Lake County Gazette

Lawmakers in Springfield are considering House Bill 4244, which would require medical centers in  Illinois to report vaccination records to a state-operated database, even as witness slips are piling up and Republicans are voicing their opposition. 

According to the Illinois Review, HB 4244 was introduced and sponsored by state Rep. Bob Morgan (D-Highwood) and it would institute a database run by the state to track immunization records that would be reported by hospitals, medical centers, doctors and pharmacies. While there currently is a registry in the state, the report noted that reporting vaccines is not mandatory. The proposal has drawn heat from Republicans, including state Rep. Tom Weber (R-Lake Villa) who in a Facebook post asked why making the reports mandatory is even needed. 

“Current law for the Immunization Data Registry also allows the reporting of vaccine records with personal information to be optional,” Weber said in a post on Facebook. “So why change the rules to require our health care providers to report the information and force each citizen to jump through hoops to protect our private, personal medical information? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Shouldn’t we have to give our consent first before our personal medical information is handed over to the government?”

Weber also said in the social media post that the state has a bad track record of keeping private information safe, and he questioned why the state even needs to know each resident’s vaccination history. 

According to the post on Facebook, the bill will be on the House Human Service Committee’s agenda on Wednesday, and it already has garnered more than 20,000 witness slips in opposition of the proposal. 

According to the Madison Record, the witness slips include comments from state residents, and is being called “unconstitutional” and an illegal privacy and medical freedom breach. One person wrote the bill is “another step in a wrong and terrifying direction” while another commenter urged lawmakers to “demand bodily autonomy.”