Vermont Advances Bill Letting Unelected Health Commissioner Decide Which Vaccines Citizens Should Receive—Influenza Explicitly Named, Providers Shielded From Liability
House Bill 545 also authorizes pharmacy technicians to inject influenza vaccines into children as young as five and automatically covers future influenza vaccine formulations.
The Vermont House of Representatives has passed House Bill 545, a sweeping law that grants the state’s unelected Health Commissioner the authority to issue official recommendations determining which vaccines children and adults in Vermont should receive, explicitly names influenza vaccines in statute—including future reformulations—and shields healthcare providers from civil liability for injuries caused by those injections.
The law also authorizes pharmacy technicians—personnel who historically served in support roles rather than frontline clinical injection roles—to administer influenza vaccines to children as young as five, dramatically expanding the range of individuals authorized under state law to deliver those shots.
You can see which representatives voted in favor of the bill here, with only nine voting against.
House Bill 545 is now advancing through the Vermont Senate, where it has already received favorable committee approval.
Taken together, the legislation embeds influenza vaccination directly into Vermont’s permanent statutory immunization infrastructure while placing vaccine recommendation authority in the hands of a single appointed official and protecting those administering the vaccines from lawsuits if harm occurs.
The bill’s passage comes as governments in the United States and internationally have poured billions of dollars into influenza pandemic preparedness, surveillance networks, and next-generation influenza vaccine development, with influenza repeatedly singled out in federal funding laws and global planning frameworks as a priority pandemic-capable virus.
It also comes as Kentucky Senator Rand Paul (R) has introduced federal legislation to strip vaccine manufacturers of their nationwide liability immunity, directly challenging the decades-old legal framework that shields the industry from civil lawsuits and reroutes injury claims into a federal compensation system.
This highlights a growing split between expanding liability protections for those administering vaccines at the state level and simultaneous federal efforts to remove liability protections for the manufacturers producing them.
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Unelected Health Commissioner Granted Authority to Issue Vaccine Recommendations
At the center of House Bill 545 is a provision granting Vermont’s Health Commissioner statutory authority to issue immunization recommendations covering children and adults.
The law states:
“The Commissioner shall periodically issue recommendations regarding: (1) which immunizations children and adults should receive; (2) the recommended age at which each immunization should be given; (3) the number of immunization doses that should be administered; [and] (4) the amount of time between doses…”
These recommendations determine the vaccines included in Vermont’s official immunization guidance.
Vermont’s current Health Commissioner, Dr. Mark Levine, was appointed by Governor Phil Scott and confirmed by the Vermont Senate.
He was not elected directly by Vermont voters.
Although Vermont’s Department of Health previously followed federal and state immunization guidance through administrative rules, House Bill 545 now embeds that power directly into state law itself, formally placing the authority to determine which vaccines Vermonters should receive in the hands of the unelected Health Commissioner.
Influenza Explicitly Named in Statute & Future Influenza Vaccines Automatically Included
House Bill 545 specifically names influenza vaccines in statute and automatically extends authorization to future influenza vaccine formulations.
The law authorizes pharmacists to administer:
“influenza immunization, COVID-19 immunization, and subsequent formulations or combination products thereof…”
The phrase “subsequent formulations or combination products thereof” means updated influenza vaccines fall under the same statutory authority once developed and recommended.
This places influenza vaccination directly into Vermont’s permanent statutory immunization delivery framework.
Providers Shielded From Civil Liability for Vaccine Injuries
House Bill 545 grants legal immunity to healthcare professionals administering vaccines under the Commissioner’s recommendations.
The statute states:
“A health care professional who prescribes, dispenses, or administers an immunization in accordance with the recommendations… shall be immune from civil and administrative liability for immunization-caused adverse events…”
This protection applies when vaccines are administered in accordance with the state’s immunization recommendations.
Pharmacy Technicians Granted Permanent Authority in State Law to Inject Influenza Vaccines Into Children and Adults
House Bill 545 embeds into Vermont statute the authority for pharmacy technicians to administer influenza vaccines to both children and adults, ensuring that authority continues permanently under state law.
The statute states pharmacy technicians may administer immunizations:
“to patients 18 years of age or older…”
and separately authorizes technicians to administer:
“to patients five years of age or older, influenza immunization, COVID-19 vaccine immunization, and subsequent formulations or combination products thereof…”
This means pharmacy technicians may administer influenza vaccines to young children beginning at age five, as well as to adults.
Pharmacy technicians were temporarily authorized to administer influenza vaccines during the federal COVID-19 emergency and through regulatory protocols, but House Bill 545 now codifies that authority directly into Vermont statute.
Under the law, pharmacy technicians administer these vaccines under pharmacist supervision as part of Vermont’s statutory immunization system.
Insurance Required to Cover Recommended Vaccines
The bill also requires health insurance plans to cover recommended immunizations.
It states:
“A health benefit plan shall not impose any co-payment, coinsurance, or deductible requirements for… recommended immunizations…”
This ensures vaccines included in Vermont’s immunization recommendations, including influenza vaccines, are covered by insurance.
Law Takes Effect July 1, 2026
House Bill 545 establishes Vermont’s updated immunization recommendation framework beginning July 1, 2026.
Under the law, influenza vaccines are explicitly embedded in Vermont statute, authorized for administration by pharmacy personnel, protected by liability shields when administered according to the Commissioner’s recommendations, and automatically extended to future influenza vaccine formulations.
Bottom Line
House Bill 545 permanently embeds influenza vaccination into Vermont law, giving the unelected Health Commissioner statutory authority to issue the recommendations determining which vaccines Vermonters should receive, shielding those administering the shots from liability, and automatically extending that authority to future influenza vaccine formulations.
The law also locks in pharmacy-based vaccine delivery by authorizing pharmacy technicians to administer influenza vaccines to both adults and children as young as five.
It takes effect as influenza remains the central focus of billions in U.S. and global pandemic preparedness funding and vaccine development, formally positioning influenza vaccination as a permanent and protected component of Vermont’s statutory public health infrastructure moving forward.
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I am sure that pharmacy technicians don’t have the wherewithal to treat those they inject that develop an anaphylactic shock condition will be saved.! Political derangement syndrome is alive and well!
These Chinese Communist Party policies should be rejected by every american who believes in the rule of law including those regarding consumer protection, medical malpractice and battery, and conspiracy, and constitutional protections such as equal protection under the law, privacy against undue search and siezure, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and the right to redress of grievance, to name just a few obvious ones off the top of my head.