Households rely on the services of personal care attendants, in-home nurses, home health aides, or respite care to help care for their loved ones. Many of those patients or individuals receiving care, if not the majority, are high-risk individuals or individuals who have an increased risk of getting sick. Family caregivers should have the ability to request services of a personal care attendant who has made the decision to get vaccinated against the life-threatening COVID-19 virus. This request does not require an individual to take the vaccination, but it empowers the household to make decisions that protect their loved one receiving crucial care and other members of the household.

Passing the South Carolina General Assembly House Bill 4848, establishing criminal liability in certain circumstances for inquiring about another person’s COVID-19 vaccination status, without a provision protecting the patient population revokes personal protection against COVID-19, a life-threatening illness.

Imagine hiring personal health services for your family member and not being informed that the individual providing the care is currently infected. As a result, your household contracts COVID-19 from the individual who was hired to provide the care. This was my experience during the public health emergency. In addition to contracting the virus, the agency was not able to inform other personal care attendants who provided services that the patient was infected. In our case, everyone’s health information was protected while everyone’s health was jeopardized. The agency hired to provide care and protect the health of my loved one was unable to contain the spread of the virus and mitigate prospective outbreaks. H.4848 hinders the ability to protect the health of the high-risk patient receiving services and the household family members.

During the height of the pandemic, we learned that the likes of this virus have not been seen for generations. As a parent and primary caretaker for an individual who requires a personal care attendant, I can assure you that passing South Carolina General Assembly House Bill 4848 does not assist in protecting vulnerable members of society from this virus nor does it create a better state of public health.

I encourage you to revisit H.4848 and the implications as a result of passing this bill. H.4848 was introduced to the House on January 20 and currently resides in the House Committee on Judiciary.