More vaccine related legislation has been filed in state legislatures across the country in 2022 than in any other year. The COVID-19 pandemic has proven to be an historic opportunity to inspire active citizen involvement in the law making process and educate state legislators about the urgent need to protect the human and legal right to exercise voluntary, informed consent to vaccination.
After more than a decade of grassroots organizing and focused public education efforts in the states, this year NVIC’s 2022 Annual Report on U.S. State Vaccine Legislation provides evidence the tide is finally turning in our 40-year mission to prevent vaccine injuries and deaths through public education and secure vaccine informed consent protections in U.S. public health policies and laws.
The nonprofit educational charity National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) reports that during the 2022 legislative session, NVIC analyzed, tracked and issued positions on an unprecedented 875 vaccine related bills in 44 states and the District of Columbia (D.C.) through the NVIC Advocacy Portal. This was the highest number of bills monitored in the history of NVIC’s state-based legislative advocacy program, which was established in 2010, and it is close to four times the number of vaccine-related bills proposed in a single year in state legislatures.