Close to three out of four respondents to the most recent edition of the MetroNews West Virginia Poll support requirements for children to be vaccinated.
Seventy-one percent of respondents answered “yes” to the question “Should states require children in grades K-12 to be vaccinated against highly contagious disease before entering school?”
Seventeen percent said “no” and 12% responded “not sure.”
“It is safe to say that support for vaccinations as reasonably defined is pervasive throughout the electorate in West Virginia,” said Rex Repass, chief consultant for Research America, which conducts the West Virginia Poll.
“National polling on this question similarly worded indicate support between 70% to 80 percent.”
A closer look at the different demographics within the results showed that 74% of parents of children in grades K-12 support vaccinations requirement as defined, Repass said.
Other groups with strong support include women (75%), people older than age 55 (75%), Democrats (86%), liberals (89%), Republicans (65%). Conservative (61%), and independents 63%).
“It should be noted that the question asked in this edition of the MetroNews West Virginia Poll asked respondents to indicate if they essentially agree or disagree with the vaccination requirement as worded,” said Repass, who led the poll sponsored by the High Technology Foundation.
“We did not use a scaled response (e.g., strongly agree to strongly disagree) which would may have further defined the strength of support or opposition to vaccination requirements for school-age children.”
A debate over religious exemptions to West Virginia’s mandatory vaccination laws has been at the center of public dialogue in the state for months.
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.
Members of the state school board maintain the mandatory vaccination law should be interpreted based on its straightforward language. The House of Delegates earlier this year voted down a bill that would have added an explicit religious exemption to the vaccination law.
Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s administration and lawyers for families seeking religious exemptions to school vaccination requirements have consistently cited West Virginia’s “Equal Protection for Religion Act,” which went into law in 2023.
The policy lays out the ability of individuals who believe their religious rights have been violated to seek a claim in court. The law says no state action may burden an individual’s exercise of religion unless it’s essential to furthering a compelling governmental interest and is the least restrictive means of achieving that.
“I think that it’s important to enforce the laws that we have on the books. And I’m the governor of the state — I’m not the legislature, and when I see that the legislature takes time to show that they’re going to be respecting religious freedom, we have to make sure that that law is given meaning,” Morrisey said on MetroNews Talkline last week.
“And there are two laws that are on the books right now, and what I’ve said regularly is that we have to harmonize the meaning of those two laws.”
Most states offer religious exemptions for vaccines, with 44 states and Washington D.C. allowing them, while only six states do not: California, Connecticut, Maine, Mississippi, New York and West Virginia.
The American Academy of Pediatrics this summer reaffirmed its call for an end to nonmedical exemptions for routine childhood vaccinations.
Morrisey said a move toward religious exemptions in West Virginia “is actually bringing West Virginia into the national norm, because right now, we’re the radical outlier, one of only five states that’s trying to ignore religious freedom for our citizens.
“I think that it’s time that we’re not taking the same position as California and New York and some of the outliers. We need to respect and accommodate people’s religious beliefs. And it’s not up to the governor or the government to choose and decide which beliefs are valid and which are not.”