The Senate Health Committee chairwoman said she feels so strongly that families deserve to be able to opt out of school vaccination requirements that it’s important to give that public policy another shot at legislative passage.
“I just think that this is such a commonsense bill. You know, for years, we’ve denied children an education,” said Senator Laura Wakim Chapman, R-Ohio, referring to families who don’t want to comply with the state’s school vaccination mandates.
“It’s fundamentally unfair when our teachers and staff don’t have to prove that they’re vaccinated; our kids who play sports from say Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Ohio, all of our surrounding states that do offer religious or philosophical exemptions, they don’t have to prove that they’re vaccinated. So our policy doesn’t make sense.”
A majority of the Senate Health Committee led by Chapman on Monday 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.
Chapman ruled during the meeting that the amendment was germane, saying they’re in the same general area of state code covering public health. She reiterated that conclusion on Tuesday.
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.
Chapman, in an interview in a Capitol hallway, noted that the final House vote took place on a Monday. The Friday before that, a majority of delegates voted to amend a version of the bill that offered only enhanced medical exemptions to include religious exemptions. Over that weekend, votes shifted.
“They had 52 votes to include religious exemptions in the bill. Something happened over the weekend, and suddenly 10 people decided to change their votes. So I do believe the will is out there.”
Referring to the Latin term marking the end of the regular session at midnight Saturday, she said, “No bill is dead until sine die at midnight on Saturday, and I do believe some people have come forward saying ‘Oh, I regret my vote, and they’re willing to change it.”
The vice chairman of the Senate Health Committee, Senator Vince Deeds, participated in the parliamentary procedure aspects of amending the bill but said he voted against it in the end.
“I’m kind of frustrated about that. You know, I feel like we chewed that cabbage already one other time. You know, we’ve already dealt with that this session, and early on in this session,” Deeds, R-Greenbrier, said on MetroNews’ “Talkline.”
Deeds added, “I see it as a bit of wasting our precious time right now where we do — we have other bigger issues that we have to take care of right now.”
Senator Tom Takubo, a pulmonologist, agreed. Takubo spoke against the amended bill in committee and repeated his position on “Talkline.”
“It’s kind of like a repetitive nightmare that you go to bed and you keep having,” said Takubo, R-Kanawha.
That bill 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.
“It’s really a philosophical exemption bill. It’s just under the guise of religion,” Takubo said.
There’s nothing in the bill that really talks about religion at all. It just says, basically, if you don’t want to take the vaccine, now they’ve said, ‘Well, you got to get it notarized and and look at some papers and stuff that tells you the risks.’ And then you still get the exemption.”
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.
“When you look at the CDC map, West Virginia looks like we have a big halo around us,” Takubo said. “You just don’t see outbreaks in every single state around us.
“Our vaccination rates are so strong, which directly correlates why you don’t see outbreaks happening here.”