West Virginia House Rejects Vaccine Exemption Bill

The West Virginia House of Delegates on Monday rejected a bill that would have allowed parents to seek out religious and philosophical exemptions for school vaccinations.

The House, which is composed of 9 Democrats and 91 Republicans, voted 56-42 against the bill, meaning parents and guardians must continue to get their children vaccinated if their children attend West Virginia schools. Two lawmakers were not present or did not vote.

The bill would have mandated that public schools accept the exemptions while private and religious schools have the option to do so. The state Senate voted in favor of the bill. However, the Senate’s version of the bill would’ve mandated that all schools — including public, private and religious ones — accept the exemptions.

Regardless, the House vote blocks a January executive order from West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey (R) that would have allowed families to claim “religious or conscientious” exemptions for their school-aged children.

According to West Virginia’s News, some lawmakers celebrated the bill not passing and called on Morrisey to rescind his executive order.

“Today, members of both parties stood together to prioritize the safety and well-being of West Virginians,” said Del. Anitra Hamilton (D-Monongalia). “We’ve sent a clear message that the health of our children and communities must always come first.”

“Governor Morrissey must now immediately rescind his ill-advised, dangerous, and deadly executive order, respecting the clear voice of our constituents,” said Del. Mike Pushkin (D-Kanawha). “This administration cannot continue to put political pandering ahead of the health and safety of West Virginia families.”

Monday’s vote comes after a group of former state health officers wrote a letter warning lawmakers about “non-medical exemptions” on Friday.

Dr. Matt Christiansen, Dr. Ayne Amjad and Dr. Cathy Slemp argued the financial implications of loosening vaccine requirements, leading to an outbreak, are substantial.

“The cost of a measles outbreak is estimated at $33,000 per case (Pike, et al. 2020),” they wrote. “In West Virginia, the vast majority of these costs would fall to already strained systems ― Medicaid, PEIA, CHIP, the Bureau for Public Health and Local Health Departments. And there are broader societal costs: lost work days, childcare closings, business losses, and days out of school.”

They also added that “strong immunization laws protect our freedom to live without fear of preventable diseases.”

“They protect children with cancer, newborns too young to be vaccinated, pregnant people and the elderly. Weakening these laws will not return us to the rampant disease rates of yesteryear, but will result in some fully preventable illness, birth defects, outbreaks and, yes — on rare but devastating occasions — death,” the letter continued.

Currently, all states and Washington, D.C., allow for medical exemptions for school vaccinations, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

According to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures, 30 states and Washington, D.C. allow for exemptions for religious reasons while 13 states allow religious or personal exemptions. (Two states don’t specify whether the nonmedical exemptions can be religious or personal.) Finally, just five states, including West Virginia, don’t allow any nonmedical exemptions.

The topic of vaccinations has been a polarizing topic for many, as seen in the decline of child vaccination rates in recent years.

As such, a measles outbreak across multiple states has led to hundreds of people contracting the vaccine-preventable disease.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is notably anti-vaccine and has spread numerous false claims about vaccines, was confirmed to his role as Health and Human Services secretary earlier this year. But experts warned ahead of time that Kennedy’s anti-vaccine standpoints could lead to a public health crisis.

Then, two weeks after his confirmation, an unvaccinated 6-year-old child died after contracting the measles amid an outbreak in Texas. The child is the first person to die from the disease in over a decade.

At least one other person has died amid the outbreak this year, according to the CDC.

Kennedy has downplayed the measles outbreak, telling reporters in February that the outbreak is “not unusual” and “we have measles outbreaks every year.”

This past week, the parents of the child who died, who are anti-vaccine, said that they still hold those views.

Rep. Kim Schrier (D-Wash.), a pediatrician, slammed Kennedy for the measles outbreak and for his response to the 6-year-old’s death.

“I do blame him and others like him who, for the past 20 years, have been spreading lies about vaccines, which are safe and effective. And that has been proven time and again,” Schrier said. “This is settled science.”