Wisconsin lawmakers vote down vaccine injury presumption, PTSD bills

Wisconsin lawmakers voted down a bill that would have created a rebuttable presumption of compensability for workers injured by employer-mandated vaccines.

Assembly Bill 633 failed to advance Monday through a Senate joint resolution. The measure had been introduced in October 2023.

Lawmakers also voted not to advance Assembly Bill 115, which would have made changes to the conditions of liability for workers comp benefits for certain first responders diagnosed with work-related post-traumatic stress disorder.  

Under the bill, volunteer firefighters, emergency medical responders, emergency services practitioners, correctional officers, emergency dispatchers, coroners, medical examiners and “medicolegal” investigators wouldn’t have been required to prove a PTSD diagnosis based on the current standard of showing that they experienced “unusual stress of greater dimensions than the day-to-day emotional strain and tension experienced by all employees.”

Instead, eligible employees would have had to demonstrate a diagnosis based on a less stringent standard applied to law-enforcement officers and career firefighters.