When the 2015 legislative session started, House leaders had no interest in poking what they thought was a sleeping giant of an issue — childhood vaccinations.
But the giant refused to remain asleep. So, next week — just as the session is wrapping up for the year — the House will have that difficult debate.
“It was not a priority of the House, but it’s here,” House Speaker Shap Smith said Friday.
The issue is here because the Senate voted relatively late last month to remove the philosophical exemption that allows parents to opt out of vaccinations for their children. Senators attached the measure to a House bill that deals with other health records. From the House’s perspective, it appears more expedient to tackle the issue this year than to delay it until next year.
And while the House defeated a similar measure three years ago, sentiment has shifted. “Some people who were noes then are clearly yeses now,” said Rep. George Till (D-Jericho), the House’s only medical doctor, who strongly supports removing the exemption.
Among those who’ve changed their minds: House Health Care committee chair Bill Lippert (D-Hinesburg). He went from voting to keep the exemption three years ago to being on the fence to now leaning toward removing the exemption.
“We need to find ways to increase the level of vaccinations in Vermont,” Lippert said Friday after his committee took three days of emotional testimony on the matter. Lippert said he’s received a flood of emails and phone calls from people on both sides of the deeply divisive issue.
His committee has called a public hearing for 5:30-7:30 p.m. Monday at the Statehouse. The full House will likely vote on the issue Tuesday or possibly Wednesday, Lippert said.
The outcome is anybody’s guess, said House Majority Leader Sarah Copeland Hanzas (D-Bradford). “There’s a chance it could fail,” she said, noting that Democrats won’t urge members to vote one way or another.
Hanzas is personally wary of removing the exemption, arguing that education is a more effective way to increase vaccinations. She fears removing the exemption would alienate some parents. Smith, on the other hand, supports removing the exemption.
A report released this week indicates that efforts to educate parents, which legislators approved three years ago, aren’t working to persuade more to vaccinate their children.
The percentage of parents opting for exemptions or receiving provisional admittance to school for their children without vaccinations rose from 5.4 percent in 2011-12 to 6.1 percent in 2013-14, according to a report released this week by the Vermont Health Department. Vermont is among 20 states that allow philosophical exemptions. Forty-eight states, including Vermont, also allow religious exemptions.
Lippert’s committee fielded a firestorm of emotional testimony this week, including a celebrity visit from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who argued that the government can’t be trusted to protect people from greedy pharmaceutical companies. The committee also heard from those who said keeping the philosophical exemption could kill their kids and others who said forcing their kids to get vaccinations could kill them.
Lippert said he expects that if the House votes to remove the exemption, it might delay the effective date for a year.
There may be alternatives. Rep. Anne Donahue (R-Northfield), a member of the House Health Care Committee, is proposing stricter rules for parents who want to choose a philosophical exemption. Under her plan, parents would have to sign a notarized affidavit affirming they have had an in-person consultation with a doctor about vaccinations and are seeking alternative medical treatment. Under a law passed in 2012, parents now have to sign a form saying they have reviewed materials about vaccinations to be eligible for the philosophical exemption.
“I am convinced from the testimony that it’s essential we increase the rate of vaccinations,” Donahue said.
State Health Commissioner Harry Chen said this week that he supports removing the philosophical exemption and would like legislators to act on it this year.
His boss, Gov. Peter Shumlin, is less eager. Shumlin said Friday he’d prefer to let educational efforts continue. But he said he doesn’t buy the notion that vaccinations are dangerous. He met with Kennedy when he visited, but said, “No, I did not tell RFK he’s full of hooey.”
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
Paul Jones – Mexico to Vermont – A vaccination is a vaccination. Does not matter where the vaccination was given to the child. But to have 31 out of 52 children that were vaccinated have a side affect, that is not to be ignored.
Go ahead and vaccinate your children, but do not force your demands on mine
@ FreedomToEmbarrassYourself:
The legislator you accused of taking a bribe from “Big Pharma,” Rep. Lippert, just voted AGAINST eliminating the philosophical exemption.
Any other foolish declarations you’d like to make?
“Answer my question that you evaded in your snide reply first.”
Let’s see. In the very first post on this thread, you made an accusation of bribery. You were challenged on it and you’ve refused to support it. Now you’re attempting to cover, with schoolyard games about me answering a different question first. Really nice work there, fella.
But, now, even indulging you in your own silly game, Mr. Jones has in fact answered your question as to why we need to increase the vaccination rate, and you respond by accusing him of “not understanding” your question. No, he understood your question, and answered it. You just don’t like the answer and have no response. Grow up.
@ Freedom, This ain’t rocket science, ace. This is public health and epidemiology. As well as immunology.
Apparently you have a reading comprehension problem.
Impact of anti-vaccine movements on pertussis control: the
untold story
E J Gangarosa, A M Galazka, C R Wolfe, L M Phillips, R E Gangarosa, E Miller, R T Chen
Vaccine
journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/vaccine
A postmodern Pandora’s box: Anti-vaccination misinformation on the Internet
Anna Kata∗
Department of Anthropology, Chester New Hall, McMaster University, 1280 Main St. W, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4L8, Canada
@ Paul Jones
You apparently don’t understand the question.
“Mr. Lippert, why do we need to increase the vaccination rate? Show me where the need for this bill stems from. How many have suffered from the illness that can be directly tied to a lack of vaccination? Don’t give me a bunch of imaginary what if scenarios & scare tactics about what might happen, I want facts, historical data showing a need for this change, other than the lining of certain politicians pockets by big pharma.”
@Freedom,
Ummm, errr, ahhh, let’s see, that’s a tough one.
BMC Public Health. 2015 May 1;15(1):447. [Epub ahead of print]
The role of vaccination coverage, individual behaviors, and the public health response in the control of measles epidemics: an agent-based simulation for California.
Liu F1, Enanoria WT2, Zipprich J3, Blumberg S4, Harriman K5, Ackley SF6, Wheaton WD7, Allpress JL8, Porco TC9,10,11.
Go read Prevention Magazine and get back to me.
knowyourassumptions – I hesitate to reply and make think your half literate opinion is even relevant, but I’ll tell ya what; Answer my question that you evaded in your snide reply first.
“why do we need to increase the vaccination rate? Show me where the need for this bill stems from. How many have suffered from the illness that can be directly tied to a lack of vaccination?”
Huh, Mexico——-Vermont? I love pseudo-science.
Mexican health officials are investigating after two babies died and 29 children were hospitalized from suspected adverse reactions to shots from the country’s national vaccination program.
Six of the children hospitalized in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas remain in serious condition, the Mexican Social Security Institute said on Sunday.
The parents of the two infants who died were so outraged at the government that they refused to let authorities perform autopsies, CNNMexico reported.
The illnesses were reported after 52 children from the rural mining community of La Pimienta were given vaccines Friday for tuberculosis, rotavirus and Hepatitis B.
So 31 out of 52 children had adverse reactions or died after being vaccinated. To all you who are for vaccines, line up and come get your shot!
Still waiting for the evidence for FreedomToThink’s accusation that any legislator in Vermont has had his or her “pockets lined by Big Pharma.”
Still waiting for Waddick to cite any peer-reviewed studies that support the proposition that “vaccination adds to the heavy burden that today’s children bear . . .” Still waiting for her to cite any such studies that demonstrate that vaccinations adversely add to or adversely interact with things in the environment and specifically cause harm to children. Still waiting for her to cite any such studies that children are in any way harmed by “genetically modified ingredients.”