(Radio Iowa) – Half of the Republicans in the Iowa House are co-sponsoring a bill that would prevent schools and child care centers from requiring children be vaccinated against COVID-19. The prohibition would end in 2029, but Representative Henry Stone of Forest City says the bill may be changed, so the policy would be permanent. “This is about parents’ choice of what they give their children,” Stone says, “and that no child should be subject to getting an education based on this immunization itself.”

Stone and Representative Skyler Wheeler of Orange City are members of the House subcommittee that advanced the bill today (Tuesday). “I believe we should empower parents to make the decision that they believe is best for their children,” Wheeler says, “and the decision should come ultimately from them, not anybody else.” During a House subcommittee hearing, members of Informed Choice Iowa raised questions about the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines and suggested it was unethical to vaccine children to protect adults from contracting the virus.

Chaney Yeast, a lobbyist for Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines, says 50 percent of kids admitted to the E-R last week tested positive for COVID. “This is no longer an issue of ‘kids don’t get it’ and ‘kids don’t get it as bad as others,'” she said. “They are sick. They are on ventilators.” Iowa’s largest hospital, the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, has admitted 66 pediatric patients with COVID so far this year.

Under current Iowa law, students must be immunized against nine contagious diseases, including polio and measles, before they can be enrolled in elementary school and older kids have to get a shot to prevent meningitis before they can start 7th grade.