Call to ACTION - Email Delegates NOW! Subject: SB460 Keep Medical Exemptions ONLY 

Call to Action on SB460 - send an email right now!  

Tuesday afternoon the House of Delegates committee on Health and Human Resources had SB460 on the agenda for the amendment and voting phase of the process.  There were several amendments offered.  Some passed and some failed.  Ultimately, the committee voted to approve a strike and insert with an 18-7 vote and sent SB460 to the full House with the recommendation that it do pass.  Committee Substitute for SB460 was on first reading on the House floor today, March 20th. 

The House Health committee strike and insert made the following changes to the senate version of bill:

• Removed nonmedical (religious and philosophical) exemptions
• Changed the medical exemption process to be at the request of "a licensed physician, physician assistant, or nurse practitioner who provides a written statement to the administrator of the child’s school or to the operator of the state-regulated childcare center that a specific immunization is or may be detrimental to the child’s health or is not appropriate”
• Adds that a licensing board may not take any disciplinary action against the healthcare provider who submitted the medical exemption statement
• Adds that the healthcare provider who submits the medical exemption statement must provide a report to the state health office
• Adds protection from civil liability for the healthcare provider who submits the medical exemption unless their action is a result of negligence or gross negligence

 

SB460 as outlined above is on third reading today on the House floor.  Second reading was the amendment and discussion phase, and third reading is the vote for passage. 

 

CALL TO ACTION: Please email all members of the House of Delegates today and tomorrow up until 11am 11:15 am to request that they DO NOT ADD NONMEDICAL EXEMPTIONS TO SB460. 

Contact information for House of Delegates members can be located here: https://www.wvlegislature.gov/House/roster.cfm

 

The following is sample text that can be used in an email:

 Subject: SB460 Keep Medical Exemptions ONLY  (Be sure to state this in your subject line in case they do not open the email.)     

https://www.wvlegislature.gov/House/roster.cfm

       

“Dear Honorable Delegate (insert legislator’s last name),

(If applicable… As a constituent of yours or As a parent of ____children in public/private school/childcare facility …) I am emailing to request that you DO NOT Support amendments to add nonmedical (religious, philosophical, conscientious) exemptions to SB460. West Virginia’s immunization requirements which only allow medical exemptions have proven their effectiveness at protecting our children, schools and communities from unnecessary disease.

For more than a decade, West Virginia’s childcare and school immunization policies have protected our children, schools, and communities from the following 10 diseases: tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), polio, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella (chickenpox), hepatitis B, and meningococcal (meningitis).  We thank West Virginia policymakers for their commitment to preventing the spread of these deadly diseases over the years – giving our children the freedom to safely attend childcare programs and schools.   We thank the West Virginia House of Delegates’ Health and Human Resources committee for taking similar steps by removing the nonmedical exemptions from SB460.

We now ask all West Virginia Delegates to oppose any amendments that would add nonmedical exemptions back into SB460. 

Please vote NO on any amendments to allow nonmedical exemptions or weaken our effective childcare and school immunization policy.

 

Sincerely,

Your Name