Lawmakers endorse compromise on student vaccination bills

Lawmakers endorse compromise on student vaccination bills

(Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)


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SALT LAKE CITY — A Provo lawmaker says his three-bill package to lessen restrictions on parents who choose not to vaccinate their children couldn't have been drafted without a massive compromise.

"This is about parent choice," Rep. Norm Thurston, R-Provo, said Friday, adding that the legislation is meant to balance parents' freedom to choose whether to vaccinate their children and the concerns of other parents.

"I would be really surprised if there is anybody in this room (who) gets everything they want," Thurston said. "That's how difficult this compromise has been."

The House Health and Human Services Committee voted to advance all three bills — HB308, HB309 and HB310 — to the House floor for further discussion.

The bills deal with situations when parents opt against immunizing their children and the steps that need to be taken to then enroll their children in school.

HB308 would allow parents to take an online course rather than visit their local health departments to obtain an immunization exemption form.

To obtain the form, parents would be required parents to watch a 20-minute educational video on how to protect their children in the case of an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease at their school.

"It's important you know how to protect your child," Thurston said.

HB309 would give parents 21 days from the time they register their children in school to provide immunization records or exemption forms. Currently, students aren't able to attend school until those documents are in order.

The vaccination exemption form would be accepted as valid until the student enrolls in seventh grade, when it would require renewal.

Lastly, HB310 would require all health care providers to exchange information about student immunizations using the Utah Statewide Immunization Information System.

Thurston said an estimated 7 percent of child vaccinations are unnecessarily administered, and making sure immunization data is shared statewide will help prevent duplication.

No one spoke in opposition to the bills.

Gayle Ruzicka, president of the Utah Eagle Forum, said her main concern was to ensure that parents who choose not to vaccinate their children don't lose any of their rights.

"We never thought when we got this it would come with a 20-minute video," Ruzicka said.

But the bill makes the process less of a hassle for parents, she said, because they won't have to go to local health departments to get exemption certificates.

"I think this is definitely a good step forward," she said. "I'm grateful we've gotten this far."

Joe Miner, executive director of the Utah Department of Health, said "there are few accomplishments in public health that are more important than immunizations."

"We certainly don't want to encourage going without immunizations or making it too easy," Miner said, though he thanked Thurston for working with all stakeholders to come up with an appropriate balance.

Jennifer Daily-Provost, with the Utah Academy of Family Physicians, said HB308 initially had garnered opposition because parents didn't like the idea of being required to watch a video that would advocate for vaccinating their children, but now it's understood that wasn't the intent.

The video, she said, would simply ensure parents were educated on how to properly protect their children if there is an outbreak at their school.

"Information is a powerful tool, and we wanted to make sure we utilized that to protect our children," Daily-Provost said.

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