HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 3893        FILED ON: 2/19/2021

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 498

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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PRESENTED BY:

Norman J. Orrall, (BY REQUEST)

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To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:

The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:

An Act to reduce vaccine hesitancy.

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PETITION OF:

HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 3893        FILED ON: 2/19/2021

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 498

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the One Hundred and Ninety-Second General Court
(2021-2022)

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An Act to reduce vaccine hesitancy.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

Subsection (s) of section 12C of chapter 112 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2018 Official Edition, is hereby amended by changing title of said section 12C to “Immunity of physician or nurse administering immunization or other protective programs and reporting of possible vaccine adverse events” and by inserting, after the words “in carrying out his duties,” the following words:-All healthcare providers administering any currently available Covid-19 vaccine or any future vaccine for any illness or condition, that is either recommended by the Center for Disease Control Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) or has received emergency use authorization by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), must report any possible vaccine adverse events occurring in connection with vaccination to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) or any future vaccine reporting system developed by the CDC, FDA or other federal agency. The report must be made within 7 days of the identification or report of a possible vaccine adverse event whether it is or is not clear that a vaccine caused the adverse event.

A possible vaccine adverse event is defined as any new-onset symptom(s), medical condition(s) and/or exacerbation of pre-existing medical condition(s) and/or death occurring in temporal association with vaccine administration identified by any of the following person(s): a person having received a vaccine, a parent or guardian of a person having received a vaccine, or a health-care provider.

Healthcare providers practicing in settings, organizations, or practices with more than 10 providers, in which at least one provider administers vaccinations, shall be required to have an automated vaccine adverse event detection and reporting system as part of the electronic medical health record. Any possible vaccine adverse event (as defined above) occurring within 6 weeks

of vaccination must be automatically identified and flagged for possible reporting within the electronic medical health record and, if appropriate, electronically submitted to VAERS. This system may be newly developed or a currently available open-sourced platform such as ESP-VAERS.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) shall commission a study on the long-term health outcomes of vaccine recipients including incidence of SARS-CoV-2, incidence of other infectious illnesses, incidence of autoimmune or inflammatory conditions and incidence of carcinomas at 2-5 year post vaccination, stratified by age, by comparing incidence rates of target health outcomes with non-vaccinated cohorts.