A school vaccination exemptions bill that has been controversial this legislative session is back again.
A majority of the Senate Health Committee voted to insert the provisions of the vaccination exemptions bill into different legislation requiring the Department of Health to report positive alpha-gal tests to the CDC.
The bills have very little to do with one another. Alpha-gal syndrome is a type of food allergy. The condition usually begins with the bite of the Lone Star tick, which transfers a sugar molecule called alpha-gal into the body.
The vaccination exemptions bill was voted down 42-56 in the House of Delegates on March 24, so this was a way to bring it back.
“There’s a saying: Possums run at midnight, and we’re getting to midnight, the midnight hour of this legislative session,” said Senator Joey Garcia, D-Marion.
“And this was the first thing we do, and apparently this is going to we’re going to try to make this the last thing that we do here.”
The Alpha Gal bill is House Bill 2776. That legislation proposes changes to Chapter 16, Article 1 of state code, which has to do generally with public health.
The vaccination exemptions bill that was voted down by delegates a few weeks ago was Senate Bill 460. That bill would change Chapter 16,Article 3, which has to do with prevention and control of infectious diseases.
Garcia questioned whether smashing the two bills together is germane.
“That request is denied. It is germane,” said the committee’s chairwoman, Senator Laura Wakim Chapman, R-Ohio.
“This has to deal with disease prevention, and there is a statute on the public health systems. I don’t know if you have that candy, but if you don’t, it’s okay. But the statute itself talks about diseases, correct?”
SB 460 was introduced on behalf of Gov. Patrick Morrisey, who called for legislation allowing West Virginia families to declare religious and philosophical exemptions to the state’s school vaccination requirements.
The Senate overwhelmingly passed a version of the bill on Feb. 12, adding enhanced exemptions for medical reasons.
No one explicitly argued in favor of the policies when they were brought back up before the Senate Health Committee on Monday afternoon. The bill advanced out of the committee on a voice vote and now goes to the full Senate.
Almost all states except California, Mississippi, and West Virginia allow religious or philosophical exemptions for school vaccines, granting parents the ability to opt their children out of vaccinations based on sincerely held beliefs.
Right now, West Virginia students entering school for the first time must show proof of immunization against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, and hepatitis B unless properly medically exempted.
Senator Tom Takubo, who is also a pulmonologist, spoke in the Senate Health Committee against bringing back the exemptions bill. Takubo cited the recent outbreaks of infectious disease in areas of the country, including a recent measles death of a second child in Texas.
“I’m just not exactly sure what we’re doing here,” said Takubo, R-Kanawha. “These are preventable childhood illnesses.”
He continued, “There’s so much in today’s world that these kids have to worry about. Dying and struggling from these completely preventable childhood diseases, shouldn’t be one of them.”
He concluded, “This Legislature is is dead set on putting our kids in harm’s way.”