We recently wrote about a bill, (SB 277) which is up for approval in the California legislature. The law, if passed would require that children be vaccinated in order to attend school.
The state Judiciary Committee has approved the bill, meaning that they found it to have a legal basis. The next step in the process is garnering the approval of the Appropriations Committee, and if that is successful the bill will move on to the full State Senate for a vote. (Of course, if that happens, the bill would have to then be approved by the Assembly and signed into law by the Governor)
SB 277 would eliminate religious exemptions as a basis for parents opting out of vaccinating their children an exemption that all but two other states still allow. The bill has been amended since its inception to include only the ten vaccines that California currently requires for children who do not have exemptions, but would not apply to any new vaccines.
ACSH s Dr. Ruth Kava commented We at ACSH are, and have always been decidedly in favor of this bill. Vaccines are a true public health miracle, and allowing children to be exempted from receiving them for non-medical reasons is a throwback to the nineteenth century and before, when there was no protection against these infections. Parents should not be allowed to put others at risk for religious or personal beliefs. In reference to this, ACSH friend, Dr. Paul Offit, who eliminated exemptions at his hospital the Children s Hospital of Philadelphia always asks, Where in the Old Testament, New Testament or Qu'ran does it say you shouldn't be vaccinated?