California passed a new law on June 30, 2015 that will create stricter vaccination requirements for all schoolchildren. Also referred to as Senate Bill 277, this new vaccination law mandates that all California children attending public or private schools are required to be fully vaccinated.
Exemptions will only be allowed for medical reasons with a doctor’s note and medical exemptions will be allowed for specific cases, such as children with immune system deficiencies or those whose siblings have had reactions to vaccines. Under this new law, children will no longer be able to receive vaccination exemptions for personal or religious beliefs. California is now the third state to eliminate vaccination exemptions for school-aged children on the basis of personal or religious beliefs.
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Prior to the law, ten vaccinations were required for school-aged children. The list included hepatitis B, measles, mumps, pertussis, rubella, varicella, tetanus, diphtheria, poliomyelitis, and hemophilus influenzae type B. Under this new law, students will have their immunization records checked before entering kindergarten and again before entering 7th grade. Meanwhile, children who are enrolled in an independent study program affiliated with a school or home schooling can still opt-out of vaccinations, as this new vaccination law does not apply to those students.
The bill was first drafted by California State Senators Dr. Richard Pan and Ben Allen following the measles outbreak in California last December. The outbreak, which would have been preventable if more Californians had been fully immunized, resulted in 136 people contracting the disease. For contagious diseases like measles, 92-94% of people need to be immunized to protect most of the population. The concept is referred to as “herd immunity“, in which a contagious disease can be contained and not cause a breakout if enough of the general population is immunized against that specific disease.
As a pediatrician, Dr. Pan has treated children for many years and has seen how these preventable infectious diseases have caused suffering among unvaccinated children. With the goal of protecting children against contagious diseases, California lawmakers are making this stricter vaccination law a reality. The bill was passed into law by the California Legislation and signed by Governor Jerry Brown on June 30th. The law will take effect starting July 1, 2016.
Feature Image Source: students-in-class-with-teacher-reading by Ilmicrofono Oggiono
