A proposal to make it a crime to deny someone entrance into a building based on their vaccination status received a hearing today in a House committee, but even Republican lawmakers who oppose vaccine mandates had issues with the measure. The bill’s author, Stonewall Representative Larry Bagley, blames the COVID vaccine for his recent heart attack.
“I personally on March 1st had a heart attack and died, I was revived in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, I did not get the booster, but I had no other reason to have a heart attack,” said Bagley.
The American Heart Association recommends that people should get the COVID vaccine and studies have shown getting COVID increases the risk of heart problems.
But Bagley says since there are concerns over the safety of the COVID vaccine and its effectiveness, businesses, and schools should not require people to be vaccinated. But Baton Rouge Representative Scott McKnight doesn’t like the bill because it’s telling businesses what to do.
“What I disagree with in this bill, we are now taking a businesses’ choice on how they are going to run their business and dictating to them how they are going to run it,” said McKnight.
Bagley’s bill called for fines if a person or business denied a person entry into a building based on their vaccination status. Mandeville Representative Richard Nelson is not comfortable with the potential penalties.
“I understand what you are trying to accomplish, but I always say a criminal statute is not the means that we need to do to make this work,” said Nelson.
Bagley voluntarily deferred his bill but plans to present a revised version later in the session.
Comments