Bill > A625

Introduced Session

This bill would provide for the identification and study of infant fatalities and near fatalities resulting from vaccination, and would require the inclusion of vaccination information in reports of sudden or unexpected infant death. The bill would require the State's Child Fatality and Near Fatality Review Board, in particular, to identify fatalities and near fatalities occurring among infant children, which may have resulted, in whole or in part, from the prior vaccination of the infant. The bill would require the board to ensure that at least one of the local or regional community-based review teams operating under its authority is designated to review the cases of infant fatality and near fatality that are identified by the board pursuant to the bill's provisions. The board would also be required to engage in an ongoing study of the effects of vaccination on infant mortality and near mortality. The purpose of the study would be to identify: instances in which an infant death is determined to have resulted, in whole or in part, from vaccination of the infant; instances in which a near fatal event involving an infant is determined to have resulted, in whole or in part, from vaccination of the infant; instances in which the definitive cause of a death or near fatal event is unclear after investigation, but in which there is reason to believe that vaccination was a contributing factor in the death or near fatal event; the percentage of total infant fatalities and near fatalities occurring in the State that have definitively resulted, in whole or in part, from vaccination, and the percentage of total infant fatalities and near fatalities occurring in the State wherein vaccination is a suspected, but not a proven, factor contributing to the death or near fatal event; patterns and trends in infant fatalities and near fatalities resulting from vaccination; and ways to reduce or eliminate infant fatalities and near fatalities resulting from vaccination. In conducting the study, the board would be authorized to seek the advice of persons specializing in the fields of neonatal, post neonatal, or pediatric pathology, infant health, immunology, and epidemiology. Within one year after the bill's enactment, the board would be required to submit a report to the Governor and Legislature. The report would include the board's findings on the rate of infant fatalities and near fatalities resulting from vaccination; a description of patterns and trends that are evident from the collected data; and recommendations for legislative or other actions that can be undertaken to reduce or eliminate infant fatalities and near fatalities resulting from vaccination, while continuing to ensure the protection of the public against communicable disease. The board would additionally be required to provide supplemental reports to the Governor and Legislature, at intervals deemed by the board to be appropriate, but not less often than every five years after the first report is submitted. Any supplemental report would include the same information that is to be included in the first report, and would additionally identify: the extent to which any prior recommendations of the board have been successfully implemented in practice; and the apparent impact that those changes have had on vaccination-related infant mortality and near mortality during the reporting period. In order to facilitate the board's work, the bill would provide that, in any case of sudden or unexpected infant death (i.e., in any case where the cause of death of a child under three years of age is not obvious before investigation), the infant's physician of record, in cooperation with the emergency medical responders who responded to the scene of death, the medical examiner who is tasked with performing the autopsy, the medicolegal death investigator who is tasked with investigating the scene of death, and any other appropriate parties, will be required to complete a Sudden Unexplained Infant Death Investigation Reporting Form (SUIDI form), which is made available by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Reproductive Health. In completing the form, the infant's physician of record would be required to attach, as an addendum to the form's Infant Medical History section, a record of all vaccines that have been administered to the infant in the six-month period preceding the infant's death. A completed SUIDI form would need to be submitted, within 10 days after completion, to the Child Fatality and Near Fatality Review Board, which would then use the forms to facilitate its identification and study of vaccination-related infant fatalities and near fatalities, as provided by the bill. The board would also be authorized to use these SUIDI forms for any other purpose that is related to its duties, as deemed by the board to be appropriate.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Sean Kean (R)*, 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Children, Families and Food Security Committee (on 01/09/2024)

Official Document