Louisiana debates civil liability over COVID-19 vaccine mandates, or the lack thereof

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Three years after COVID-19 vaccines became widely available in the United States, Louisiana continues to debate policies related to inoculation mandates, including civil labilities if a work place mandates vaccines or not and a bill that would prohibit schools from requiring students to receive the vaccine.

The ongoing debates, which are often marred by anti-vaccination rhetoric, come on the cusp of relaxed guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and COVID-19 no longer being the public health menace it once was. This legislative session, Louisiana lawmakers’ conversations on COVID-19 vaccines have broadened to also apply to “experimental or emergency use vaccinations” for fear of future pandemics.

Louisiana’s GOP-controlled House passed a bill Wednesday that protects businesses from being sued because they don’t mandate “experimental or emergency use vaccines” including COVID-19 shots.

Under the proposed legislation, if a person believes they got sick from contact at a business, they would be unable to file a lawsuit against the business.

Rep. Danny McCormick, who authored the measure, said the bill would “do away with any frivolous lawsuits.” The Republican added that it would be difficult to directly pinpoint, before a judge, where or from whom a person contracted COVID-19. Opponents of the bill, such as Democratic Rep. Denise Marcelle, said while that is true, McCormick’s bill wouldn’t give people the chance to even reach that point.

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