TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis unveiled details Monday about legislation he’s pursuing to block COVID-19 vaccine mandates during a special session that begins Nov. 15, including a ban on private employers requiring shots.
But the bills don’t go as far as DeSantis initially proposed and in some cases even echo federal orders, despite his couching of them as part of his fight against the Biden administration.
DeSantis also escalated his recent rhetoric questioning the COVID vaccines by playing up potential side effects from what he repeatedly referred to as the “jabs” and slamming Washington’s approval of booster shots.
The governor said he wants a ban on vaccine mandates applied to private businesses, in addition to local governments. But the exemptions for workers to opt out of any vaccine requirement in the bills filed Monday, including for medical and religious reasons, are similar to those already included in the federal order.
“We’re going to do something in this special session that is going to put people’s minds at ease, it’s going to save their jobs,” DeSantis said at an event in Zephyrhills. “We want people to be able to make informed decisions for themselves but we’ve got to stop bossing people around. We’ve got to stop the coercion.”
Democratic leaders blasted the proposals as handcuffing business owners from acting to protect their workers.
“‘Floridians deserve freedom — but only if you think like we do.’ That’s the message broadcast by Florida’s GOP leaders this morning as they propose legislation to strip business owners and local governments of the freedom to decide what’s best for their workers and their communities,” Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book said.
One provision DeSantis had pushed for, stripping COVID-19 liability protections from businesses that impose vaccine mandates, doesn’t appear to be included.
The first bill, HB 1B/SB 2B, sponsored by Rep. Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach, and Sen. Danny Burgess, R-Zephyrhills, will ban vaccine mandates for local governments. It will also ban mandates for private businesses, unless the companies exempt employees for medical or religious reasons, or if they have a prior COVID-19 infection, or if an employee agrees to regular COVID-19 testing and the wearing of protective equipment, such as a mask.
Companies with more than 100 employees that impose a vaccine mandate without proper exemptions, or deny a valid exemption will face fines of up to $50,000 per violation. For businesses with fewer than 100 employees, the fine will be up to $10,000 per violation.
A worker will be able to file a complaint with Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office if they’re denied an exemption. If a business under investigation reinstates an employee with full back pay they can avoid a fine.
Anyone fired for refusing to take the vaccine is eligible for unemployment benefits under the bill, and anyone already receiving benefits can’t be denied benefits if they receive a work offer from an employer who has a vaccine mandate.
DeSantis suing Biden
DeSantis is suing President Biden’s administration over a federal vaccine mandate for businesses with more than 100 employees, but the rule issued by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration already includes exemptions for religious or medical reasons, or if a worker is regularly tested for COVID-19 and wears a mask.
Despite the similarities, DeSantis phrased the bills as “striking a blow for freedom.”
“We’re going to be standing up against the Biden mandates, and we’re going to be better as a result of it,” he said.
Other provisions in the bill will explicitly state parents have the right to decide whether their children wear masks to school. School boards across the state enacted mask mandates for students, defying a DeSantis executive order and state rules prohibiting such requirements.
The order relied on the newly enacted Parents’ Bill of Rights, which ensures broad authority for parents over their child’s learning and medical decisions but doesn’t specify that parents can opt out of any mask mandate.
The bill also will allow parents or guardians to sue a school board and be awarded attorneys’ fees and court costs over any mask mandate.
Additional measures will block medical and religious exemption information filed by workers that appears in any investigation of a business from public disclosure (HB 3B/SB 4B), and remove the authority of the state health officer to require vaccinations and quarantines (HB 7B/SB 8B).
A fourth bill, HB 5B/SB 6B, will take a step toward removing Florida from OSHA, ordering DeSantis’ office to develop a plan and setting aside $1 million for the project. Florida would have to set up its own workplace safety enforcement agency, and its application would have to be approved by OSHA, a process that could take years.
Legislative leaders said they think it’s necessary to withdraw from OSHA in light of the vaccine requirement.
“If the Department of Labor and OSHA are going to be weaponized as a way to hold hostage business throughout the state of Florida, no problem. We want a different plan, we want out of OSHA, we’ll set up our own regulatory authority and say goodbye to the federal government,” said House Speaker Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor.
All of the bills are effective when they are signed into law. If they are passed during next week’s special session, they will be in place nearly two months before Jan. 4, the date Biden’s OSHA rule will take effect.
Questioning vaccines
In response to a question by someone claiming to have had adverse reactions to the Moderna vaccine, DeSantis went some of the furthest he’s gone in questioning the vaccines’ safety, saying there was “a whole host of things affecting people’s health” from shots.
“Anything you put in, there’s always a risk for that,” he said.
In April, DeSantis blasted the Food and Drug Administration for pausing the J&J vaccine over concerns about blood clots, saying it was causing unnecessary panic. Any caution over the minimal risk of side effects, he said on April 13, should be balanced “against how many people are alive today because they had the J&J vaccine.”
DeSantis, who has not said whether he’s getting a J&J booster, also criticized the FDA approval process for booster shots and said it was “politicized.”
DeSantis also compared what he called the “very small” risk to children from COVID to the risk to teens and young adults of developing heart inflammation following shots.
“A parent would weigh, ‘Okay, what are the risks to him from COVID?'” he said. “Very small. And then what are the potential risks from doing this course of treatment?”
According to multiple reports and studies, cases of myocarditis and pericarditis in young adults following COVID shots have been extremely rare, usually mild and resolved quickly.
“There is a higher risk of myocarditis from COVID itself than there is from the vaccine,” according to the University of California, Davis. The British scientific journal Nature estimated that the risk of heart inflammation to those 16 years and older was 18 times more likely from COVID than from the vaccines.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4,864 Americans under 30, including 576 children under 18, have died from COVID-19, as of Nov. 3.
grohrer@orlandosentinel.com
