A House Health and Human Services subcommittee advanced a bill that would require medical examiners’ reports to include vaccine information when investigating the cause of death of young children.
The bill would require that the report used by medical examiners to investigate the cause of death in a child three or under include information on the date and type of their last vaccinations.
Supporters of the bill say it would provide more information at a time when rates of sudden infant death syndrome are increasing.
Rep. Devon Wood, R-New Market, voted to advance the bill.
“The reality is that someone looking at these forms and looking at the cause of an unfortunate child's death would be that they need the well-rounded medical status and the full medical picture,” she said.
Rep. Austin Baeth, D-Des Moines, voted not to advance the bill, saying the additional information is unnecessary and it could signal to parents that vaccines aren’t safe.
“Even hearing the possibility that we need to be reporting this when we already have nationwide systems monitoring vaccines is going to harm kids,” he said.