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CHARLESTON -- The West Virginia House of Delegates had a lengthy floor session Tuesday, grinding through more than 30 bills on third reading, including bills dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
House Bill 4012, prohibiting the showing of proof of a COVID-19 vaccination, passed 80-16. House Bill 4071, creating a mask and quarantine option for parents and faculty, passed 80-16. Both bills now head to the state Senate for further consideration.
HB 4012 would prohibit hospitals, higher education institutions, and state and local government entities from requiring people to show proof of vaccine to enter those institutions.
It also allows people to bring action against those institutions if the law is violated. The bill does not prohibit private businesses or other institutions from requiring proof of vaccination.
No Republican members of the House spoke in favor of the bill, though several Democratic House members made their opposition known.
"I think what we've got here is another flanking maneuver around science and life-saving medical practices," said Del. Ric Griffith, D-Wayne, a pharmacist. "If someone comes in there unvaccinated and infects someone, or a nurse comes in there unvaccinated and they're hovering over a patient at risk, people are going to die … I beg you to work together to make this pandemic end, not continue to have measures that handicap the ability to end this for our society."
"I think we see this is just an election year red meat bill trying to get votes, donations, and things like that," said Del. Jim Barach, D-Kanawha. "We should probably vote for it because it is worthless and take away a political advantage."
HB 4071 would prohibit K-12 schools, educational institutions and elected or appointed officials from imposing mask mandates for COVID-19 on students or school employees.
The bill also prohibits mandatory COVID-19 testing for asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic students and staff and prohibits quarantines or isolation of students and staff unless they have a confirmed positive COVID-19 test.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Moore Capito, R-Kanawha, recounted the joy on his daughter's face when she told him the school had ended its mask mandate. He said as guidance has changed throughout the pandemic, school children deserve some certainty and predictability.
"When we have so much confusion and back-and-forth and unpredictability, that's when it is time for the Legislature to step in and act; to provide some stability, to provide predictability for our children," Capito said. "(President Joe Biden) said last month that this is endemic, not a pandemic any longer. This is something we need to learn to live with. I think we all agree about that. I think the vast majority of West Virginians agree we are willing to live with it, but not with our children in masks."
House Education Committee Minority Vice Chairman Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, said the bill ties the hands of local county school board members and county health officials should COVID cases begin to spike again.
"What we are doing the most is ignoring our respective districts and the accountability of local health boards," Hornbuckle said. "If there is a situation where (a county) is red and it is eminent that we're going to spread not just the virus but potentially a lot of death, it should be up to the local school boards and local health boards to be able to make a determination, not (the Legislature)."
"This is not taking anything away from the control of the local schools. This is putting local control back where it is supposed to be," said Del. Roger Conley, R-Wood. "This is putting control and the decision-making back in the hands of the parents and grandparents."
Conley has been an outspoken opponent this session of COVID-19 mask and vaccine requirements and mandates. According to DHHR, out of 126 severe COVID-19 cases needing care in intensive care units as of Monday, 76.4 percent are unvaccinated. Only 12.5 percent of West Virginians fully vaccinated since vaccines became available in December 2020 have died from breakthrough infections, while only 19.2 percent of fully vaccinated West Virginians have had a breakthrough infection.
"This is not hardcore science. This is political science. Masks don't work," Conley said. "If the masks worked, if the vaccines worked, why was it so much worse and why is it just now starting to get better?"
Conley had a different opinion on masks after being infected with COVID in November 2020. According to The Parkersburg News and Sentinel, Conley was admitted to the hospital twice and spent time in an ICU unit due to COVID. He encouraged people to wear masks and get tested.
"I don't particularly care to wear a mask because it's uncomfortable inside the building … But you just do what you've got to do," Conley told reporter Evan Bevins in a December 2020 article. "It's a nasty virus; there's no doubt about that … The small inconvenience (of wearing a mask), if it does work and if it saves one person, is absolutely worth that inconvenience."
According to the state Department of Education, 38 out of 55 county school systems have made masks optional for students as of Monday. Five counties base their mask decisions on their own metrics depending on the level of COVID-19 spread in schools.
Another six schools base their mask decisions on the Department of Health and Human Resources' County Alert System color-coded map. As of Tuesday's map update, there are no counties listed as red or orange for high rates of infection or percent of positivity with one gold county. All remaining counties are either yellow or green for low rates of infection or percent of positivity.
According to DHHR, active COVID-19 cases have dropped to 2,575 as of Tuesday after rising to 21,717 on Jan 27 during the omicron spike. Hospitalization dropped from an all-time high of 1,097 on Feb. 2 to 525 hospitalizations as of Tuesday.
The House passed 33 bills Tuesday, starting at 9 a.m. and continuing into the afternoon and early evening. The bills are on their way to the state Senate for further consideration.
Another 32 bills were on second reading, where some bills were amended and will be up for passage later today - Crossover Day - when bills must be passed out of one body and sent to the other body.
(Adams can be contacted at sadams@newsandsentinel.com)