A healthcare worker puts a bandage on the baby after giving the vaccine. (Scott Housley/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Supporters of a bill that would eliminate a requirement for some children to be vaccinated against hepatitis B and change other vaccine laws argued before an Ohio House committee last week that the bill is really about parental choice.
Ohio House Bill 561 is a Republican-sponsored bill that would repeal hepatitis B vaccination requirements for day care centers and kindergartens, part of a federal effort to eliminate that requirement as well.
It would not only remove hepatitis B from the required vaccination list, but would also force public schools to allow unvaccinated students to continue their education in the event of an outbreak, along with other provisions governing when and why a child can be denied admission to school based on health or vaccination status.
Just like the supporters of the bill did at the previous hearingsupporters of the bill emphasized that Ohio law already allows for medical, religious and conscientious objections for vaccines, but supporters told the Ohio House of Representatives Health Committee that there have been reports that some school employees are not complying with the law.
Rebecca Morrison, principal of the private Oakstone Academy in Westerville, said she’s seeing a similar vaccine alarm now as when the academy first opened in the 1990s.
She told the committee that because of the “controversy” around vaccines from parents of autistic children, “parents were frantically asking for exemptions.”
“I don’t want to stand up and say we didn’t do anything, we just said we would honor vaccine exemptions because I believe that’s the only way to build our program and serve children with autism,” Morrison said.
Research published by World Health Organization, scientific journal Autismjournal Pediatrics, journal Vaccineand “The Journal”. American Medical Association are among those who have determined that there is no link between autism and vaccines.
Decades later, Morrison said her school of about 650 students has about a dozen parents a year who tell her that another program or school won’t allow them to be exempt from vaccinations.
She praised the lack of spread of infection at her school, especially since there was no need to operate masks or vaccines in schools during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Still, the school has “stringent” policies on cleaning and isolation against infection, Morrison said. The principal said that of the 650 students, 500 are vaccinated and 150 are not, a difference from the beginning when 75% of children were unvaccinated.
State Rep. Anita Somani, D-Dublin, said that based on the percentages given, it may appear that the school is currently “relying on herd immunity,” but Morrison said she would continue to support HB 561 even if vaccination rates change.
“That’s changed, and yes, I really think herd immunity is part of it, but in the first years of life, that’s part of the reason why we have very strict controls on disinfecting the environment and making sure that kids come home if we even suspect that there’s a disease,” Morrison said.
For Northfield parent Stacey Kopec, the financial decision to take her three children out of private school and enroll them in public school led her to push for better enforcement of vaccine exemption laws.
She called the bill “the only morally responsible thing that can be done” to ensure that layoffs are “always honored.”
Comments from Kopec and Stephanie Stock, head of Ohio Advocates for Medical Freedom, focused on the need for vaccine exemptions to be clearly defined and accepted throughout Ohio education.
“The idea that parents should be inherently aware that they have the right to say no is absurd,” Stock said.
“If all communication from the school or daycare indicates that vaccines are required and the school nurse tells you it is necessary, the parent has no reason to suspect otherwise or to investigate further.”
Currently, preschoolers and people attending child care centers are required to be vaccinated against chickenpox, diphtheria, Haemophilius influenza type B (also called HIB), hepatitis A, hepatitis B, influenza, pertussis, pneumonia, polio, rotavirus, tetanus and three diseases that are usually combined in one vaccine: measles, mumps and rubella.
Vaccines against diphtheria, hepatitis B, meningitis, pertussis, polio, tetanus, chickenpox, measles, mumps and rubella are required in Ohio primary and secondary schools.
In January, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a memo changing the recommended childhood immunization schedule to recommend vaccinations against measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, HIB, pneumonia, human papillomavirus (HPV), and chickenpox.
RSV, hepatitis A, hepatitis B and meningitis vaccine are recommended for “certain high-risk groups or populations,” and others, such as the Covid-19 and influenza vaccines, are recommended “based on shared clinical decision-making.”
According to health data organization KFF, the changes “reduce the number of vaccines recommended for all children and, as such, have important implications for childhood vaccinations and U.S. public health generally, particularly in the context of already declining childhood vaccination rates and ongoing outbreaks of diseases such as influenza and measles.”
This week, however, a federal judge suspend January vaccination recommendationsalong with other decisions made at the health and social services level.
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