(Photo Credit: didesign021/Getty Images)
Tati attended a rally in regards to SB-276 which is a bill that will eliminate exemptions for vaccines. Parents weigh in on their support or opposition to the bill.
SB 276: What Is It? What You Should Know
- aims to curb fraudulent medical exemptions for vaccines against diseases, such as measles, mumps, rubella, polio, whooping cough and chickenpox.
- Current law — based on the 2015 legislation — requires all children to be vaccinated unless they are homeschooled or have a medical exemption, which has helped boost the overall vaccination rate. But medical exemption rates for students entering kindergarten increased more than three-fold, from 0.2 percent to 0.7 percent.
- The proposed law would require doctors to submit medical exemption requests to the California Department of Public Health, which would have to approve them.
- The doctors would have to certify they examined the patient and they would have to include in the request their own name, their medical license number and the reason for the exemption.
- The public health department would be required to keep a database of the exemptions and it would have the authority to revoke exemptions if they’re later found to be fraudulent.
- Polls in California and nationally indicate support for vaccination and an understanding that vaccines are necessary to protect kids.
- The bill is co-sponsored by Vaccinate California, the California Medical Association and the California chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Newsom raises concerns about controversial vaccination bill
- Newsom told reporters, “I back immunizations, however I do have concerns about a bureaucrat making a decision that is very personal and I would respect as a father of four who goes through this on a consistent basis, I think that’s just something we need to pause and think about.”
- The concerns for some in creating a robust system for ensuring children are vaccinated come as California has 47 confirmed measles cases in 2019 so far. Many doctors support the bill, amidst growing concerns that some parents are gaming the system when it comes to medical exemptions.
- Dr. Dean Blumberg, the chief of pediatric infectious diseases at UC Davis, supports the bill and said some people are “going outside their relationship with their own doctor to find somebody to sign for these exemptions, and we just feel that is wrong.”