Colorado lawmakers have advanced a bill that would shield healthcare providers from liability when administering vaccines recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), as a growing number of states diverge from federal vaccine guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Senate Bill 32, approved by the Colorado Senate in early February and now before the House, expands malpractice liability protections for doctors, nurses, pharmacists, clinics, hospitals, and insurance companies related to childhood vaccinations aligned with the AAP’s recommendations, as well as those of the CDC’s advisory committee. The legislation aims to prevent lawsuits intended to discourage vaccine administration, according to its proponents.
“We are not going above and beyond; we are just trying to preserve the environment that health care in the U.S. Has been functioning in,” said Democratic state Senator Kyle Mullica, an emergency department nurse who introduced the legislation. “This does not protect someone if they go out of the norms and do something wrong. It just tries to prevent the weaponization of lawsuits related to vaccines.”
The move comes after the CDC, under the guidance of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., revised its childhood vaccine schedule in January, dropping recommendations for vaccines against hepatitis A, RSV, dengue, and two types of bacterial meningitis. The AAP and at least 12 other major medical groups swiftly reaffirmed their support for vaccination against 18 diseases, creating a split between federal and established medical guidance.
According to KFF, a nonpartisan health care research group, at least 28 states have, to varying degrees, broken from the CDC’s new recommendations. These actions range from legislation ensuring vaccines remain free to measures protecting healthcare workers from lawsuits and adopting the AAP’s guidance.
Dr. David Higgins, a pediatrician in Aurora, Colorado, and vice president of the Colorado chapter of the AAP, warned that states failing to clarify their positions on vaccine policy risk disruption to vaccine delivery systems. “States that are not taking proactive steps to clarify these issues are going to see disruption in the vaccine delivery system in their state, whether that’s for legal reasons, liability reasons or simply confusion,” he said.
Colorado’s bill as well seeks to allow pharmacists to prescribe and administer vaccines, require insurance coverage for the HPV vaccine, and make state funding available to cover vaccine-related costs not subsidized by the federal government. It would explicitly allow health officials to follow vaccine guidance from the AAP, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American College of Physicians, in addition to the CDC.
The CDC’s shift in guidance followed Kennedy’s appointment of vaccine critics to the agency’s vaccine advisory committee after dismissing all 17 previous members. Kennedy, a long-time advocate of anti-vaccine positions, has repeatedly and falsely linked vaccines to autism. While Kennedy has focused on the “Eat Real Food” campaign promoting dietary changes, Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has publicly supported vaccination. In early February, Oz urged vaccination on CNN amid a large measles outbreak in South Carolina.
States determine vaccine requirements for schoolchildren, generally allowing medical and religious exemptions. Dorit Reiss, a professor at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, noted that while states have previously deviated from the CDC’s vaccine schedule, “this is the first time that states have wholesale broken away from federal guidance.”
Higgins expressed concern that the lack of clear federal guidance could lead to a “fractured” vaccine policy. If passed, Colorado’s bill would take effect in August, aiming to “preserve access to science-backed vaccines to people in Colorado who want them,” according to Higgins.
