California Set to Mandate Childhood Vaccines Amid Intense Fight

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Schoolchildren in California would be required to be vaccinated unless there is a medical reason not to do so under a sweeping bill approved by the State Assembly on Thursday. The measure would end exemptions for personal or religious reasons, routinely requested by parents opposed to vaccines.

The legislation would make California the largest state by far with such requirements for childhood vaccinations as it joins West Virginia and Mississippi, which have had similar laws for years.

Public health officials hope other states will follow California’s lead, though similar measures in some legislatures have been defeated this year.

“We hope and expect we will be a model to get us back to where we should be, which is that cases of measles and other preventable diseases do not need to be something we live with,” said State Senator Richard Pan, a pediatrician who wrote the bill.

Despite overwhelming evidence that vaccines are an essential public health measure, the number of unvaccinated children in California has been rising, partly because personal or religious exemptions have been easy to obtain. Parents who decline vaccines for their children and take heart from the fact that most other children are protected have helped create pockets in particular schools and communities where the overall immunity level is dangerously low, doctors say.

We cannot accept this as the new normal,” Mr. Pan said, adding that the legislation “ensures we will protect all children.”

The measure has been one of the most closely watched and divisive in the State Capitol this year, with weeks of emotional debates and hundreds of families who oppose vaccines filling the halls, together with their children. The State Senate approved the bill earlier this year, but will need to vote again to include subsequent amendments


More here: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/26/us/california-vaccines-religious-and-personal-exemptions.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0