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Colorado vaccine bill: Kyle Mullica, lawmaker behind controversial bill, gets a death threat
Source: Washington Post
‘Leave my family out of it’: Nurse-turned-legislator gets death threat over controversial vaccine bill
By Eli Rosenberg
May 2 at 7:53 PM
Kyle Mullica, a freshman member of Colorado’s House, came into office this past January with a sense of mission.
An emergency-room nurse, he had run a campaign based on his experience in the world of medicine, in an era where anxiety about health care is high. Even with his experience, he was surprised when during an introductory meeting with an official from the state’s Department of Public Health and Environment, he was told that Colorado was at the bottom nationwide for the percentage of children in kindergarten who were vaccinated against diseases such as measles, mumps and rubella. He had seen people coming into the ER with “vaccine-preventable” diseases like whooping cough, he said, but he was still shocked.
“That was extremely concerning to me,” he said in a phone interview this week. “I wanted to make sure we were doing something about that.”
Mullica, a Democrat who represents a district in the Denver area, said he started looking at options to improve this. This week, a bill he sponsored to tighten vaccination protocols for parents raised hopes among public health groups. It died in the state Senate on Thursday afternoon.
But being the face of a political effort to tackle this pressing public health issue has made Mullica the target of threats. After the bill passed the state’s House on Saturday, Mullica received an email that likened him to a Nazi doctor and said that he deserved to die.
-snip-
By Eli Rosenberg
May 2 at 7:53 PM
Kyle Mullica, a freshman member of Colorado’s House, came into office this past January with a sense of mission.
An emergency-room nurse, he had run a campaign based on his experience in the world of medicine, in an era where anxiety about health care is high. Even with his experience, he was surprised when during an introductory meeting with an official from the state’s Department of Public Health and Environment, he was told that Colorado was at the bottom nationwide for the percentage of children in kindergarten who were vaccinated against diseases such as measles, mumps and rubella. He had seen people coming into the ER with “vaccine-preventable” diseases like whooping cough, he said, but he was still shocked.
“That was extremely concerning to me,” he said in a phone interview this week. “I wanted to make sure we were doing something about that.”
Mullica, a Democrat who represents a district in the Denver area, said he started looking at options to improve this. This week, a bill he sponsored to tighten vaccination protocols for parents raised hopes among public health groups. It died in the state Senate on Thursday afternoon.
But being the face of a political effort to tackle this pressing public health issue has made Mullica the target of threats. After the bill passed the state’s House on Saturday, Mullica received an email that likened him to a Nazi doctor and said that he deserved to die.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/05/02/leave-my-family-out-it-nurse-turned-lawmaker-gets-death-threat-over-controversial-vaccine-bill/
______________________________________________________________________
Source: CBS 4 Denver
Rep. Kyle Mullica, Lawmaker Behind Vaccine Bill, Receives Death Threat: ‘Leave My Family Out Of It’
By Shaun Boyd May 1, 2019 at 11:53 am
DENVER (CBS4) – Kyle Mullica, a Colorado lawmaker who carried a bill making it harder to opt out of immunizations, is scared for his life as well as the lives of his family members after receiving a threatening email. State Rep. Mullica is a first-term lawmaker who took on one of the session’s most controversial issues, introducing a bill requiring parents who want to opt their kids out of vaccines to get a standardized form from the health department first. He says he knew it would be controversial.
“I didn’t come down here to try to tackle easy issues or issues that aren’t important to me.”
But he never dreamed it would result in a death threat. Mullica is an emergency room nurse and father of three. He carried the bill he says to protect kids.
“I care for children that come into the ER and that have preventable diseases. I’m terrified that we’re going to see an outbreak here in Colorado and that we’re going to see children hurt,” he said.
-snip-
By Shaun Boyd May 1, 2019 at 11:53 am
DENVER (CBS4) – Kyle Mullica, a Colorado lawmaker who carried a bill making it harder to opt out of immunizations, is scared for his life as well as the lives of his family members after receiving a threatening email. State Rep. Mullica is a first-term lawmaker who took on one of the session’s most controversial issues, introducing a bill requiring parents who want to opt their kids out of vaccines to get a standardized form from the health department first. He says he knew it would be controversial.
“I didn’t come down here to try to tackle easy issues or issues that aren’t important to me.”
But he never dreamed it would result in a death threat. Mullica is an emergency room nurse and father of three. He carried the bill he says to protect kids.
“I care for children that come into the ER and that have preventable diseases. I’m terrified that we’re going to see an outbreak here in Colorado and that we’re going to see children hurt,” he said.
-snip-
Read more: https://denver.cbslocal.com/2019/05/01/kyle-mullica-vaccine-bill-death-threat/