A bill calling for stricter vaccine requirements before children may be admitted to schools has been passed by the California State Senate. Sponsored by State Senators Dr. Richard Pan and Ben Allen, SB 277 removes the personal belief exemption but retains the medical exemption clause for children who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons.
The bill must now pass through the California State Assembly where it will be assigned by the Rules Committee to relevant committees to be further discussed in hearings. If it receives amendments in the Assembly, the bill will be returned to the Senate for final voting. After that, it is headed for Governor Jerry Brown's desk for signing, which will not happen before late summer.
"I'm looking forward to working with my Assembly colleagues to fix this broken system that allows one family's decision to not vaccinate put other children in serious and potentially fatal risk," said Pan.
The bill has fierce opposition (many of them vicious too) but there is little sign that those who oppose SB 277 represent the majority of voters in the California. Support for the bill, on the other hand, has been strong. Some physicians still oppose it but more endorse the bill, including over two dozen medical and health associations in the state, like the California Medical Association.
At the moment, only Mississippi and West Virginia are the only states that don't permit nonmedical exemptions to vaccine requirements to be allowed admission to school but the two also don't have personal or religious belief exemptions.
SB 277 started gaining track after a measles outbreak rocked several states in the country. The outbreak, which began in Disneyland, showed that the number of people refusing vaccines is growing and what the consequences are of doing so.
According to research by Saad Omer, a global health and epidemiology associate professor from Emory University, states offering personal and religious belief exemptions to vaccinations had greater numbers for cases of whooping cough or pertussis. California has been a victim of a pertussis epidemic in 2010, which was shown to be partly due to vaccine refusals in the state.
Pan had previously successfully led an effort back in 2012 that tightened personal belief exemptions with a rule that required parents to undergo education from a qualified health care practitioner first regarding the risks of avoiding vaccinations before they can be allowed to use the personal belief exemption.
Photo: Apotek Hjartat | Flickr
