Citing false COVID vaccine claims, Texas senators want new study

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Three of the committee’s nine members, including one moderate Republican, refused to sign the report, and another Democrat raised concerns about the recommendations in an attached letter. State Sen. Borris Miles, a Houston Democrat, said the report could promote misinformation that dissuades people from being vaccinated as coronavirus cases rise again.

“Our charge on the HHS Committee is to better the health and well-being of Texans, not to pander to the anti-vaccination conspiracy theories and political platforms that have caused the deaths of many people in this state, this country and the world,” Miles said. “This report will not lead to improvements in public health.”

Republican state Sen. Kel Seliger of Amarillo and Beverly Powell, a Democrat from Burleson, also declined to sign the report.  

The committee chair, Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, was not available for comment, her staff said.

The report, part of a push for COVID-related bills ahead of this year’s legislative session, argues that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are not a reliable source of COVID vaccine information, and the public cannot trust the agency to “provide transparent, timely, and accurate data for Texas physicians to treat patients.”

But that assertion is attributed to Malone, a physician who has falsely claimed that COVID vaccines worsen active infections.

“The expansion of federal oversight and the encroachment into the practice of medicine has left states scrambling as to how they can manage their health care systems,” the report states, later recommending that Texas officials establish “an independent, transparent state-based regulatory authority for developing and distributing disease treatment.”

McCullough, a cardiologist who has spread misleading or incorrect information about vaccine efficacy, is also heavily cited in the report. In 2021, a video of him testifying before the state Senate went viral after he claimed that people under age 50 didn’t need to get the vaccine.

Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins University, likened their claims to conspiracy theories put forth “without evidence.” More research dollars are usually a positive, he said — but in this case, given the committee’s reliance on Malone and McCullough, a third-party study could further misconceptions about the vaccine.

“It may be political in the sense that it’s an acknowledgment or a concession to the anti-vaccine groups who don’t believe that the regular academic research that’s being done on vaccine adverse events — by academia, by industry, by the government — is sufficient,” he said.

The report noted that McCullough’s previous comments before the committee were deemed as misinformation, but it dismissed the concerns as a “negative reaction” that the doctor faced “despite citing reputable medical sources.”

The CDC and the Food and Drug Administration already maintain a portal, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, where individuals can submit their experiences with any vaccine, including the COVID shots. The database is a collection of submissions, not a determination that any side effect was directly caused by or related to the administration of a vaccine.

According to the CDC, most side effects from COVID vaccines go away in a few days, and serious health problems caused by the vaccine are rare, usually occurring within six weeks of inoculation.

The Texas Department of State Health Services tracks vaccine administration but is not required to keep data on adverse events, according to the report. The state health department also does not require health care providers to input that data into the CDC’s system, though federal law mandates that doctors must report serious incidents that fit certain guidelines.

Federal officials have also proven that they’re willing to take action in potentially unsafe situations, Adalja said. He thought federal officials overreacted in 2021 when they paused the administration of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine after six reports of blood clots.

“That, I think, was the government being too cautious over very, very rare side effects,” he said. “Even though Robert Malone may say that the CDC was hiding things, I thought the CDC was being too conservative by limiting Johnson & Johnson.”