was first introduced by Hinchey, D-Saugerties, in September.<\/a><\/p>\nHinchey said Thursday that Hochul submitted a legislative package mirroring Hinchey\u2019s Vaccine Integrity Act to be taken up by the Legislature.<\/p>\n
\u201cI introduced the Vaccine Integrity Act to protect public health from federal misinformation that is putting conspiracy over trusted science, and I\u2019m proud that my bill not only passed the Senate this year but prompted the Governor to send near-identical bills to be acted on by the State Legislature,\u201d Hinchey said in a statement. \u201cEvery New Yorker must have the resources to protect themselves from preventable disease, and these bills will deliver exactly that \u2014 ensuring New York\u2019s vaccine guidance comes from medical experts and that no senior or family pays out of pocket to cover the cost of lifesaving care. I look forward to seeing these measures signed into law, and I thank the Governor for answering our call.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hinchey\u2019s office has said that the Vaccine Integrity Act would authorize the New York State Commissioner of Health, in consultation with the Commissioner of Education, to authorize immunizations based on guidance from two existing expert bodies in New York, or an interstate advisory council on vaccines in the event New York joins one, in addition to the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.<\/p>\n
The bill came as Hochul signed an executive order allowing pharmacists to administer the COVID-19 vaccine to patients as young as 3.<\/p>\n
State-level guidance would come from the Immunization Advisory Council (IAC), which includes pediatric, epidemiology, and public health professionals, and the 21st Century Disease Elimination Workgroup, which combines Immunization Advisory Council members with staff from the state Department of Health\u2019s immunization division, Hinchey said.<\/p>\n
Additionally, health plans would be required to cover any vaccines recommended by these state or interstate organizations, as they are currently required by law to cover any recommendations by the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, Hinchey\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis approach expands New York\u2019s ability to respond to outbreaks like Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), Mpox, and other emerging public health threats without relying solely on a federal panel that may be unable to perform its historical role,\u201d Hinchey\u2019s office said at the time.<\/p>\n
Hinchey\u2019s office stated then that the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which has guided the nation\u2019s vaccine policies for decades since its formation in the 1960s, has undergone an \u201cunprecedented political purge\u201d under Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist. Hinchey\u2019s office has said that Kennedy removed all 17 members and replaced them with eight new appointees with varying professional backgrounds, \u201csome of whom have promoted vaccine misinformation and health conspiracies.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KINGSTON, N.Y. \u2014 State Sen. Michelle Hinchey said Thursday that Gov. Kathy Hochul has submitted a legislative package…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[85,267,7030,9,11,10,49,51,50,12,4941,27254],"class_list":["post-177138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-michelle-hinchey","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-news","tag-ulster-county","tag-vaccines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}