ST. PAUL — A Minnesota legislator spoke out against allowing child care facilities to set their own policies regarding immunizations, calling vaccines poison, during a committee hearing Tuesday, March 19.
Rep. Natalie Zeleznikar, R-Fredenberg Township, commented after a proposed bill, HF367, was presented in the House Children and Families Finance and Policy Committee this week. It seeks to give child care providers the option to adopt an immunization policy that would not allow for a conscientiously held belief exemption.
Under Minnesota statute, anyone over 2 months old must be immunized to enroll in schools or child care with an exemption for medical reasons, immunity and conscientious objections.
Zeleznikar objected to the bill and over several minutes told committee members that vaccines are poison, that the bill would negatively affect the workforce in northern Minnesota and she called into question the effectiveness of herd immunity.
"Last year we passed a cannabis bill. There's many people that want to do that because it grows from the ground. It's natural," she said during Tuesday's hearing. "And yet now we're saying to families, by the way, you don't have a choice for a poison that could kill you."
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As evidence of her claims, Zeleznikar sent information about vaccines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which lists possible side effects. On its site, the CDC states there is a very remote chance of a vaccine causing a severe allergic reaction, other serious injury or death.
However, vaccines can prevent infectious diseases that once killed or harmed people, according to the CDC, which says that without vaccines, children are at risk of getting ill or dying from diseases like measles and whooping cough.
The CDC also instructs the public to tell their health care provider about any possible severe, life-threatening allergies.
Zeleznikar acknowledged the low risk of vaccine injuries and said Minnesota has a good track record for childhood vaccination rates when asked to provide context about her statements for this story.
"I worked in healthcare my entire career, and I am not anti-vaccine," Zeleznikar wrote in a statement to Forum News Service. "In fact, I have received vaccinations and had my own kids vaccinated. With that said, as a State Representative, I respect the importance for informed consent for medications, medical procedures, and vaccinations."
Zeleznikar also told committee members Tuesday that since the bill would still allow for medical exemptions, conscientious exemptions should stay in place.
"We're not going to change the risk factor for any of these children at the child care center because we already have some we're going to allow to be there for a medical exemption," she said. "So this is just further going to complicate the issues."
Zeleznikar, whose district covers several communities north of Duluth, said parents should have the right to choose whether their children should be vaccinated and that not allowing for conscientious objection could open up legal questions for excluding religious exemptions.
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"Conscientious exemptions encompass a family’s religious beliefs or conscientious beliefs and are utilized when their beliefs prevent them from accepting one or more of the vaccines doses," she wrote in her statement. "It allows space for public health recommendations while respecting the diverse population and individual autonomy of all citizens."
Current Minnesota statute and the proposed bill do not prevent parents from making that decision.
“This bill would simply allow each child care provider to make their own decision about accepting exemptions to vaccines only in the case of parental preference,” bill author Rep. Mike Freiberg, DFL-Golden Valley, said. “Child care providers are private businesses and should be allowed to choose the clients they serve, within the bounds of anti-discrimination laws of course, and vaccine status is not a protected class.”
Most vaccine side effects are mild and include soreness at the injection site, fussiness or a low-grade fever, according to the CDC.
Vaccines are so effective against harmful and deadly diseases partly due to herd immunity, which calls for the vast majority of a population to be immunized to protect people who cannot be vaccinated, like newborns or those with compromised immune systems, according to the CDC.
Zeleznikar's comments have drawn scrutiny from the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.
"Natalie Zeleznikar has repeatedly proven that she cares more about pushing vaccine conspiracy theories and fighting culture wars than she does about delivering for her district," DFL Party Chair Ken Martin said. "Her constituents deserve a legislator that will prioritize governing and improving their lives, and they will hold her accountable for embracing conspiracy theories while taking far-right votes against everything from paid family leave to free school meals.”
Rep. Kim Hicks, DFL-Rochester, spoke during Tuesday's hearing against Zeleznikar's comments. Hicks' daughter has had adverse effects against vaccines and has not been able to follow a normal vaccine schedule.
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"As a parent of a child who has real, very dangerous, very, very scary medical conditions, I am insulted that that is somehow equivalated similarly. It's not. It's not the same," Hicks said. "This bill protects my daughter who could not be vaccinated."
Before the committee hearing, Zeleznikar appeared alongside Rep. Krista Knudsen, R-Lake Shore, in a Facebook video where the pair spoke about their support for opposition to childhood vaccines.
Zeleznikar said in the video that it seems logical that a parent could opt out of vaccinating their child.
In addition to Zeleznikar and Knudsen's criticism of vaccines, Rep. Walter Hudson, R-Albertville, spoke against the proposed bill to give child care facilities a broader choice regarding their immunization policies.
He denounced earlier testimony during the hearing that said the bill would lead to higher vaccination rates, calling it forced coercion, even though the bill neither requires parents to vaccinate their children nor forces child care centers to adopt a policy that would bar conscientious objections from vaccine requirements.
"I can tell I'm not winning anybody over with this and that's fine," he said during the hearing. "But I hope that at the very least there is some degree of respect for the fact that people are entitled to control their own bodies."
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