Action | Amendment to comply with changes in public health practice |
Stage | Fast-Track |
Comment Period | Ended on 12/11/2019 |
The Virginia Department of Health has no business knowing my name, address and other personal information if I have the flu. The original bill Section 32.1-35.1 that was passed in 2019 required HOSPITALS to report to the VDH if a patient had acquired an infection by being hospitalized. This was to keep a check on dirty hospitals, not on the patients' identity and their common winter infections.
When my doctors' office asks on behalf of the federal government what vaccines I have had, I tell them it is none of their business, and it none of the VDH's business either what health decisions I make that affects no one else. Virginians have a right to medical privacy and if it is a serious infection that could affect others, most doctors have enough sense to report it without invading a person's privacy.