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The Statehouse News Bureau reviews how Ohio dealt with the second year of the COVID pandemic
< < Back to ?p=275510COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — The second year of the COVID-19 pandemic brought hope to many Ohioans as a vaccine became available, though many others refused to take it.
That prompted controversy and confusion in businesses and schools and erupted into a fury of debate at the Ohio Statehouse.
As 2021 began, new COVID vaccines were being rolled out in phases. The first vaccines were given to EMTs and front-line medical workers. Then nursing home residents and staff could get them. And while residents overwhelmingly got them, more than 60% of staffers initially refused. Ohio Health Care Association President Pete Van Runkle blamed misinformation for that.
“They see on social media that the government is putting microchips in you or the government is putting a vaccine out there that hasn’t been properly studied,” Van Runkle said.
In late January, senior citizens and Ohio’s teachers became eligible. Yvette Hardy, who teaches at a private school in Columbus, was one of many educators gathered inside a local high school gym for a shot.
“I think it’s just about doing your part. Doing your part for your students, for your community, for the betterment of the learning environment, essentially for everyone whether that’s personal or professional,” Hardy said.
“You can put a key on their forehead. It sticks. You can put spoons and forks all over them and they stick,” Tenpenny said.
As some colleges started requiring students to get shots and businesses began mandating workers get vaccinated, lawmakers passed a law that would prevent public colleges and many state workers from requiring vaccines that haven’t received full FDA approval — clearly targeting COVID-19 vaccines.
“This is about personal rights. But it is also about making sure our students are protected and that parents are making the decisions and college students are making the decisions about their own personal rights,” said Sen. Andrew Brenner (R-Delaware).
The Ohio Attorney General’s office filed suit against a mandate from the Biden administration that required many employees to get the vaccines.
That bill ran into trouble when the Ohio Chamber of Commerce and health care systems opposed it. While there was a petition to force it to the floor, it went nowhere. The House eventually passed a bill to grant exemptions from COVID vaccines mandates for almost anyone who wants them, and to also ban public and private entries from setting up their own COVID vaccines mandates.
But Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Lima) had said he was opposed to telling businesses how to run their operations, so the bill’s future seems uncertain. A group of people who oppose all vaccine mandates have started the process to put the issue before Ohio voters next year.
Lawmakers also passed other bills to distribute billions in federal COVID relief money. They also put into the budget a provision to forgive fines racked up by bars that repeatedly violated COVID rules, but DeWine vetoed that.
“For us to turn around and right now and the few who had to be cited by our liquor control agents, to say to them there’s no consequences for what you did – that would simply not be right. It would send a horrible, horrible, horrible message,” DeWine said.
As 2021 comes to an end, COVID is spiking again, rivaling some of the highest levels of this pandemic. And health officials fear with new variants coming on the scene, there won’t be any end to it soon.
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