“While the governor continues to encourage Montaners to receive safe and effective vaccines, it is voluntary and no one should be discriminated against on the basis of their vaccination status,” Gianforte spokeswoman Brooke Stroyke said in an email. (1) A prospective student who wishes to attend school does not need to have medically contraindicated vaccines. A written and signed statement from a physician that immunization is medically contraindicated exempts a prospective student from such vaccinations as the physician deems necessary. The required vaccines are listed in 20-5-403, MCA. 3. To be acceptable under this rule, doses of MMR and varicella vaccine may not be administered until 12 months of age at the earliest, and a child who received a dose before 12 months of age must be revaccinated. However, vaccine doses given up to four days before the minimum interval or age are considered valid. Live vaccines that are not administered at the same time should be spaced at least four weeks apart. “This is against everything we`ve ever known or believed about public health,” said Dr. Pamela Cutler, president of the Montana Medical Association. “I believe this is a travesty now and needs to be corrected so we can make our offices safe for patients and staff.” “A lot of companies feel like they don`t have the support right now, so for them, it`s about how to figure it out on their own,” Rooney said.
While many large companies in the U.S. have announced that COVID-19 vaccines are necessary for their employees to return to work in person, there is one state where such requirements are prohibited: Montana. While the list of national companies that need vaccines from their employees who want to return to work in person continues to grow, which now includes Google, Facebook, Walmart and United Airlines, Montana businesses don`t have that option. Under a new law passed earlier this year by the Republican-controlled state legislature, requiring vaccines as a condition of employment is considered “discrimination” and a violation of state human rights laws. (a) the child has received at least one dose of each of the vaccines required for his or her age; Do you have an opinion on this story? Click here to submit a letter to the editor and we can publish it in print. GOP lawmakers who supported the bill in the state legislature said it was necessary in response to employers who “force” employees to get vaccinated under threat of layoff. Some of the bill`s most vocal supporters were employees of the Benefis Health System in Great Falls, who were told earlier this year that COVID-19 vaccines were needed to keep their jobs. Netzer Law Office and attorney Donald Netzer filed a lawsuit in October to block the bill, arguing that his company risked losing revenue because it would have to spend hours working to mitigate the effects of COVID-19, an effort that would not be necessary if he could require vaccinations from employees and customers. The Montana Department of Labor and Industry has released several FAQs clarifying Montana House Bill 702. The law, which was passed on 7. As of May 2021, it prohibits employers from requiring current COVID-191 vaccines and recognizes a person`s vaccination status as a protected category under the Montana Human Rights Act. Employers are therefore prohibited from discriminating against any person with respect to remuneration or any terms, conditions or privileges of employment on the basis of vaccination status or possession of an immunity passport.2 (2) Hib and PCV vaccines are not required or recommended for children from five years of age.
“This case is really about the state of Montana trying to assert jurisdiction over Blackfoot Nation territory,” said Mark Carter, an attorney with the Native American Rights Fund, a nonprofit that represents the tribe. “What happens on the reserve has a direct impact on the health and safety of Blackfoot citizens and all residents of the reserve.” In court documents, the state argued that the case was not about the validity of a tribal order or the right of the Blackfoot to enforce that order, if any. Instead, the state`s lawyers wrote, the question is whether non-tribal organizations such as the Port Authority can avoid state control over tribal lands. Until recently, Montana hospitals required their employees to have most vaccines approved by the Centers for Disease Control, including the annual flu shot, which gives employees the option to opt out for medical or religious reasons. Today, this is no longer possible, leaving workers and patients vulnerable. 6. In order to continue attending a day care centre, a child shall continue to be vaccinated in accordance with the schedule laid down in paragraph 1 and shall be immediately excluded from attending the day-care centre if he or she is not vaccinated with all the necessary vaccinations in accordance with that schedule or if he or she does not have a medical exemption certificate or conditional registration form for the day-care centre attesting that: that no vaccine dose is delayed. (i) the prospective student has received two doses of live MMR or MMR vaccine or an equivalent combination of measles and rubella vaccines, subject to the restrictions set out in subsection 37.114.712(2) of the MRA; and (ii) the first dose was administered at or after 12 months of age and the second dose at least 28 days after the first dose; or “It`s very, very hard for me to join the conversation when it comes to vaccinating their employees across the country, but I can`t,” Ku said. Dr. Neil Ku, an epidemiologist at the Billings Clinic and a board member of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, said the law sets Montana apart in conversations about fighting the coronavirus. The Blackfoot tribe has the authority to regulate tribal and non-tribal members on its lands under the 1855 treaty, tribal lawyers argued in court documents. This story was updated on March 21, 2022 to include comments from the Montana Medical Association after publication.
It`s also a plausible argument, Molloy wrote, that the law violates equal protections in state and federal constitutions by allowing nursing homes and assisted living facilities — but not hospitals or clinics — to have their employees vaccinated against communicable diseases. (4) Vaccines immunizing against diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus shall be administered as follows: 2 An immunity passport is defined as “a document, digital record or software application indicating that a person is immune to a disease, either by vaccination or by infection and recovery”. HB 702, section 1(5)(a).