Doctors Jennifer K. Gerlach and Jacob Kilgore with Marshall Health told members of the state Senate Health Committee about the benefits of childhood immunizations. (Photo courtesy of WV Legislative Photography)

CHARLESTON — Following up on an executive order issued last month by Gov. Patrick Morrisey, the state Senate Health Committee sent a bill to the full West Virginia Senate weakening immunization requirements for all school-age children in the state.

The Senate Health Committee recommended Thursday evening a committee substitute for Senate Bill 460, relating to vaccine requirements, to the full Senate for consideration. The bill was introduced on behalf of the Governor’s Office.

SB 460, as introduced, would have allowed parents and guardians to object to the requirements of the state’s program for compulsory immunization of public and private school children by citing a religious or philosophical belief. It would have required the parent or guardian to submit a written statement annually of their religious or philosophical objection to one or more of the required vaccines to the state health officer.

The amended bill instead allows the parent or guardian to present a written statement to the administrator of the child’s school or operator of a state-regulated child care center that the mandatory vaccination requirements cannot be met because it conflicts with the religious or philosophical beliefs of the parent, legal guardian or emancipated child.

Children who are exempt from immunizations could not be prohibited from participating in extracurricular activities or attending school events. The committee substitute allows the parent or guardian to file civil suits against schools that engage in discrimination against a child due to their immunization status.

Hallie Davis recounted her experiences in Wood County fighting immunization requirements during a debate on a bill to allow for religious and philosophical objections to school-age vaccine requirements. (Photo courtesy of WV Legislative Photography)

The bill updates medical exemptions to immunizations, permitting a child to be exempt when a physician, physician assistant or nurse practitioner provides a written statement to the school administrator or child care center stating that the specific immunizations could be detrimental to the child’s health or inappropriate. It exempts students attending statewide or county-based virtual schools from immunizations.

It also requires public, private and religious schools to maintain records on the number of students exempt from vaccinations, the percentage of unvaccinated students and make the reports available online.

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 narrow medical exemption to immunizations.

Morrisey signed an executive order last month citing the 2023 Equal Protection for Religion Act to allow for religious and conscientious objections to the state’s school vaccination mandates. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 20 states and Washington, D.C., allow immunization exemptions for religious reasons, while 13 states allow exemptions for both religious and personal reasons.

“…Other states have this. They have freedom,” said state Sen. Mike Azinger, R-Wood. “There’s not medical chaos going on in these other … states. We’re just asking for our First Amendment constitutional right to conscience.”

According to the West Virginia Immunization Network through the Center for Rural Health Development, West Virginia has one of the highest immunization rates in the nation for kindergarteners, ranging from between 92% and 98%, depending on the vaccine. Supporters of childhood immunization credit the state’s high MMR vaccine rate to the state not seeing a measles outbreak since 1994. The last case of measles in West Virginia was 2009.

“I think religious exemption is something … that we should honor. I think most medical professionals do,” said state Sen. Tom Takubo, R-Kanawha, who works as a pulmonologist and a vice president at WVU Medicine. “My concern is when I talk to pediatric colleagues from all over the state, they’ll all share experiences where children are showing up at the age of 5 that haven’t seen a doctor in years since they left the hospital. We have a very rural population that doesn’t take health care seriously, including their children.”

The committee heard testimony Thursday from several medical professionals opposed to reducing vaccine requirements for school children.

“The child care and school entry immunizations prevent some of the most severe, the most contagious and the most life-altering diseases that I’m able to describe and manage,” said Dr. Matthew Thomas, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at WVU Children’s Hospital and the director of the Infection Prevention Program.

“Polio, pertussis, and measles, and others, cause long-lasting effects and disability,” Thomas continued. “Few of us here have had to look a parent in the eyes and talk to them about the lifelong disability that their child will have as a result of a vaccine preventable illness, let alone have that discussion about their subsequent death. I have had to do this and it is one of the worst experiences of my life.”

“The impact of a change in this piece of legislation will mean that there are decreased immunization rates, and it will open the door for children to contract these illnesses,” said Dr. Jennifer K. Gerlach, an associate professor at the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine.

“Immunizations help safely save lives,” said Dr. Jacob Kilgore who also teaches at the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine. “This occurs through disease immunity, weakened disease severity, and those who unfortunately get infected, the limitation of disease spread and the creation of a safety net for those most vulnerable to disease who cannot be immunized.”

Proponents of the bill emphasized the importance of parental choice and religious freedom. They argued that forcing families to vaccinate their children against their deeply held beliefs is a violation of individual rights.

“I believe it’s crucial to protect individual’s rights to choose after making an informed decision on their own health,” said Hallie Davis, whose family filed suit in 2022 against Wood County Schools after she was prohibited from attending school due to not having a required meningitis vaccination.

“We’ve experienced the medical exemption process, and it is very flawed. It’s almost non-existent,” said John Davis, Hallie’s father.

“If I don’t consent, that should be the end of it,” said Aaron Siri, an attorney who is against compulsory immunizations and is advising newly confirmed U.S. Department of Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “That’s how informed consent works … if I say no, I don’t consent. That’s the way it should work. To say you can’t go to school because of that, that’s just bullying. That’s just thuggery.”

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