Viewpoint: Bad data behind push to restrict Montanans’ right to healthcare

Sophia Newcomer

A 62-year-old New York woman died following a car crash off an icy road, two weeks after she got the Covid vaccine. An 88-year-old Florida man died from a fall, three months after he got the vaccine. A 31-year-old in North Carolina died after a severe stomach bug, two years after his shot.

Proponents of a bill currently before Montana’s House want you to believe that it was the vaccinations that caused these tragic deaths. Montana lawmakers ought to see this argument for what it is: nonsense.

The bill, HB371, seeks to make Montana the only state to ban “gene-based vaccines”, such as Covid vaccines that were developed using mRNA technology.  Authors of the bill cited statistics from a national database of reported health problems following vaccination, saying that mRNA vaccines have “caused enormous numbers of deaths.” But the database includes reports of deaths including those I cited above. HB371’s proponents are reading the data all wrong.

Simply put, HB371 would insert the state legislature into Montanans’ personal lives and take away our rights to independently make health decisions. Over 13 billion Covid vaccines have been given worldwide, and the vaccine has been the most scrutinized in history. Decades of research–like the type of research done at Rocky Mountain Labs in Hamilton and the Center for Translational Medicine in Missoula –went into the development of gene-based vaccines before the Covid vaccine was developed. Clinical trials included over 75,000 volunteers, and studies after the vaccines were authorized have included millions of individuals. This has all shown that getting a Covid vaccine is much safer than driving on Montana’s beautiful mountain roads.

Health officials understand that vaccines approved for use in the U.S. are very good, but not perfect. That’s why in 1990, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention together with the Food and Drug Administration created the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, also known as VAERS. This portal is completely open to the public. Medical providers are required to report certain adverse events to VAERS, but anyone with a telephone or computer has access and can also file a report.

Here is where the supporters of HB371 are getting confused. VAERS wasn’t designed to assess whether a vaccine caused a so-called adverse event.  Bolded warnings on the VAERS website warn that reports may be “incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental, or unverifiable” and “VAERS reports alone cannot be used to determine if a vaccine caused or contributed to an adverse event or illness.” VAERS was set up as an early warning system for potential problems with a vaccine. Unfortunately, it is now the go-to source for stoking fears about vaccine safety.

Let’s not let bad data lead to bad policy. Speak up for your medical freedom and demand that legislators maintain Montanans’ right to choose whether to vaccinate themselves and their families against Covid. Call the Capitol switchboard at 406-444-4800, state your name and where you live, and leave a message for legislators urging a no vote on HB371.

Sophia Newcomer, PhD, MPH is an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Montana. She wrote this as a private citizen with expert credentials, and is not representing UM or the Montana University System.