Right after the Senate Health Committee chairman spoke passionately against a bill loosening vaccination requirements in some West Virginia schools, his colleagues passed the bill.
“I took an oath to do no harm,” said Senate Health Chairman Mike Maroney, a radiologist. “There’s no way I could vote for this bill.”
The bill passed the Senate on a 20-12 vote. A majority of delegates then agreed to final passage with just hours remaining in the legislative session.
House Bill 5105 removes vaccination requirements for students in virtual public schools, and it also would allow private and parochial schools to set their own standards.
But senators pulled out a provision that would have allowed parents to send in a letter citing a religious exemption to vaccination requirements.
The bill drew criticism from West Virginia medical professionals throughout its legislative consideration.
“We have seen over time that immunizations work. They are effective. They save lives,” Dr. Lisa Costello, a pediatrician at WVU Medicine Children’s Hospital, testified in the Senate Health Committee earlier this week.
Measles outbreaks have been reported in multiple states, including Florida and Ohio.
During the passage vote on the Senate floor, Maroney spoke against the bill at a moment when the committee chairman would normally be speaking in favor of passage.
“Vaccines are a victim of their own success,” he said, saying the number of preventable deaths has dropped sharply since the introduction of vaccination.
“So the generation now that is promoting this type of legislation, they didn’t have to be the moms that were scared to death where their kids went, who their kids played with. They didn’t have to fight to get in line for vaccines. Vaccines were their own worst enemy. They’ve been too good. We come close to losing herd immunity every day.”