By the Associated Press
A Republican lawmaker in Kansas outlined a measure Wednesday that would overturn Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s policy of withholding doses of COVID-19 vaccines from counties wanting to move to a new phase of inoculations before the rest of the state.
Senate health committee Chair Richard Hilderbrand called the policy “blackmail or extortion.”
Hilderbrand’s bill would allow counties to set their own vaccination schedules. It follows several months of widespread criticism of Kelly from the GOP-controlled Legislature over what they view as a slow administration of shots.
The state Department of Health and Environment has described withholding vaccine doses as an “enforcement mechanism” and Kelly says the goal is to “keep the train running as smoothly as we possibly can.”
Some counties were upset last week when the state wouldn’t let them start vaccinating people under 65 with chronic or serious medical conditions that would put them at risk of serious complications or death if they are infected with COVID-19. Those people are covered in the third phase of the vaccine distribution, and the state is still in the second phase.
