Texas bans health departments from promoting COVID shots

Public health agencies in Texas and across the world spent most of 2021 working overtime to distribute the COVID vaccine, the public’s best defense against the virus that has killed more than 100,000 Texans since 2020. Now, though, that same work is effectively banned in Texas. A provision in the state’s budget passed in May 2023 prohibits any entity funded by the state health department from promoting COVID vaccines in fiscal years 2024 and 2025. The provision, known as Rider 40, has meant that local public health departments have stopped almost all outreach encouraging Texans to get the latest COVID vaccine. Local health departments have stopped hosting COVID vaccination clinics and have even stopped distributing pamphlets that encourage getting a COVID vaccine. “This particular rider is within Texas’ legal and constitutional power to adopt,” said Dr. William Sage, a professor of law and medicine at Texas A&M University. “But I think it’s a really bad idea.”

The goal of public health agencies, Sage said, is to convey useful, accurate information, such as informing people that staying up-to-date with COVID vaccines is the best way to protect yourself from becoming seriously ill or dying from the coronavirus. “Why dictate by law that a whole bunch of useful, accurate information can’t be conveyed?” Sage said. The rider, which went into effect Sept. 1, says that no general revenue funds appropriated to the Department of State Health Services “may be used for the purpose of promoting or advertising COVID-19 vaccinations in the 2024-25 biennium.” The rider also notes that “to the extent allowed by federal law, any federal funds allocated to DSHS shall be expended for activities other than promoting or advertising COVID-19 vaccinations.” Riders “convey specific instructions on how agency funds can be collected or spent” and follow traditional line items in the state budget, according to the Legislative Reference Library of Texas. The rider does not prevent local health departments from distributing the COVID-19 vaccine at all, according to emails sent by state health department employees obtained by the Star-Telegram through a records request. Rather, departments are being told not to single out the COVID-19 vaccine from any other vaccination that is recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.