Idaho bill would criminalize anyone who administers COVID-19 mRNA vaccines

WASHINGTON (TND) — Two Republican Idaho lawmakers introduced a new bill that would criminalize anyone who administers COVID-19 mRNA vaccines.

If approved, violators would face misdemeanor charges.

Today I introduced a bill to ban all messenger ribonucleic acid technology (mRNA) in the State of Idaho," Sen. Tammy Nichols wrote on Twitter Thursday.

During her presentation to fellow lawmakers, Nichols said she is most concerned with Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

"I think there is a lot of information that comes out with concerns to blood clots and heart issues," Nichols said.

Meanwhile, her tweet was met with criticism, as well as praise.

"thank [sic] you - takes a lot of courage and conviction to stand in the gap and do the right thing- more and more people and medical professionals need to know what is actually happing with the mRNA vaccine and the resulting deaths and injuries," one person wrote.

Others thanked Nichols for sponsoring the legislation.

Several other Twitter users called the bill "stupid" or "silly."

"Ban gravity next," one person noted.

"How to tell the world you didn’t finish high school without actually telling them you didn’t finish high school," another wrote.

Nichols, along with Rep. Judy Boyle, sponsored the bill, which was introduced in the House Health & Welfare Committee.

"Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a person may not provide or administer a vaccine developed using messenger ribonucleic acid technology for use in an individual or any other mammal in this state," according to the bill. "A person who violates this section is guilty of a misdemeanor."

The National Human Genome Research Institute notes that mRNA "is a type of single-stranded RNA involved in protein synthesis. mRNA is made from a DNA template during the process of transcription. The role of mRNA is to carry protein information from the DNA in a cell’s nucleus to the cell’s cytoplasm (watery interior), where the protein-making machinery reads the mRNA sequence and translates each three-base codon into its corresponding amino acid in a growing protein chain."