With the current legislative session passing its halfway mark, several Clark County lawmakers have agreed to advance a bill removing the state’s personal exemption for the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine over a more expansive bill.
“What you learn about legislation is you get through what you can get through,” Rep. Paul Harris, R-Vancouver, said.
Since the start of the year, Clark County has been reeling from an outbreak of measles, which spread to the Seattle area and parts of Oregon, and prompted Gov. Jay Inslee to declare a public health emergency.
In response to the outbreak of the highly contagious disease, lawmakers introduced bills seeking to tighten an opt-out used by parents that’s been blamed for the outbreak. Washington is one of 17 states that allows families to exempt their children from vaccines required to attend school on philosophical, personal or other reasons.
In 2015, an attempt to remove the personal exemption died in the Legislature after getting pushback from lawmakers concerned about parents’ rights. This session, Harris and Rep. Monica Stonier, D-Vancouver, introduced a narrower bill that would remove the personal exemption for just the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.
Sen. Annette Cleveland, D-Vancouver, introduced a broader bill removing the personal exemption for all vaccinations. But the lawmakers said in interviews with The Columbian that with time dwindling during the current session, they would move forward with the narrower bill sponsored by Harris and Stonier, which has passed a key cutoff after being voted out of the House earlier this month.
“From a management standpoint, it doesn’t make sense to pass two (separate) bills off each floor,” Cleveland said. She had an agreement with Harris and Stonier, she said, that they would work on getting the strongest possible policy passed.
When asked if it’s possible the bill could be expanded, Cleveland, who chairs the Senate Health and Long Term Care Committee, said it was possible.
The bill has already had floor amendments attached to it that would exempt children from the requirement if their sibling or parents have a history of adverse reactions to a particular vaccine. Another amendment would require employees or volunteers at child care centers to provide proof they have received the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine or proof of immunity.
The hearings for each bill have been emotional, drawing crowds of opponents to Olympia. Lawmakers said they’ve been contacted numerous times from people concerned about the bills.
The bill sponsored by Harris and Stonier would leave in place the state’s medical and religious exemptions. After initially introducing the bill, Harris said he would look into tightening up the current religious exemption to make sure families seeking it had a bona fide religious belief.
But last week, Harris told The Columbian that altering the religious exemption would diminish the bill’s support. Stonier said while she was worried more people would turn to the religious exemption if the personal exemption is removed, “It was important to me just to move it with the support we have,” she said. “And taking on another political fight with this bill would endanger its success.”
The personal exemption is the most widely used exemption in Washington and Clark County. According to state Department of Health statistics covering 2017-2018, nearly 5 percent of students statewide had used an exemption, with 3.7 percent claiming a personal exemption. Nearly 6 percent of children enrolled in public and private schools in Clark County had claimed a personal exemption for some vaccine.
Harris said it’ll remain easy to claim a religious exemption in Washington. But he’s confident the bill will increase the overall exemption rate, which he said happened in California.
In 2015, California removed its personal exemption. According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, after enacting the bill, the state’s immunization rate for kindergartners rose from 90.4 percent in the 2014-2015 school year to 95.1 percent in the 2017-2018 school year.
Harris said Clark County has already seen its immunization rate increase significantly after the outbreak. He said that 8,122 people have gotten vaccinated in the last six weeks.
“The point is to get people immunized,” Harris said.
