The lack of a disease or a death is a success that’s hard to celebrate, even though it provides people with the health to live life freely. West Virginia’s high childhood vaccination rate is one of these successes.
The state, unlike 45 others, requires children in schools to be vaccinated and does not allow for ideological exemptions.
During an October interim meeting, the state’s epidemiologist, Shannon McBee, told a committee of lawmakers that the high immunization rate is a major reason why West Virginia hasn’t had many cases of infectious diseases like measles. But during that same meeting, delegates and state senators expressed skepticism about West Virginia’s childhood vaccine laws.
Now, as foreshadowed by that session, some lawmakers are trying to weaken the requirements.
On Tuesday afternoon, the House Health and Human Resources Committee discussed HB 5105, which would end vaccine requirements for anyone attending one of West Virginia’s virtual schools.
Right now, the state’s two online schools are both charters and have just over 1,600 students. They’ve grown substantially since opening in 2022.
Lawmakers did amend the bill on Tuesday to add back in the vaccine requirements for students who participate in extracurricular activities at a public school like sports or band.
When Dr. Steven Eshenaur, Kanawha County public health officer, was called before the committee, he talked about the dangers of what could happen if fewer West Virginia children are vaccinated against diseases such as measles.
“This is probably one of the most contagious diseases known to man,” Eshenaur said. “Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia are battling these outbreaks. And we don’t want that.”
Soon afterwards, Del. David Kelly, R-Tyler, questioned why childhood vaccination requirements only apply to school and not other activities like Little League or church.
“It just seems kind of funny to me that we can do anything else in society,” Kelly said.
The bill doesn’t relax laws as much as some lawmakers have suggested they want. Sen. Mike Azinger, R-Wood, has said West Virginia’s strict school vaccine requirements, including ones that apply to in-person students, are a problem that “needs to be fixed.”
But the bill could still have consequences for West Virginians. While the current number of students enrolled in virtual schools is small, the exemptions could hinder West Virginia’s ability to immunize a high enough percentage of residents necessary to protect everyone from diseases like mumps and polio.
Rhonda Rogombé, health and safety net policy analyst for the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, said the health impact of the bill won’t be limited to people enrolled in these schools.
“Just because a kid’s not physically in a public school doesn’t mean they’re not going to interact with other people,” she said.
Ultimately, the bill passed a voice vote and now goes to the House Judiciary Committee. After the meeting, Eshenaur said that he thought that in its current form, the bill’s health impacts would be limited because most West Virginia kids go to in-person public schools.
But Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, the committee’s minority chair who proposed the amendment, remains against the bill. He said it weakens public health laws, and he worries that other lawmakers could make the bill worse.
“A lot of folks who are anti-science who serve in this building,” Pushkin said. “I didn’t think when we started this session that we’d be taking on both Jonas Salk and Louis Pasteur. But we did that today in this meeting.”