A doctor places a bandage on little girl’s arm after a vaccination
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State health officials say West Virginia saw “a growing atmosphere of anti-vaccine sentiment” in 2023, as evidenced by a “marked increase” in parents seeking medical exemptions for all school-required vaccines for their children. In past years, exemption requests have mostly been for the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, which uses a live virus, the officials wrote in a report to Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s office.
As a part of his executive order last month requiring the state to allow religious exemptions to school vaccines, Morrisey directed health officials to submit a plan including proposed rules and legislation to facilitate the exemptions, as well as a report about the number of people who previously filed written objections to the state’s school vaccine requirements.
The governor’s office and the state Bureau for Public Health said Monday that the Bureau had met the Feb. 1 deadline, but neither responded to a request for the documents that day.
On Friday, both offices responded to West Virginia Watch’s Freedom of Information Act requests with a memorandum sent from state interim health officer Justin Davis to Morrisey’s policy director and general counsel. They denied a part in the request that asked to see the proposed legislation and rules because the documents, they argued, are drafts and not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
According to the report, of the 53 requests for medical exemptions to school vaccine requirements in 2023, 19 of them were for all required vaccines. Another 19 of the requests were for the MMR vaccine. In 2022, 18 exemption requests were for all vaccines. In 2018 and 2019, there were two requests each year for exemptions to all vaccines.
Of the 53 medical exemption requests made in 2023, 19 were denied, nine were given a permanent exemption and 24 were given a temporary exemption.
Two counties, Berkeley and Wood, saw the most requests, with five each. Hancock, Jefferson and Mercer each had four medical exemption requests.
All states require students to be vaccinated for certain infectious diseases. West Virginia had been one of only five states that did not allow religious or philosophical exemptions to those vaccine mandates. State health officials have credited the previously strong vaccine laws with preventing the state from having outbreaks of diseases like measles.
The state’s Republican-led Legislature tried for years to water down the state’s vaccination requirements. Last year, after both bodies passed a bill allowing private and parochial schools to develop their own vaccine requirements, former Gov. Jim Justice vetoed the legislation.
According to the report, the Bureau for Public Health has received “multiple communications” about religious and moral exemptions to school mandated vaccines following Morrisey’s executive order directing the department to begin allowing the exemptions.
The communications include five requests from parents seeking religious exemptions for eight children, one adult male’s request for a vaccine exemption for himself and one request from a parent seeking information about obtaining a religious exemption for the school vaccine requirements.