CA lawmakers aim to take away exemptions for measles vaccinations

Thursday two California lawmakers proposed a state law that if passed would make the state one of the toughest in terms of vaccination rules. This comes as the state health department announces there are 92 measles cases in California.

Senate Bill 277 would permit only medical exemptions as legal reasons to not vaccinate. Only Mississippi and West Virginia have a similar law.

Currently, California and 18 other states allow the “personal belief” exemption that grants parents the right to not vaccinate their children based on personal or religious beliefs.

The bill proposed by Democratic Senator and pediatrician Richard Pan from Sacramento and Democratic Senator Ben Allen of Redondo Beach, doesn’t specifically mention religious beliefs but if the bill passed it would end all “personal belief exemptions.”

Wednesday, California’s U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein sent a letter to CA Health and Human Services Department saying that both religious and personal belief exemptions vaccinations should be denied.

One medical professional who believes the risk of serious illness far outweighs the potential risk of the vaccine.
“It’s not just the health of one single child,” Dr. Maryam Jalali said. “It’s the health of the community.”
Dr. Jalali is asking for accountability.
“We need to think more strict way to be more specific about the exemptions showing the reasons why,” Dr. Jalali said.
Sometimes a child cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons. Live vaccines could cause problems for someone with a weak immune system. That’s why doctors say it’s important for those around them to be protected. Because doctors at the Salinas Valley Pediatric Association are so concerned about their patients and the community, they’re putting a stop to accepting unvaccinated patients and asking them to take their business elsewhere.
Angela Steele is a mother who has done her research. She says she understands why some parents might want to delay vaccinations for their kids.
“Sometimes you do delayed because five shots at once can be too much,” Steele said. “But at the same time, as long as you’re getting them all done in a timely fashion, it shouldn’t be such an issue.”
A second part of the legislation includes schools be required to publish the percentage of their students who are vaccinated. However some schools see a problem with the way the state handles reporting percentages. For example, the International School of Monterey had lower vaccine numbers last year. The director of the school is quick to point out those numbers are misleading.
The schools have a limited amount of time to report the percentage of kindergarteners who either got their vaccines or an exemption. Some parents didn’t get back to the school with the answer before the numbers were published on the state’s website. The school continued to contact parents to find out whether their kids were vaccinated and unfortunately they weren’t able to update the state’s numbers online.
“You go to shots for school and I know it’s been reported in the papers for the current data and you understand that really its old data,” Sean Madden, dir. of the International School of Monterey said. “It’s unfortunate for the parents. The current way is to call the school and find out what is your current data.”
So far this school year, Madden said they are at a 92.5% vaccination rate. Two kids have medical exemptions and they are still waiting on one more response from a parent. Their vaccine rates for seventh graders are at 100%. Madden says that’s because of the state’s ‘no shot, no school’ policy that was implemented several years ago for the Pertussis vaccine.