West Virginia

Mississippi vaccine exemption – no religion allowed

Mississippi is not exactly one of the USA’s highest ranked states for health issues. The state ranks 47th in public health. It ranks 47th in smoking. It ranks 47th in health care quality. At least it’s consistent! Other surveys put Mississippi dead last in healthcare qualitative measurements. Ironically, there’s one health care issue where the state does well – the lack of a Mississippi vaccine exemption for religion has been critical to the state having the highest vaccine uptake rate in the country.

This anomaly has got to be one of the most interesting stories in the vaccine world – the state’s vaccine uptake rates (see Note 1) for MMR (for measles, mumps and rubella), DTaP (for diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough), and varicella (chickenpox) vaccines exceed 99.4%. This number far is far beyond the level necessary for the herd effect to protect all individuals in an area. All thanks to a lack of a Mississippi vaccine exemption for religious beliefs.

The high vaccine uptake rate breaks the irony meter for one other reason – Mississippi is one of the country’s most religious states. And the fact that the state does not allow religious exemptions for vaccination of young children seems like it is out of character for the state. Mississippi is one of only three states that disallow religious exemptions to vaccines (California and West Virginia being the other two). And the Mississippi vaccine exemption rules rely upon a simple piece of jurisprudence – parental duties trump parental rights.

As a result of this important concept, Mississippi vaccine exemption rules do not allow for a religious exemption. I know, it is difficult to wrap your mind around Mississippi in this story. But let’s find out why the state has led the way on stopping religious exemptions.

France mandates vaccines – saving children from diseases

During an address to Parliament on Tuesday, Édouard Philippe, who serves as prime minister under new liberal president Emmanuel Macron, stated that starting next year, France mandates vaccines for all children. It will mandate vaccines for young children that are unanimously recommended by health authorities starting next year.

Three vaccines, for diphtheria, tetanus and poliomyelitis, are already mandatory in France. Vaccines that would become compulsory under the new law would be pertussis, measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) , hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenzae bacteria, pneumococcus and meningococcus C.

Phillipe said, in his speech, that “children are still dying of measles. In the homeland of [Louis] Pasteur that is not admissible.” Legendary scientist Pasteur is one of the founders of the field of bacteriology and invented vaccines for anthrax and rabies. Read More »France mandates vaccines – saving children from diseases

Vaccine legislation in the USA – a state by state analysis

One of the most successful pieces of vaccine legislation in recent years has been SB277 in California, which eliminated personal belief exemptions (PBE), that allowed a parent to exclude a child from immunization requirements for school based on the parent’s personal beliefs, including religious objections. These PBEs had been used and abused by anti-vaccine parents to exempt their school-aged children from most, if not all, vaccines.

Other than California, only West Virginia and Mississippi have such strict prohibitions on these PBEs that they are effectively not allowed as a method to refuse vaccines before a child enters school. But many other states are considering vaccine legislation that could improve vaccine uptake. Unfortunately, there are also states on the other side of the equation that are considering laws that reduce restrictions on personal belief exemptions.

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), which seems to conflate “information” with misinformation about vaccines, claims that there are 134 vaccine bills being considered in 35 states. I wish!

I thought we would could take a look at current vaccine legislation being considered by various states that could potentially increase vaccine uptake in those states. Then we’ll take a look at those states pushing legislation that might decrease vaccine uptake. This should provide real information about what’s going on with these laws, instead of the alternative facts from the vaccine deniers at NVIC.

California SB277 expected to drop vaccine preventable disease rates

California SB277 makes immunization mandatory for children attending schools in the state by removing personal belief exemptions for vaccination. These personal belief exemptions were abused by parents in pockets of California, causing immunization rates in some communities to fall precipitously. California SB277… Read More »California SB277 expected to drop vaccine preventable disease rates

Update: Gov. Brown signs California vaccine exemption bill

The California vaccine exemption bill – SB 277, which essentially eliminates all vaccine personal belief exemptions for children to be vaccines prior to attending schools in the state – was signed into law today by Governor Jerry Brown (D). The SB 277 vaccine exemption bill… Read More »Update: Gov. Brown signs California vaccine exemption bill

Easy vaccine exemption rules lead to lower vaccination rates–shocking

Recently, there have been a few peer-reviewed articles published analyzing the effects of non-medical vaccines exemptions. There are usually two types of non-medical exemptions, philosophical, where the parents just don’t like vaccines because they’ve bought into the pseudoscience of vaccine denialism, or religious, where they use the cover of fake religions (only one tiny mainstream religion is opposed to vaccinations) to deny the huge health benefits of vaccinating their children. I reviewed one article that described that as a result of these exemptions, rates have increased quickly in whooping cough infections, is non-trivial disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pertussis (whooping cough) can cause serious illness in infants, children and adults. The disease usually starts with cold-like symptoms and maybe a mild cough or fever. After 1 to 2 weeks, severe coughing can begin. Unlike the common cold, pertussis can become a series of coughing fits that continues for weeks. In infants, the cough can be minimal or not even there. Infants may have a symptom known as “apnea.” Apnea is a pause in the child’s breathing pattern. Pertussis is most dangerous for babies. More than half of infants younger than 1 year of age who get the disease must be hospitalized. Approximately 1-2% of infants who are hospitalized from pertussis will die.

Inconvenience (that is, the parents can’t be bothered to get their children immunized), bogus religious beliefs, and increased concerns, based on little actual evidence, about the risks of vaccination, are leading more US parents to refuse to vaccinate their children. A recent article, which investigated the rates of vaccination by state (while analyzing the ease of obtaining non-medical exemptions), showed that parents are increasingly able to refuse vaccination in states that have relatively simple procedures for immunization exemption. Some states, fearing a public health crisis, have responded by putting in place more burdensome procedures for parents of school-aged children to opt-out.Read More »Easy vaccine exemption rules lead to lower vaccination rates–shocking

West Virginia occasionally gets it right

West Virginia isn’t frequently lumped together with the more progressive states in the country. But sometimes, there are surprises.

I admit that I keep up with all kinds of news articles dealing with vaccines and vaccinations; especially since the new health care reform tax credit was enacted. I read about new vaccines in development. I read about new vaccine technologies that might prevent autoimmune diseases, like Type 1 diabetes. And I read articles about vaccinations from community newspapers, like this story in a local West Virginia newspaper, where I’m reminded of how advanced West Virginia is, at least with respect to vaccines:

Beginning last year, and continuing every year after, older students entering the seventh and twelfth grade will have shot requirements that must be met before the start of the school year.

Seventh and twelfth grade students will not be allowed to attend school this fall without proof of these immunizations. It is important that once you receive the vaccines and the providers update your immunization record, that the school nurse is sent a copy of the vaccines for their records.

The Mason County Health Department recently sent out a reminder that seventh grade students must show proof of a booster dose of Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis) vaccine and one dose of meningococcal/meningitis vaccine. Twelfth grade students also must show proof of a dose of Tdap (ususally obtained at age 11-12 years) plus at least one dose of meningococcal/meningitis vaccine after the age of 16 years. If the student received a meningococcal vaccine prior to the age of 16, a second meningococcal vaccine will be required for the twelfth grade.Read More »West Virginia occasionally gets it right

West Virginia tough on vaccine exemptions

by Michael Simpson
2019-08-24
26 Comments
Anti-vaccines, Infectious disease, Religion, Vaccines

The state of West Virginia (WV) has one of the toughest child vaccination regulations in the United States, not allowing any religious exemptions to vaccinations required before attending school. Only Mississippi has regulations this strict for allowable exemptions. Of course, as I have written, religious exemptions have been abused by vaccine deniers by creating “fake” religions so that parents’ antivaccination beliefs will be recognized by the state. In fact, only medical exemptions are accepted by the state (pdf), and their standards on who can meet the medical exemption are quite tough.

Vermont Senate passes bill to end philosophical exemptions from vaccinations

The Vermont Senate just passed a bill that will end the so-called “philosophical exemption” from requirements for students to receive vaccines before attending public schools. This exemption is used by the anti-vaccine lunatics to allow their children to attend schools without having the standard courses of vaccinations. Of course, these philosophical objections are almost always based on pseudoscientific beliefs rather than evidence.Read More »Vermont Senate passes bill to end philosophical exemptions from vaccinations

Seven states mulling legislation to skip mandatory immunizations

In a report in Vaccine NewsDaily, seven states mulling legislation to skip mandatory immunizations, which would allow parents a “philosophical exemption” to mandatory vaccinations. In other words, this legislation would allow parents who listen to the anti-vaccination lunatics to refuse vaccines that prevent harm to their children, but worse yet harm to others who may not be immune to these infections.

[pullquote]measles cases in the nonexempt population increases significantly when exposed to an exemptor group[/pullquote]Read More »Seven states mulling legislation to skip mandatory immunizations