Call to Action:  Reach out to Governor Justice and request that he VETO HB5105.

Dear West Virginia Nurses,

Thank you!  We are so very grateful to each and every one of you that reached out to legislators before and during the last legislative session.  

We are also fortunate to have devout immunization champions in nursing, healthcare and in the legislature, who worked tirelessly throughout the legislative session to protect WV’s strong immunization policies.

Unfortunately, and despite our outreach to legislators, HB5105 did pass the Senate and the House late Saturday evening.  We have one last chance to petition the Governor to veto HB5105. We need to send a strong message to Governor Justice that we do not support allowing private and parochial schools and public virtual school students opting out of the immunization policy. 

Call to Action:  Reach out to Governor Justice and request that he VETO HB5105.

The Governor’s Office phone number is: (304) 558-2000

Here is a link to electronically submit a letter to the Governor:  Submit a Comment to the Governor: Governor (accessgov.com)

 

The mailing address is: (but it will be too slow)

                The Honorable Jim Justice

                Office of the Governor

                State Capitol

                1900 Kanawha Blvd., East

                Charleston, WV  25305

 

Additionally, here is a direct email address to his chief counsel, Berkeley Bentley is: berkeley.bentley@wv.gov

*Berkeley will collect all information related to bills and present it to the Governor.

 

Sample message: 

               Subject Line:  VETO HB5105

Dear Honorable Governor Justice, 

I am emailing to ask you to veto House Bill 5105.    

HB 5105 will remove the immunization requirements for private and parochial schools creating pockets of schools with low vaccination rates and increasing the likelihood for disease outbreaks.  Administrators at these schools would have no knowledge of their students immunization status making outbreak response very challenging.   

Private and parochial school students deserve the same health and safety precautions as public students.  The private and parochial school students, virtual school students, and their communities will be at risk for the return of dangerous, yet preventable diseases which are just a car or a plane ride away.  Measles is circulating in 17 states, including most of our neighboring states.  Our strong vaccination policies have protected West Virginia from outbreaks of measles.  Please do not put out the welcome mat for the return of preventable disease.   

West Virginia has been a national leader in school immunization requirements.  We want to keep it that way.  We ask that you do not jeopardize the health and safety of our children and communities by weakening West Virginia’s childcare and school immunization requirements.

We ask that you VETO  HB 5105.

               Sincerely,

              Your name

 

If you reached out to a legislator(s) during the session who supported maintaining WV’s effective immunization policies, please take a moment to send a thank you letter or email to them (you can find the list of Senators that voted No on HB 5105 here). Without their support, West Virginia’s strong immunization policies would have undoubtedly been weakened even more.   Senators Takubo and Maroney worked very hard to lessen the impact of HB5105.  Without their support, HB5105 could have been even more dangerous of a bill so please send them a special note of thanks for their efforts to protect children from vaccine-preventable diseases. 

You can find the legislators’ district mailing addresses (since they are no longer at the Capitol) and email addresses by visiting the Senate and House rosters and clicking on the legislators’ photo or name.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions.

Best regards,

Julie