Religious exemption added to vaccine requirements | News, Sports, Jobs – The Inter-Mountain

Photo Courtesy/WV Legislative Photography Del. Bob Fehrenbacher reads reports proving the success of vaccination efforts in his floor speech opposing a bill loosening school vaccine requirements and allowing religious exemptions.

CHARLESTON The West Virginia House of Delegates passed an update to public and private school vaccination requirements to allow for religious exemptions after a passionate debate about the merits of immunizations.

House Bill 5105, eliminating the vaccine requirements for public virtual schools, passed the House in a 57-41 vote after nearly two hours of discussion. The bill now heads to the state Senate.

HB 5105 would eliminate vaccine requirements for school students for those participating in one of the two statewide virtual public schools or future county-level virtual public charter schools except when those students are participating in activities supervised by the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission.

The House Judiciary Committee amended HB 5105 last week to expand vaccine exemptions to students attending private or parochial schools in the state. And after lengthy debate Friday, the House adopted an amendment from Del. Todd Kirby, R-Raleigh, to create a religious exemption for all vaccines in public and private schools as long as a parent or guardian presents a letter stating the reasons for the religious exemption request.

The stated reason to require most vaccinations of children for public safety which can only be achieved through herd immunity is disingenuous, illogical, and ultimately contrary to what we claim to be most important, said Del. Laura Kimble, R-Harrison, the lead sponsor of the bill. How we arrived to the point we can defend freedom in so many other contexts but unable to defend it in the face of mandatory vaccinations is a question we should all be asking ourselves.

State Code requires children attending school in West Virginia to show proof of immunization for diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, and hepatitis B unless proof of a medical exemption can be shown. West Virginia does not provide a religious exemption.

These diseases, other than polio, are still prevalent in this world, said Del. Bob Fehrenbacher, R-Wood. Without knowing what percentage of the children are not going to be vaccinated, I think the prudent thing that is going to influence my vote and the vote is going to be no is to safeguard other children in this state.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 15 states offer what they call philosophical exemptions to immunization requirements. Ohio and Pennsylvania allow for personal belief exemptions, while Kentucky, Virginia, and Maryland allow for religious exemptions. West Virginias vaccine requirements are considered to be some of the most robust in the nation.

Del. J.B. Akers, R-Kanawha, said he supported the amendment Friday adding a religious exemption for vaccine requirements. But he said he would vote against the bill due to an unintended loophole that would require vaccines for students participating in WVSSAC activities but not for students participating in West Virginia Christian Athletic Association activities. Student-athletes in public and Christians schools in the state often compete.

I think we are potentially creating an equal protection problem among schools, because we will have a situation where if a parent can afford to send their child to a private or parochial school, they will not have to be immunized, Akers said. Ive seen no states that allow exemptions based upon whether you can afford to send your child to private school, but Ive seen where private schools can be forced to immunize if they dont want to.

House Minority Leader Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, also raised issues with requiring students participating in WVSSAC activities to be immunized but not requiring students participating in secondary school sports from private or Christian schools to be immunized.

They will play each other, Hornbuckle said. If theyre not vaccinated, theyre still going to spread it to the kids who members of the WVSSAC. This is an incomplete piece of legislation.

There have been several attempts by some Republican lawmakers since taking the majority in the Legislature in 2015 to introduce bills to weaken or eliminate vaccine requirements for school-age children, though most of these bills never make it through the 60-day legislative session. But since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the nation in March 2020 and COVID vaccine came available at the end of 2020, some GOP lawmakers across the country have upped the rhetoric against vaccines.

Freedom is scary to those who are used to being subservient, said Del. Eric Brooks, R-Raleigh. This goes to the root of who we are and what we say we believe.

You have the opportunity to actually make history for the State of West Virginia, said Del. Todd Kirby, R-Raleigh. I would submit to this body to ignore the scare tactics and the fearmongering because you will have the same number of unvaccinated kids under this bill when it goes into effect than the year before this bill goes into effect.

Some of the rhetoric appears to be having an effect on national vaccination rates. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, there was a decline in vaccinations for measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) among kindergarteners, from a 95% vaccination rate in 2019-2020 to a 93% vaccination rate during the 2021-2022 school year. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control sent out notices earlier this year warning about measles outbreaks, including in Florida.

Were number one in childhood immunizations, Hornbuckle said. That should be very important to us. We shouldnt chip away at that. I would suggest to you if youd like to indulge yourself to a race to the bottom not be number one, Id suggest you buy a red cap and put on it Make Measles Great Again.'

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Religious exemption added to vaccine requirements | News, Sports, Jobs - The Inter-Mountain