TOPEKA, Kan. — For six hours Saturday, Kansas lawmakers sat silently as speaker after speaker made false claims while urging the state to "do something" about federal COVID-19 vaccine requirements.
Those offering testimony to the Legislature's Government Overreach and Vaccine Mandate committee, including Sen. Mark Steffen (R-Hutchinson) and Rep. Trevor Jacobs (R-Fort Scott), falsely claimed that the COVID-19 vaccine is dangerous, that it contains fetal tissue and that it is not actually a vaccine. They rejected vaccine and mask mandates as a way the government could control society and lead to an authoritarian future.
"Mandates are a form of slavery, a tool of communism," said Mary Anne Sause, a Kansas resident and retired nurse. "Vaccine mandates will be the start of a sinister plan to annihilate humanity."
Serious side effects to the COVID-19 vaccines have proven exceedingly rare among the more than 414 million doses administered nationwide. All three vaccines are effective at preventing serious illness and death. According to Centers for Disease Control data as of August unvaccinated people were six times more likely to test positive for COVID-19 and 11 times more likely to die. As of Friday only two of the 18 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 at the University of Kansas Hospital had been vaccinated.
The testimony came on the second day of the two-day hearing. On Friday, lawmakers heard from some citizens, the attorney general and legal counsel on options for challenging vaccine requirements the Biden administration has established for federal contractors — including three Kansas public universities — and is expected to impose on healthcare workers and large employers.
While the attorney general has filed one lawsuit and said more are to come, lawmakers acknowledged Friday there is little they can do to push back until they reconvene for the Legislative session in January. Some want a special session, but that would require the Governor to call one or two-thirds of the Legislature to agree to return before January.
Sen. President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican, said Saturday he wouldn't rule out a special session if there was something, like religious exemptions, the Legislature could act on.
Because of the volume of people wanting to testify Saturday, lawmakers were directed not to ask questions but rather to listen and send individual conferees their questions after the meeting closed. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment was invited to testify but opted to submit written comment explaining the possible impacts of federal requirements on Kansas.
Dozens of Kansans testified, expressing fear they would lose their jobs if they were not vaccinated or see serious side effects if they were. In the packed chambers, Kansans made reference to war and patriotism — even singing "My Country 'Tis of Thee" at one point.
One speaker called the pandemic a "globally coordinated planned and executed terrorist attack." Another said the mandates would invoke a response among citizens "not seen since 1776." Others compared mandates to rape, murder and the Holocaust.
Just one person testified in favor of vaccine mandates.
"It is not masks and vaccines that are the enemy, it is coronavirus," said Sheila Sonnenschein, an Overland Park resident. "The government has the responsibility to protect its citizens."
Sonnenschein, who is Jewish, said she was disheartened to hear false statements about the efficacy of the vaccine and comparisons of public health measures to the Holocaust.
Lawmakers on the committee said they were fulfilling a role, Saturday, to listen to the concerns of the public related to potential vaccine mandates.
"We're trying to give everyone their time, there's real fear, there's real emotion and these people need a way to release it," Masterson, the Senate President, told reporters.
Masterson said focus on vaccine efficacy was distracting from the committee's main task of determining whether it should be required.
"Because of some of the statements and obviously the questions I'm getting asked, you're honing in on something that isn't even in the purview of the committee which is the efficacy of the vaccines. That's not for me to determine," Masterson said.
Rep. Vic Miller, a Topeka Democrat on the committee, said he believed the Legislature was using it's time properly by listening to constituents. However, he said, he was working to sort through the information provided by conferees.
"We're getting so much material," Miller said. "I'm not a doctor, I'm not a health professional, I'm not an expert in any way as it relates to the subject matter. It's difficult for me to sort through internet hyperbole and true factual information. I have to be careful as a fact finder that I don't toss out legitimate research simply because it's surrounded by lofty rhetoric."
