California Vaccination SB 277

In 1971, small pox legislation was annulled in UK2. Childhood vaccination is no longer compulsory in UK since 20042. In USA the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended an immunization schedule which is a non mandatory one. Most states in USA has adopted this policy and require the children to be vaccinated in order to attend day care centers and public schools in which case vaccination becomes mandatory.2 Exemptions are allowed for medical reasons whereas it is limited for religious and philosophical reasons in 20 US states3.

Currently, all fifty U.S. states offer a medical exemption from vaccinations. This means that someone could be exempt from receiving one or all of the vaccines based on medical necessity. For example, those who have compromised or weakened immune systems should be able to get a medical exemption. These exemptions require permission from a medical physician and getting them is difficult as most doctors in the mainstream medical community support and encourage vaccinations. There are two other types of exemptions – religious and philosophical. As of October 2016, three states – California, West Virginia, and Mississippi do not offer either of these. They are medical exemption states only. Of the remaining states, 32 of them offer medical and religious exemptions. Only the remaining 18 states offer all three exemptions. These numbers are decreasing as more and

The reason for making this law in the United States is because of the serious outbreaks that still happen in schools. When this happens, some students are not able to go to school and are not getting the important education they need. An elementary school in Denver, Colorado had a chickenpox outbreak, just recently, that came from children who were not vaccinated being at school. The school allowed the children not to be vaccinated because the parents of the children didn’t want them to be. The school said there was two unvaccinated children in the school that were experiencing symptoms of chickenpox. (Kovaleski, 2016). Because of this, the school, along with some health officials told the parents of the unvaccinated children, who are also at the school, that their children should not go to school so they did not get exposed to the chickenpox. The children that were vaccinated were able to stay in school. The parents chose not to get their children vaccinated because of religious reasons. So because of this, these unvaccinated children were not at school for about twenty-one days. The chickenpox vaccine, varicella, is 99% effective at preventing the chickenpox infection in children (Kovaleski,2016). The parents of these children knew this but chose to ignore it. With the vaccination requirement law put in place, chickenpox outbreaks would not be an issue because the children that were not vaccinated would not be going to school. The fact is, if a child is not vaccinated they

The state of Florida has a selection of laws in place regulating vaccinations and vaccination exemptions, but what drives them? Vaccines against meningococcal meningitis and hepatitis are mandatory for enrollment in the K-20 public education system. An individual enrolled in any postsecondary institution who will be residing in on campus housing must provide documentation of these vaccinations. A majority of parents argue that its unethical to force someone else’s child to be immunized, in any situation. There is a request that can be made for religious requirements, and must be presented to the facility or school on the Department of Health’s Religious Exemption from Immunization form -DH 681 Form-. The DH 681 Form is issued by county health departments and is only for a child who is not immunized because of their family’s religious practices. (nvic.org) The vast majority of parents are so strongly opinionated on whether vaccinations will positively or negatively impact their children, but no one takes into consideration the parents who differ in opinions themselves.

According to the Center’s of Disease Control and Prevention (2012), there are no federal requirements for childhood immunizations. While the CDC (2012) provides recommendations, each state sets their own rules and exemptions for schools and childcare attendance. On June 30, 2015, Governor Jerry Brown of California made history by eliminating the exemption from immunizations due to personal beliefs for children in public or private schools; however, medical exemptions initiated by a DO or MD will still be allowed (Royce, 2015; California Department of Public Health, 2015a). In 2013-2014, there were nearly 17000 personal belief vaccination exemptions in California (Almasy, 2015). Throughout the history of vaccinations very strong opinions for or against immunizations have existed,

On June 30, 2015, California governor Jerry Brown signed the new version of Senate Bill 277, which eliminated California 's personal belief exemption. These laws create a very low bar for parents to obtain an exemption. Often they simply have to check a box stating they don’t want to vaccinate their children, and that is sufficient. States with personal belief exemptions have 2.5 times the vaccine refusal rate as states with religious exemptions only. Essentially, the easier it is to obtain a vaccine exemption, the lower the vaccination rate. Personal belief exemption rates have gone up dramatically since 1994. During a survey done by Alexander Capron for his medical journal, “Personal Beliefs Exemption from Mandatory Immunization of Children for School Entry”, in 1994, schools on average had 0.6% of kindergarten students claiming personal belief exemptions; by 2009, the number was 2.3%. By the 2013–2014 school year, schools, on average, had 3.15% of kindergarten students claiming personal belief exemptions. While these percentages may seem low, they are not evenly distributed: Some communities have much higher rates, and a recent research paper demonstrated that those communities were most vulnerable to outbreaks.

In June of 2015, a law known as SB 277 was passed. This law was to ensure that children attending school, private or public, were to be vaccinated before attending. The ultimate goal is “to boost vaccination rates by ending personal exemptions”( Whitman). The bill was first prompted following the huge measles outbreak that happened in late of 2014. The outbreak was “linked to the Disneyland Resort Theme Parks in California [where] the outbreak quickly became a multi-state public health incident that resulted in a total of 147 cases” (Year in Review). The idea of requiring vaccination arose once it was found “the majority of patients were unvaccinated or had an unknown or undocumented vaccination status.” They continued to push the idea of required

I am passionate about this issues. I have worked as an immunization nurse for several years in the state of Maryland. In Maryland there are strict requirements for vaccinating children for school entry. I worked for Prince George’s County and Baltimore County Health Department. In the state of Maryland many children each year are out compliance and therefore are not allowed to attend school until the requirements are satisfied.

Florida needs to act. In the 29ᵗʰ of September 2015, California passed California Senate Bill 277 which states the “bill would eliminate the exemption from existing specified immunization requirements based upon personal beliefs, but would allow exemption from future immunization requirements deemed appropriate by the State Department of Public Health for either medical reasons or personal beliefs” (CSB 277). Florida should not eliminate the personal and religious exemptions of vaccine use, instead, the state should restructure the vaccination system. By offering few mandatory vaccines (agreed upon by all parental, medical and political communities) that are both safe and effective for the wellbeing of the country's young population. Also

In regards to the vaccines currently recommended by the state public health department for entry into public schools, California should enforce these vaccinations by law. However, there may be a few exemptions including religious and medical reasons. If the doctor deems the individual not physically able to withstand the vaccination due to allergies or some other medical reason, then the individual may be excused from receiving the vaccination. It will cause severe symptoms and other health problems to that individual getting the vaccination. Also, if the person’s religion is against receiving medical treatment, then he or she may be exempted because the United States represents religious

In the 1850s the first school vaccination requirement were enacted to prevent smallpox. Federal and state efforts to eradicate measles in the 1960s and 1970s motivated many to mandate policies. By the 1990s, all 50 states requirement for children to be enrolled in school must receive certain immunizations and if these requirements were not met than children were not allowed to be enrolled in school (Center for Disease Control Prevention, 2010). For example, in the state of California, private public school or daycare cannot admit children unless vaccinations were received for all ten of the diseases. If the California Department of Public Health implements a requirement for vaccination parent can be allowed to obtain personal belief exemptions that would allow parents to opt out of vaccination for their children if form is filled out by healthcare professional that states vaccinations were countered to personal beliefs. This law has not been implemented as of yet but should be in 2016. The healthcare of policy decision in laws can have an influence on individuals based on the decision that are made. Health care policy and issues can affect providers and patients in many different ways. Stakeholders’ in the policymakers for vaccination main concern is the safety and health of children so the implement exemptions of laws from concern about vaccine

In December of 2014, an outbreak of measles, which started in Disneyland, resulted in nearly two hundred people being sickened across the United States, Mexico, and Canada. The highly contagious respiratory disease spread for three months. Among those who contracted the illness, one developed severe pneumonia and multiple organ injury, while another suffered acute respiratory distress syndrome. So, why did an illness, which was purportedly eliminated sixteen years ago, experience a surge so dramatic that it caused more cases in 2014 than in the five preceding years combined? According to the CDC, the outbreak could be boiled down to one simple reason: “The majority of people were unvaccinated.” So while the California measles outbreak is a thing of the past, the fight to increase compliance with vaccinations continues. Although the benefits and safety of vaccinations are undisputed by the medical and scientific community, there are still sizeable groups of “anti-vaxxers” who refuse to vaccinate their children. These groups spread misconceptions, sometimes unknowingly, and become even more influential when coupled with the power of the internet and social media. Therefore, in order to increase compliance with routine vaccinations, the misconceptions of parents should be targeted, and legislation should be changed in order to prevent leniency and loopholes regarding vaccine exemptions.

Likewise, some people should not receive vaccinations. These individuals should not receive vaccinations due to their age, health conditions, among other factors. These other conditions are independent depending on the type of vaccination received. “They can range from an individual who cannot swallow, to a pregnant woman, to a person with a life-threatening allergy, to a component in the vaccination” (Hales 543). A small percentage of individuals do not respond to a particular vaccine. ”All states provide medical exemptions, and some state laws also offer exemptions for religious and philosophical reasons” (State Vaccination Requirements). “Some religions even prevent certain parents from vaccinating their children because of their belief that the disease is a naturally occurring thing and humans have no right interfering with it” (Hales 544). However, most state laws establish vaccination requirements for school children. These laws apply to public schools, private schools, and day care centers. “State laws also establish mechanisms for enforcement of school vaccination requirements” (State Vaccination Requirement). “Vaccines save

Immunization via vaccines has been a hot topic of debate in recent years. As with many issues advocates for and against vaccines can be found. The problem that has been identified is that Nevada is one of many states in the country that is considered to be more lenient on vaccination requirements for school aged children. The Nevada school system will take medical and religious exemptions when it comes to vaccinations. All fifty states and the District of Columbia grant medical exemptions to immunization requirements (Blank, Caplan, & Constable, 2013). While medical exemptions are a rational reason as to why children cannot receive certain vaccines the question that is being asked is: whether or not religious exemptions are a good enough reason to not have a child vaccinated? These exemptions can cause an increase in acquiring and

According to the History of Vaccinations currently, “Forty-eight states allow exemptions to vaccination for religious reasons” ( par. 10). Some states statutes indicate that to receive a religious exemption, a family must belong to a religious group with bonafide objections to