CALL TO ACTION - call the Senate Health Committee NOW!

ALERT!  HB5105 

The childhood immunization bill HB5105 is now in the Senate health committee and nursing / healthcare needs to make our voices heard. Please call and email the Senate Health Committee NOW (those that want religious freedom from basic childhood immunizations are making a lot of noise). 

This bill will weaken childhood immunization requirements. 

The link for the entire Senate Health Committee  is HERE!

Senate Health Committee Chair - Senator Maroney

Mike.maroney@wvsenate.gov

Capitol Phone: (304) 357-7902

Senate Health Committee Vice Chair - Senator Takubo 

Tom.takubo@wvsenate.gov

Capitol Phone: (304) 357-7990

Member of the Senate Health Committee

mike.maroney@wvsenate.gov; tom.takubo@wvsenate.gov; mike.azinger@wvsenate.gov; laura.chapman@wvsenate.gov; vince.deeds@wvsenate.gov; amy.grady@wvsenate.gov; bill.hamilton@wvsenate.gov; mark.hunt@wvsenate.gov; glenn.jeffries@wvsenate.gov; robert.plymale@wvsenate.gov; rollan.roberts@wvsenate.gov; patricia.rucker@wvsenate.gov; eric.tarr@wvsenate.gov; ryan.weld@wvsenate.gov

See below. 

• HB 5105:

1. Removes immunization requirements entirely for students in private and parochial schools and in virtual public school, with the exception of those participating in West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission sponsored athletics; and
2. Allows a religious exemption to the entire section of code, so children in licensed childcare facilities, public schools, and private, parochial or virtual schools who would otherwise need to meet the immunization requirements due to participating in WVSSAC athletics, will be able to obtain a religious exemption.
• “Personal belief”, “religious,” and “conscientious belief” exemptions are all synonyms for nonmedical exemptions. They are all used for the same purpose: to opt out of immunization requirements.

• The schools cannot determine if someone has a true religious belief against vaccination so, if this bill passes, they will have to accept all requests for religious exemptions, thus making it essentially a personal belief exemption.
• There are no administrative requirements for the exemption (parents/guardians would simply need to submit a letter), so it will be easier to get an exemption than to get one’s child(ren) vaccinated, allowing the religious exemption to be used as exemptions of convenience.
• The bill will make the school and childcare immunization requirements optional, and the private/parochial schools, because there is no immunization requirement for them at all and subsequently no records collection, will have no idea how many of their students are vaccinated or unvaccinated.
• This is particularly concerning for young children in childcare settings. Young children are at high risk for complications of vaccine-preventable diseases and children under a year of age are not yet eligible for MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccination. They rely on high immunization rates of the people around them to protect them from measles.
• Removing immunization requirements for students in private and parochial schools and allowing easy to obtain exemptions for those in childcare facilities and public schools will allow for drastic reductions in immunization rates in schools and childcare facilities, putting students in those schools at risk for preventable diseases like measles.
• Currently, in WV there are:
• 14,400 students in 134 private schools in WV
• 42,700 children ages six weeks through 12 years, in 1,412 licensed child care facilities
• 245,047 children enrolled in public schools in WV.
• Although the reduction in immunization rates will be incremental - growing and accruing with each incoming Kindergarten class - eventually all of approximately 300,000 children in WV childcare facilities and schools could opt out of school age immunization.
• Last year, Mississippi, which previously did not allow any nonmedical exemptions to school immunization requirements, began allowing nonmedical exemptions. Even with several administrative requirements in place to ensure that it takes about as much effort to get an exemption as it would be to get immunized, there were still 2,500 nonmedical exemptions in the incoming Mississippi Kindergarten classes this school year. If that trend continues for the next 5 years, there will beabout 15,000 unimmunized children in elementary schools in Mississippi.
• This bill will create school and childcare environments that are at risk for outbreaks of preventable diseases and put those students and the surrounding communities at risk.
• We are asking legislators to vote for kids, by voting NO on HB 5105.

 

Make your calls and send emails now!