Parents with children enrolled in California schools can no longer opt out of state-mandated childhood vaccinations for non-medical reasons, following Governor Jerry Brown’s decision on Tuesday to sign into law the controversial Senate Bill 277 that ends personal-belief exemptions for
vaccines.
The signing capped off months of contention across the state, leaving many pleased with what they feel is a step to codify stronger protections for public health safety and others concerned the law strips parents of their right to free choice.
“The science is clear that vaccines dramatically protect children against a number of infectious and dangerous diseases,” said Governor Brown in a statement issued Tuesday. “While it’s true that no medical intervention is without risk, the evidence shows that immunization powerfully benefits and protects the community.”
The bill denies school enrollment for any student who has not received vaccines against 10 communicable childhood diseases: diphtheria, haemophilus influenza type B, measles, mumps, pertussis (whooping cough), poliomyelitis, rubella, tetanus, hepatitis B and varicella (chickenpox).
Unvaccinated students will be barred from attending all classroom-based institutions, including public and private elementary and secondary schools, daycare centers, day nurseries, nursery school, in-home family daycares and development centers. (Private homeschooling and non-classroom-based independent programs are exempt from the requirements.)
Only students with physical conditions or medical circumstances that make immunization unsafe will be granted vaccine exemptions. To obtain an exemption, a licensed physician must recommend it, state the exact circumstances under which the exemption is given, and file a written statement with the student’s school.
After meandering through various Assembly committees since February, S.B. 277—proposed by Senators Richard Pan, who is a pediatrician, and Ben Allen—passed rapidly through the state’s Senate and Asssembly in a matter of days, before arriving on the Governor’s desk on Monday. Along the way, the bill attracted crowds of protestors to the state capitol building in Sacramento, where several groups opposed to the bill’s universal and compulsory language have fought S.B. 277 tooth and nail.
Preceding the bill’s passage, 200 physicians and nearly an equal number of lawyers across the country signed petitions opposing S.B. 277 on medical, moral and legal grounds. Dr. Michelle Veneziano, a Mill Valley-based osteopathic physician who formerly worked for the Coastal Health Alliance and lived in Point Reyes Station, authored the petition tailored for physicians. “While physicians have the best intentions to serve their patients, the fact that there is so much division on vaccinations does not bode well for patient confidence,” Dr. Veneziano, whose daughter is enrolled in the Lagunitas School District’s Open Classroom program, told the Light. “Physicians have not been given the tools they need to really inform their patients in every way possible on this topic. And it’s a disservice to the physicians, as well as to the patients.”
Dr. Veneziano said a large body of research exists that attempts to show a correlation between vaccines and health problems among young children, as well as sudden infant death.
Among a variety of studies, she pointed to one recent study published in the journal of the American Medical Association that cited the dangers of administering vaccines to extremely low birth-weight infants as one of many pieces of research running counter to the mainstream view of vaccines as necessary to ensure public health.
“Our nation is…much higher in wealth than in health,” she added. “What we’re really seeing here is an inverse relationship between health and vaccination. We’d like to evaluate all the data on this issue before we make a conclusion.”
Dr. Veneziano explained that because her daughter has been vaccinated for all childhood diseases except for one—hepatitis B—she is still considered “unvaccinated” and is therefore at risk of being denied school enrollment.
Asked whether her daughter may not be able to attend school next fall, Dr. Veneziano replied: “Very possibly. I haven’t decided what we’re going to do yet.”
Now passed into law, S.B. 277 compels California schools to deny first-time admittance and grade advancement for students who have not received vaccinations for all 10 childhood diseases by July 1, 2016. Childhood vaccinations and personal-belief exemptions in California were brought into focus after a measles outbreak that started in December at Disneyland spread as far north as San Mateo and Alameda Counties and into other states across the country. Two cases were reported and treated in Marin, with a total of 136 cases statewide, and the Department of Public Health declared the outbreak over as of April 17.
The ensuing debate hit home in West Marin, which attracted national attention for high exemption rates in the San Geronimo Valley. There, according to data released in late January by the state’s Department of Health, over half of the kindergarteners received opt-outs this year. And that is despite legislation passed last year that made personal-belief exemptions more difficult to obtain by requiring a doctor’s consent.
Matt Willis, a public health officer for Marin, said the county saw a steady increase in the number of vaccine opt-outs up until two years ago, when that number began to decline. He added that very few parents who obtain personal-belief exemptions choose to opt out of vaccines entirely, but rather elect to receive some vaccines while forgoing others.
Updated information on county opt-out rates is expected this summer, Mr. Willis said. For now, he hailed the bill’s passage as a victory for the medical
community.
“This bill would codify some of the positive trends we’ve already been seeing here in Marin County and statewide in increasing vaccination rates,” he said. “It’s obviously been a heated bill that’s been contentious at every step, but I don’t see that being mirrored in our clinics.”
Others echoed Dr. Willis’s satisfaction with the bill’s passage. Leah Russin, the founder of Vaccinate California, proclaimed Tuesday as an occasion for Californians to celebrate.
“Today is a day when science and medicine have prevailed over fear,” said Ms. Russin, whose group sponsored the bill. “That is a good day for California. It’s appropriate that we take action in the name of science.”
Meanwhile, a second bill—S.B. 792, proposed by Senator Tony Mendoza—is in the Sacramento pipeline that would prohibit daycare centers from hiring anyone who has not been fully immunized. That bill has cleared the Senate and is being amended in the Asssembly.