"A series of federal actions aimed at pressuring states to allow parents to opt out of school vaccine mandates for religious or personal reasons threatens to undermine California's ironclad ban on such exemptions. California is one of just five states that bans any non-medical exemptions, the result of a landmark 2015 law passed in the wake of the Disneyland measles outbreak. Connecticut, New York, Maine, and West Virginia have similar statutes."
"The law is credited with bringing California's rate of kindergartners vaccinated against the measles to 96.1% in the 2024-25 school year, up from 92.6% in 2014-15, even as the national rate declined. California is one of just 10 states with a kindergarten measles vaccination rate that exceeds the 95% threshold experts say is needed to achieve herd immunity."
"Key actions to allow for vaccine exemptions include: Legislation introduced in Congress last month would withhold federal education funding from states without religious exemptions. A letter from the Department of Health and Human Services threatened to withhold federal vaccine funding from states that have any form of religious freedom or personal conscience laws but do not allow exemptions to vaccines. The move is "part of a larger effort by HHS to strengthen enforcement of laws protecting conscience and religious exercise." Several lawsuits winding their way through the courts from parents - including in California - seek the right to a religious exemption, which may eventually come before the Supreme Court."
Federal actions are pressuring states to allow parents to opt out of school vaccine mandates for religious or personal reasons, threatening California's ban on such exemptions. California bans all non-medical exemptions following a 2015 law enacted after a Disneyland measles outbreak; Connecticut, New York, Maine and West Virginia have similar statutes. That law helped raise California kindergartner measles vaccination to 96.1% in 2024–25, above the 95% herd-immunity threshold. Proposed congressional legislation would withhold federal education funding from states without religious exemptions, HHS threatened to withhold vaccine funding, and multiple lawsuits seek religious exemptions, potentially weakening state limits and increasing outbreaks.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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