berkeley, spoke of his family’s difficulty getting a medical exemption to the vaccine requirements for his child who has Down syndrome and was ill with COVID-19 and pneumonia and then lost the ability to speak. Despite the family’s doctor saying the child should not be vaccinated, Masters said the state denied them a medical exemption.

“[The bill is] addressing an absolutely broken and unconscionable process right now, trying to get a medical exemption unfortunately,” he said. “The truth is that we do not have a functioning medical exemption here.”

According to a report by the state Bureau for Public Health, 53 medical exemption requests were made in 2023. Of those, 19 were denied, nine were given a permanent exemption, 24 were given a temporary exemption and one was listed in an “other” category.

Chapman said West Virginia is a religious state and should allow students to have religious exemptions to vaccine requirements.

“Forty-five other states have found that it’s safe and effective to allow religious exemptions for childhood vaccines,” she said. “Our surrounding states are no different… So basically today, the House of Delegates decided that they were going to violate our children’s religious liberty and deny them an education.”

https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/legislative_session/wv-health-department-will-comply-with-morrisey-vaccine-religious-exemption-order/article_93c7d7fe-dbf5-4236-a550-d2a779bbd35f.html

The governor has responded that his Executive Order will not be rescinded. Children will still have the religious exemption available to them. Possibly the bill will be brought back to the legislature this session.