Experts believe that if California's strict school vaccine bill becomes a law, it could help prevent future outbreaks such as the one that was traced to a popular theme park and infected more than a hundred people.
On Monday, pediatric doctors said that the bill, which was introduced following the measles outbreak that was traced to Disneyland in Anaheim in December, would likely help in boosting immunization rates and stop the spread of diseases.
Senate Bill 277 would do away with religious and personal belief exemptions from vaccination. Once approved, the legislation would prevent children from attending classes in public schools if they failed to receive the full schedule of 10 vaccinations.
Douglas Opel, from the University of Washington, explained that requiring vaccination prior to getting admitted to school is an efficient way of increasing the rates of immunization.
"Historically, we know that attaching requirements for school entry to vaccination has been one of the most successful ways to increase immunization rates," Opel said.
The bill will soon land on the desk of Gov. Jerry Brown. If he decided to sign it, the state will become the third state in the nation to allow for vaccine exemptions provided a licensed doctor provides certification that a child has a family history of illness or a medical condition that would make inoculation unsafe.
The children without medical exemption will have to be homeschooled or they have the option to get fully vaccinated. The new measure was introduced after California saw 136 measles cases during the outbreak. The outbreak prompted lawmakers in several states to consider changing their exemption laws albeit none has made attempts as broad as California's.
While the objective of the bill was to prevent outbreaks of diseases in the future, detractors already pin point problems should the bill becomes a law.
While the bill would still allow unvaccinated kids to access public school resources though study programs that are not classroom based, state law requires that all public schools should provide equal access to free public education regardless if they are vaccinated or not. Possible problems could also arise involving the elimination of religious vaccination exemptions.
"If the religious exemption portion of the bill survived legal challenge, that would, for sure, be a bellwether moment in the United States," said James Hodge from Arizona State University.
The governor has not yet showed any indication that he will sign the bill.
Photo: NIAID | Flickr
