CHARLESTON – Following up on an executive order issued last month by Gov. Patrick Morrisey, the state Senate Health Committee sent a bill to the full West Virginia Senate weakening immunization requirements for all school-age children in the state.

The Senate Health Committee recommended Thursday evening a committee substitute for Senate Bill 460, relating to vaccine requirements, to the full Senate for consideration. The bill was introduced on behalf of the Governor’s Office.

SB 460, as introduced, would have allowed parents and guardians to object to the requirements of the state’s program for compulsory immunization of public and private school children by citing a religious or philosophical belief. It would have required the parent or guardian to submit a written statement annually of their religious or philosophical objection to one or more of the required vaccines to the state health officer.

The amended bill instead allows the parent or guardian to present a written statement to the administrator of the child’s school or operator of a state-regulated child care center that the mandatory vaccination requirements cannot be met because it conflicts with the religious or philosophical beliefs of the parent, legal guardian, or emancipated child.

Children who are exempt from immunizations could not be prohibited from participating in extracurricular activities or attending school events. The committee substitute allows the parent or guardian to file civil suits against schools that engage in discrimination against a child due to their immunization status.

The bill updates medical exemptions to immunizations, permitting a child to be exempt when a physician, physician assistant, or nurse practitioner provides a written statement to the school administrator or child care center stating that the specific immunizations could be detrimental to the child’s health or inappropriate. It exempts students attending statewide or county-based virtual schools from immunizations.

It also requires public, private, and religious schools to maintain records on the number of students exempt from vaccinations, the percentage of unvaccinated students, and make the reports available online.

State Code requires children attending school in West Virginia to show proof of immunization for diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, and hepatitis B unless proof of a medical exemption can be shown. West Virginia only provides for a narrow medical exemption to immunizations.

Morrisey signed an executive order last month citing the 2023 Equal Protection for Religion Act to allow for religious and conscientious objections to the state’s school vaccination mandates. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 20 states and Washington, D.C., allow immunization exemptions for religious reasons, while 13 states allow exemptions for both religious and personal reasons.

“…Other states have this. They have freedom,” said state Sen. Mike Azinger, R-Wood. “There’s not medical chaos going on in these other…states. We’re just asking for our First Amendment constitutional right to conscience.”

According to the West Virginia Immunization Network through the Center for Rural Health Development, West Virginia has one of the highest immunization rates in the nation for kindergarteners, ranging from between 92% and 98%, depending on the vaccine. Supporters of childhood immunization credit the state’s high MMR vaccine rate to the state not seeing a measles outbreak since 1994.