SACRAMENTO – Ending months of speculation on whether he would endorse the incendiary legislation, Gov. Jerry Brown this morning signed into law Senate Bill 277, which requires nearly all California schoolchildren to be fully vaccinated in order to attend public or private school, regardless of their parents’ personal or religious beliefs. Randy Thomasson, president of SaveCalifornia.com, a conservative social advocacy group, said he was urging parents to commit civil disobedience by refusing to have their children vaccinated and urging their schools, especially smaller private and church schools, to ignore the law.
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From a public health perspective, the only way to prevent outbreaks of diseases like measles is to vaccine a large enough percentage of the community to provide what’s called “herd immunity”.
The only exemption granted in the law is when a child’s physician concludes that there are “circumstances, including but not limited to, family medical history, for which the physician does not recommend immunization”. Medical exemptions will still be available, but personal belief and religious exemptions will not.
Mississippi and West Virginia are the two other states with similar vaccination requirements, according to Adam Nagourney of The New York Times. “We have diseases that are showing up on public transit and restaurants and schools and shopping centers, theme parks that is not what we want California to be”.
Doctors, hospital representatives and health advocates welcomed Tuesday’s law, saying it would help stop the spread of disease. “While it is true that no medical intervention is without risk, the evidence shows that immunization powerfully benefits and protects the community”.
“As the governor reminded us today, the science is clear that vaccines work, and removing the personal belief exemption with SB 277 is critical to fulfilling our responsibility to make sure all our students are kept as safe as possible”. No more outbreaks. No more hospitalizations. “No more deaths. And no more fear”, said Pan, who is a pediatrician.
Jim Carrey is blasting the governor of California after he signed into law one of the nation’s strictest immunization laws. One state senator said pushback has been so fierce that he briefly closed his district office out of concerns for his staff’s safety.
Carrey took to Twitter just hours after the bill was signed to begin attacking Brown.
Opponents of the bill were deeply emotional Tuesday, but they vowed to continue their fight.
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