<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/2/1614364391093.png" alt="Sen. Mark Steffen, R-Hutchinson, testifies in support of his bill to prohibit employers from mandating COVID-19 vaccination for their employees. (Lucas Lord for Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption>Sen. Mark Steffen, R-Hutchinson, testifies in support of his bill to prohibit employers from mandating COVID-19 vaccination for their employees. (Lucas Lord for Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure>By SHERMAN SMITH <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2021/02/25/senate-bill-would-punish-kansas-employers-for-requiring-covid-19-vaccinations/">Kansas Reflector</a>TOPEKA — Sen. Mark Steffen
 pushed colleagues Thursday to support his legislation banning employers
 from requiring workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19, saying 
lawmakers should reject the idea that society is more important than the
 individual.<a href="http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2021_22/measures/sb213/">Senate Bill 213</a>
 would prohibit employers from taking adverse action against employees 
who refuse the COVID-19 vaccine, and would impose a $1,000 fine for 
employers who violate the restriction. Steffen said this would&nbsp;preserve 
freedom of choice for individuals and relieve employers from the 
liability of imposing a medical procedure on an unwilling worker.<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2021/01/31/kansas-senator-believes-political-propaganda-fearmongering-impairs-covid-19-response/">The mask-averse Republican from Hutchinson</a>
 is a board-certified anesthesiologist who specializes in interventional
 pain management, and he repeatedly reminded senators on the Commerce 
Committee that he is a medical doctor.The debate pitted the 
doctor senator against a doctor representative, and featured conflicting
 insight from an herbal entrepreneur, the Kansas Chamber, business 
attorneys, a pediatrician and a bacterial meningitis survivor. The 
bill’s maskless proponents balked at the possibility of having an 
experimental drug injected into their body without their consent, while 
opponents who wore masks or testified by remote video relished the value
 of being protected from a deadly contagion.The U.S. Food and Drug 
Administration granted emergency use authorization for Pfizer and 
Moderna vaccines late last year, after the drug companies showed they 
were safe and 95% effective. A third vaccine, from Johnson and Johnson, 
could get approval in the coming days.Still, Steffen said, it is
 too soon to know what long-term safety risks might be associated with 
the vaccines, which also rely on new RNA technology never before used in
 humans.“They call it a novel 
virus — it’s a novel vaccination,” Steffen said. “We need to be very 
very cognizant of that. Watch as the opponents come up and talk about 
taking care of a society and their willingness to sacrifice individuals 
in the process. That’s not their decision to make. It’s our decision as 
an individual.”Rep. John Eplee, a Republican <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2020/11/18/white-house-task-force-assessment-of-covid-19-in-kansas-exponential-and-unyielding-spread/">physician from Atchison</a>,
 said Steffen’s argument pales in comparison to the 44 million doses of 
vaccines that have already been administered without serious 
complications.Medical providers and 
other employers already mandate vaccinations for influenza and other 
illnesses, Eplee told the committee, and courts have upheld those 
mandates. He said if Steffen’s bill passes, the state will expend 
resources in a losing legal battle.“I’m really questioning 
why would we do that. It really concerns me,” Eplee said. “And why would
 government in this case pre-empt business decisions?”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/2/1614364454352.png" alt="Connie Newcome, who owns Herb House Natural Medicine in Inman and a founder of Kansans for Health Freedom, says employees shouldn’t be treated as slaves. (Lucas Lord for Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption>Connie Newcome, who owns Herb House Natural Medicine in Inman and a founder of Kansans for Health Freedom, says employees shouldn’t be treated as slaves. (Lucas Lord for Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Anti-mandate supporters</h2>Connie Newcome said Senate
 Bill 213 is the employee-employer version of “value them both,” the 
name given to the anti-abortion constitutional amendment passed earlier 
this year.“The employer is free to 
operate the business honoring employees as thinking, intelligent humans 
rather than an owner of their bodies,” Newcome said. “Employees are not 
slaves.”Newcome, who owns Herb 
House Natural Medicine in Inman, is the founder of Kansans for Health 
Freedom. She said most employers are not qualified to recommend, let 
alone require, a medical procedure.Doctors try to bully people into taking vaccines, Newcome said.“Opponents of this bill do
 believe in coercion, bribery, discrimination and mandates,” she said, 
and they should have to answer some questions: “Why the employer has the
 right to own another person’s body, how this preserves personal liberty
 and bodily autonomy, how the employer even knows what is best for each 
person, and who they deem should be liable for vaccine injury and 
death.”Michelle Suter, a Johnson 
County business attorney, said pharmaceutical companies have an 
obligation to shareholders — not the health of Kansans.By passing this law, she said, businesses can avoid conflict about how the experimental drug will turn out.“Employers are desperate 
for a bright line, a signal on what they can do and what they don’t have
 to do,” Suter said. “They are panicking, they’re fearful and they’re 
trying to stay alive.”Steffen said a large part 
of the population has a small risk of “adverse outcome” from contracting
 COVID-19. He asserted it was more likely the vaccine would fail to 
provide immunity than it was to “have a problem from catching the 
virus.”“Our country is based on 
individual rights, and we’re crossing the line with these vaccinations, 
particularly under these circumstances,” Steffen said.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/2/1614364493014.png" alt="Gretchen Homan, whose strong opinion on the bill is shaped by her work as a pediatrician, calls on lawmakers to “look to those who are motivated to help, who offer facts, and who have dedicated their careers to help promote healthy lives for Kansas.” (Screen capture by Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption>Gretchen Homan, whose strong opinion on the bill is shaped by her work as a pediatrician, calls on lawmakers to “look to those who are motivated to help, who offer facts, and who have dedicated their careers to help promote healthy lives for Kansas.” (Screen capture by Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Vaccine supporters</h2>Gretchen Homan, 
president-elect of the Kansas chapter of the American Academy of 
Pediatrics, said she opposes Steffen’s bill because she prioritizes the 
health and safety of children.“Because of the pandemic, 
our children have and for many years to come will continue to pay the 
price for missing out on foundational life experiences because adults 
were seriously affected by COVID-19,” she said.Homan said her strong 
opinion on the matter is shaped by being exposed to infectious disease 
through her day-to-day work. She wants her employer to have the 
authority to protect her from contracting a contagious disease.She referenced the wisdom of TV personality Mister Rogers, who said in times of trouble, look for the helpers.“Please, in this time of 
decision, look to those who are motivated to help, who offer facts, and 
who have dedicated their careers to help promote healthy lives for 
Kansas,” Homan said.Eric Stafford, a lobbyist 
for the Kansas Chamber, said government should not have a role in 
business decisions about mandating vaccinations.He said he wasn’t aware of
 any businesses currently mandating the COVID-19 vaccines, but some 
employers are offering incentives for workers who agree to be 
inoculated.“We strongly believe in 
the ability for employers to make their determinations for what’s best 
for their company and their customers,” Stafford said.Eplee referenced Newcome’s
 remarks about doctors bullying patients into taking vaccines as he 
talked about his work as a family physician at Amberwell Health hospital
 in Atchison.“I learn new things about 
myself all the time,” he said. “Being called a bully is something new in
 my wheelhouse, but I’ll wear that for this moment, for this hearing.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/2/1614364524585.png" alt="Andy Marso, a survivor of bacterial meningitis, said the proposed legislation was a strange reaction to vaccines that effectively prevent death from a disease that has killed a half-million Americans and 5,000 Kansans. (Screen capture by Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption>Andy Marso, a survivor of bacterial meningitis, said the proposed legislation was a strange reaction to vaccines that effectively prevent death from a disease that has killed a half-million Americans and 5,000 Kansans. (Screen capture by Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Strange timing</h2>Andy Marso, who survived 
bacterial meningitis as a student at the University of Kansas in 2004, 
questioned the timing by lawmakers for considering Steffen’s bill.More than a half-million 
Americans and nearly 5,000 Kansans have died from the contagious disease
 in the past 12 months. Multiple vaccines now reduce the risk of dying 
from COVID-19 to essentially 0%, Marso said.“And yet this body’s 
reaction is, ‘Well, we better explore ways to make it harder for 
businesses to leverage these tools to protect their workforce and 
customers.’ That’s a strange reaction, practically speaking,” Marso 
said.Marso’s views are shaped 
by his 2004 illness, which could have been prevented with a vaccine. He 
awoke from a three-week coma to learn an infection is his bloodstream 
had caused tissue damage equal to third-degree burns over 30% of his 
body. His toes and most of his fingers were amputated. His medical bills
 amounted to $1.5 million.At the close of the 
90-minute hearing, Sen. Caryn Tyson, R-Parker, demanded to know what 
Marso does for a living. Marso indicated he wasn’t testifying on behalf 
of his employer, but Tyson persisted with her inquiry. Marso said he is 
an editor for a medical journal published by the American Academy of 
Family Physicians.Tyson then delivered a question inspired by Marso’s testimony.“We have a president who 
has just opened the borders, and these people are not necessarily 
vaccinated coming into the United States,” Tyson said. “And here we’re 
requiring employees, citizens of the United States, to be vaccinated 
while we’re not requiring others. Would you address that please?”“I mean, I would love to vaccinate everybody that comes into the country,” Marso replied.Tyson also questioned Marso’s logic of pointing out that employees at restaurants are required to wash their hands.“Washing your hands and wearing a hairnet are not putting chemicals in your body,” Tyson said.“You’re putting chemicals on your body,” Marso said.“OK,” said Sen. Rob Olson, an Olathe Republican and committee chairman. “We’re adjourned.”Sherman Smith has written award-winning news stories about the instability of the Kansas foster care system, misconduct by government officials, sexual abuse, technology, education, and the Legislature.

Senate bill would punish Kan. employers for requiring COVID vaccinations