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Vaccine advocates urge veto of West Virginia bill weakening school immunizations

AFT-WV President Fred Albert, left, talks with former Glenville State College President Williams Simmons following Wednesday’s West Virginia Board of Education meeting urging board members to contact Gov. Jim Justice and encourage him to veto a bill weakening immunization requirements in public and private schools. (Photo by Steven Allen Adams)

CHARLESTON — Representatives of the state’s public school teachers and public health professionals are urging Gov. Jim Justice to veto a bill they see as a slippery slope to undoing West Virginia’s successful child immunization program.

Supporters of the state’s school vaccine program are urging a veto of House Bill 5105, eliminating the vaccine requirements for public virtual schools. The bill made it over the midnight Saturday deadline bringing the 60-day legislative session to a close last week.

The bill would eliminate vaccine requirements for school students for those participating in one of the two statewide virtual public schools or future county-level virtual public charter schools except when those students are participating in activities supervised by the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission.

HB 5105 would continue to require immunizations for virtual school students if they are also participating in in-person school programs. It also expands vaccine exemptions to students attending private or parochial schools in the state, while allowing those schools to set their own vaccination requirements.

State Code requires children attending school in West Virginia to show proof of immunization for diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, and hepatitis B unless proof of a medical exemption can be shown. West Virginia only provides for a medical exemption to immunizations.

Fred Albert is president of the West Virginia chapter of the American Federation of Teachers which is merging with the West Virginia Education Association, making the combined union organization the voice of teachers in the state. Speaking Wednesday to members of the West Virginia Board of Education, Albert urged board members to contact Justice and encourage him to veto the bill.

“I’m all for people having freedom and choice. That is the American way of life. But when someone else’s freedom then infringes upon the safety of others, then I think we have a real concern,” Albert said. “Why would we want to go back to the days of measles and mumps, rubella, chicken pox, and polio?”

The version of the bill passed by the House – which passed 57-41 – allowed for a religious exemption for all vaccines in public and private schools as long as a parent or guardian presents a letter stating the reasons for the religious exemption request. The Senate Health and Human Resources Committee removed the religious exemption requirement.

“While it ended up being a little better than it could have been, I’m very disappointed in the fact that in the Senate Health Committee, a group of healthcare workers spoke and practically begged the senators to not pass this bill,” Albert said.

One of those physicians who spoke out against the bill in the Senate Health Committee was Dr. Steven Eshenaur, the health officer for the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department. In a statement Monday, Eshenaur also called on the governor to veto the bill.

“We all know how much Gov. Justice and his wife Cathy adore children,” Eshenaur said. “If Gov. Justice signs this bill into law, he will join the Legislature in turning the clock back nearly 100 years in immunization protection for our children. I pray he vetoes HB 5105. Let’s all pray he does.”

The committee’s chairman – state Sen. Mike Maroney, R-Marshall – is a radiologist who spoke out against the bill even as his own committee recommended it for passage. Both Maroney and Senate Majority Leader (and pulmonologist) Tom Takubo, R-Kanawha, spoke out against the bill on the Senate floor Saturday night, but the bill passed 20-12.

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com

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