Idaho Bill Aiming To Prohibit Vaccine Requirements Sparks Concern From Medical Experts

A proposed bill in Idaho that would make it easier to opt out of vaccinations is drawing sharp criticism from health professionals for its potential impact on public health. 

Idaho’s Senate Bill 1210 would prohibit businesses, government entities, schools, and colleges in the state from requiring medical interventions — including vaccinations — as a condition of entry, employment, or service.

Dr. Dyan Hes, Medical Director of Highline Modern Medicine and a prominent pediatrician, strongly opposes the bill.

“This is a terrible idea,” Hes said in a statement. “Vaccines save lives. Period.”

Dr. Hes, who was named a Top Doctor by New York Magazine in 2022, warns that the legislation could undo decades of progress in fighting preventable diseases.

“Sadly, many Americans do not realize what a privilege it is to be vaccinated,” Hes says. “I always remind people who question vaccines to go to a cemetery prior to the 1940s and look at all the baby gravesites. Most of these children died from vaccine preventable diseases. Look at third world countries, where parents will walk for miles in the heat with their babies on their backs to get just one vaccine”

The proposed bill comes at a time when the U.S. is grappling with a rise in vaccine hesitancy, which experts say is already contributing to resurgences of illnesses once under control, including measles, whooping cough and even polio.

“With the current measles outbreak, a bill that will allow families to opt out of mandated vaccines will increase the spread of measles to all who are not immunized, including babies under age 1 year and the immunocompromised,” Hes said.

“This bill will also lead to the resurgence of other vaccine preventable illnesses, particularly pertussis (whooping cough), which is already creeping back because of lower vaccine rates and waning immunity,” Hes says.

“There is a reason we have something called public health. It is for scientists and doctors to use evidence-based medicine to make the best decisions for their patients and the public. If vaccines were dangerous I would be out of a job,” Hes says.

Hes Hes has extensive experience in pediatric and public health care. She completed her undergraduate studies in public health at Johns Hopkins University and her medical degree at the University of Tel Avivs Sackler School of Medicine. She trained in Social Pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and has worked for over a decade as a pediatrician and pediatric ER doctor.

Idaho’s bill has yet to pass, but it has already sparked statewide and national debate about the role of vaccination in public safety and the balance between individual freedoms and collective health responsibilities.

“Vaccine refusal is a first-world problem, created by false information not based in science,” Hes says. “Vaccines should not be a political issue, but sadly this is where our country is headed.”