SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — An Illinois state lawmaker’s proposal to effectively penalize unvaccinated COVID-19 patients generated threats, so now he has dropped the measure.
State Rep. Jonathan Carroll, D-Northbrook, recently introduced legislation to make COVID patients pay all their medical fees — including hospital bills — out of pocket if they failed to get vaccinated.
He said opponents have flooded his office with derogatory insults. And his family and his synagogue have received threats, Carroll said.
Someone also published his home address on Twitter; Carroll reported that to the social media site and the information was removed.
“This is ridiculous,” Carroll said. “We just can’t have a reasonable conversation anymore, we can’t have conversations with people about these things. I’ve heard from reasonable people that do disagree with my bill — and I appreciate them being reasonable and I appreciate them making their point — but if you want to just go the route of calling people names, and calling people like racial slurs, and threatening them and things like that, it’s impossible to have conversations at that point.”
Carroll said in a statement Thursday that he decided not to pursue the legislation he filed earlier in the week because of the “unintended divisive nature” of the proposal. He has since filed a motion with the clerk of the Illinois House to table the measure.
He added that based on feedback and further reflection on the legislation “we need to heal as a country and work together on commonsense solutions to put the pandemic behind us.”
“Since taking office, I’ve always tried to have civil discourse with those who’ve disagreed with me,” Carroll said. “However, violent threats made against me, my family and my staff are reprehensible. I hope we can return to a more positive discourse on public health, especially when it comes to this pandemic that has tired us all.”
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A spokeswoman for Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch said in a statement that “threats of violence or death on anyone have no place in politics or our society.
“The Speaker condemns this behavior regardless of political party and will continue to encourage civil, productive public discourse.”
A spokesman for Senate President Don Harmon also said in a statement that “death threats have no place in politics.
“President Harmon would encourage everyone to be respectful in debating issues,” the statement continued. “He would also encourage everyone to take advantage of the vaccines that are available.”
Gov. JB Pritzker earlier this week indicated he did not support measures that would penalize the vaccine-hesitant. He said he’d rather take a “carrot” approach, rather than “stick,” in encouraging people to get vaccinated.
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