State Dems Looking to Pass Vax Mandates

Senate Bill 871  would add COVID-19 to the list of diseases K-12 students must be inoculated against

The California state legislature is debating two proposed bills that would either further protect children and teachers from COVID-19 or leave tens of thousands of students, teachers and their families vulnerable to infections, sickness and possibly death.

These bills come in the context of more children getting COVID-19 and more than 2,000 U.S. citizens dying per day from the pandemic.

Senate Bill 871, which was introduced by Sen. Richard Pan, a Democrat from Sacramento and a physician, would add COVID-19 to the list of diseases K-12 students must be inoculated against to attend public or private school.

 Sen. Pan also introduced SB 866, which would allow minors to get vaccinated without parental consent.

In this state and most states nationally, children must be vaccinated for polio, chickenpox, rubella, hepatitis B, diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough in order to attend school.  Pan’s bill would add a COVID-19 vaccination with no exemptions for “personal religious belief,” which has been used to avoid inoculation. Medical exemptions would still be permitted.

State Sen. Richard Pan previously led the successful fight for mandatory measles vaccinations after an outbreak at Disneyland in 2014.  Because of these efforts, he has been harassed by anti-vaxxers.

Congresswoman Nanette Barragán has come out in support of both bills.

The candidate for the 65th Assembly District seat, Fatima Iqbal-Zubair, supports SB 871 and SB 866. 

“Our communities in the 65th Assembly district have seen the detrimental effects of virtual learning amidst this pandemic,” Iqbal-Zubair said. “It has brought to light inequities in our public education system and I’ve experienced this firsthand as a mom to a son with special needs.” 

Iqbal-Zubair explained that government, at its best, passes policy rooted in scientific evidence to improve outcomes for communities. 

“The way we will beat this current pandemic is by achieving herd immunity locally, statewide, and globally,” said Iqbal-Zubair, who is running in a rematch against incumbent Assemblyman Mike Gipson. “It is how every pandemic before has achieved eradication or near eradication. Only if enough of us achieve immunity to the virus by getting vaccinated, will we outsmart the virus.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom has indicated that he favors requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for school students.  However, he likes the idea of a personal belief exemption. This would once again open up the online paper mills that give anyone a certificate of religious opposition to obtaining the vaccine.

Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco, who introduced SB 866 alongside Pan, said this bill was would allow children 12 and older to get vaccinated for any disease without their parents’ knowledge. 

“COVID-19 is a deadly virus to the unvaccinated and it’s unconscionable for teens to be blocked from the vaccine be if a parent either refuses or cannot take their child to a vaccination site.”

It should be noted that minors can already access reproductive health care, obtain birth control, and receive abortion services without parental notification or parental consent. 

Opponents of the bill say that it is about the right of parents to make decisions on their children’s healthcare. However, there’s nothing in the bills that says parents can’t keep their children from being vaccinated. It just means independent study or homeschooling will be their only avenue for education.

The anti-mandates organization, Let Them Breathe, based in San Diego filed lawsuits against the Los Angeles Unified and San Diego Unified school systems due to vaccination mandates. The Los Angeles school board filed a court brief in support of San Diego Unified’s student mandate. The LA Unified vaccination mandate applies to students 12 years of age and older. The requirements are set to take effect in the fall. 

Let Them Breathe, along with Reopen California Schools, filed the suit this past July to overturn the mandate and to challenge COVID testing policies in schools, arguing that mask-wearing is harmful to children and instead should be optional. They have repeatedly disrupted school board meetings.