While many of the bills introduced in state legislatures attempt to interfere with science education, there are a number that, through misguided fears, attempt to eliminate some of the benefits of scientific or technological developments. These efforts are often focused on radiation, such as that from Wi-Fi and cell phones, but they can target just about any item that's the subject of unsubstantiated worries (and the problems aren't limited to the US states, either).

Genetically modified organisms are another technological development that, by all indications, are safe for human consumption. But some of the public is uneasy with the technology, and naturally there are legislators who are either members of or representatives of this constituency. New York state Assemblyman Thomas Abinanti (D) appears to be one of them and, in his rush to keep the public safe from genetically modified organisms, is now trying to outlaw major public safety developments: vaccines.

Abinanti has introduced a bill that would outlaw the use of any vaccine that contains a genetically modified organism. This would include any organism that has had genes deleted or added to it, unless that addition occurred through a process like selective breeding or hybridization.

Thus, if scientists were able to specifically delete virulence factors from a bacterial pathogen in order to turn it into a harmless vaccine strain, this law would prevent its use in New York. Instead, scientists would have to put the virus through random mutation and hope to come up with the right combination of mutations to accomplish precisely the same thing.

The bill would also outlaw the use of most of the promising Ebola vaccine candidates, which involve splicing one of Ebola's genes into a harmless virus. And, as Forbes' coverage notes, one of the current vaccines available against rotavirus was developed through an unnatural reassortment of genes from several viral strains—an efficient way to protect against all the strains with a single vaccine.

In short, this legislator's panic over the term "genetically modified organism" threatens to keep one of the most populous states from major public health advances provided by modern biotechnology.