A day after being sworn in as West Virginia’s 37th governor, Gov. Patrick Morrisey said he would sign 10 executive orders, including one to allow religious exemptions for vaccinations. (West Virginia Office of the Gov. Patrick Morrisey | Courtesy photo)
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey has yet to announce a state health officer, but whoever ends up in that role seemingly got their first marching orders this week — come up with a policy to allow religious exemptions to the state’s school vaccine laws.
In one of the 10 executive orders he issued Tuesday, Morrisey directed the state health officer and the commissioner for the Bureau for Public Health to establish a plan to allow parents of children who attend a public school or day care to object on religious grounds to one or more of the vaccines required by the state.
The order says the health officer and commission shall submit a plan, including any necessary legislation and rules for exemptions to the state’s school vaccine rules, by Feb. 1, 2025.
The state’s former health officer Dr. Matt Christiansen resigned in December after nearly two years on the job. Former Gov. Jim Justice said at the time he would allow Morrisey to appoint the official to take Christiansen’s place.
Morrisey’s office and the Bureau for Public Health did not respond to separate emails requesting comment on the position vacancy and deadline.
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.
Morrisey wasted no time, announcing on the second day of his administration Tuesday, that he would implement religious exemptions through the Equal Protection for Religion Act. The 2023 bill signed by Justice says the government may not “substantially burden” a person’s constitutional right to freedom of religion unless doing so “is essential to further a compelling governmental interest,” according to the Associated Press.
“I think most West Virginians care very deeply that our citizens have religious beliefs, and we also know that the First Amendment to our Constitution has specific clauses calling for free association,” Morrisey told reporters Tuesday, adding that a requested religious exemption would have to meet definition of the Equal Protection measure.
Every state requires school children to be vaccinated against a series of infectious diseases including polio, measles and whooping cough. West Virginia has long had one of the strongest school immunization laws in the country. The state is one of only five states that allows only medical exemptions — not religious or philosophical exemptions — to those requirements.
The policy changes come as parents are registering their kindergarten and pre-school age children for the upcoming school year. West Virginia’s universal pre-K program, which is free, requires children to have an age-appropriate immunization record based on a schedule from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In an email, Christy Day, a spokeswoman for the state Board of Education, said that any guidance for parents would have to come from the Bureau for Public Health.
Health officials have credited the state’s vaccine laws for keeping the state’s immunization rates high and preventing disease outbreaks. In April 2024, the state reported its first measles case in 15 years. The illness was confirmed in a Monongalia County resident who was partially vaccinated and had recently traveled abroad. The county health officer at the time said high vaccination rates kept the highly infectious, potentially deadly disease from becoming an outbreak.
Last year there were 284 measles cases and 16 outbreaks reported by 31 states and the District of Columbia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Morrisey’s executive order drew a slate of objections from medical professionals and the state Democratic Party on Wednesday.
Dr. Lisa Costello, a pediatrician and the immediate past president of the state medical association, said Wednesday that she’s worried about any changes to the state’s “nation leading” immunization policy.
“By having nonmedical exemptions, that places children, schools, communities in jeopardy of seeing more diseases like measles and even other diseases, potentially polio, that we have the means of preventing through immunizations, particularly when our immunization rates are high,” Costello said. “The policy that we’ve had for decades in West Virginia has kept West Virginia as a leader in our school age immunization rates .
“Any change to the immunization policy places children, schools and communities in jeopardy of seeing more of these deadly and debilitating diseases,” she said.
The Kanawha-Charleston Health Department also spoke out against the state allowing religious exemptions, writing in a statement that mandatory childhood immunizations are critical for protecting children against diseases that can be deadly or debilitating. West Virginia has not had outbreaks of vaccine-preventable illnesses since its strong immunization laws went into effect, the department wrote.
“Consistent with the American Academy of Pediatrics and many other health care organizations working to protect our children, members of the Kanawha-Charleston Board of Health strongly recommend that parents and guardians immunize their children to protect them from these preventable diseases,” board members wrote in a joint statement.
Likewise, the West Virginia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a statement saying they are concerned about the policy changes and that they would continue to strongly recommend routine childhood immunizations as the best way to protect patients and communities from needless harm.
“We are eager to work with state officials to expand access to childhood immunizations and overcome barriers to care for all West Virginia children,” they wrote. “We remain optimistic that policymakers in West Virginia will work with us to maintain our school aged policies in a way that continues to protect children, following the best medical data available. We best value each child in West Virginia by preserving our longstanding immunity standards.”
In a statement Wednesday, the state Democratic Party called Morrisey’s executive orders shortsighted and mean-spirited.
“Introducing nonmedical exemptions to vaccination requirements endangers public health,” State Party Chair Del. Mike Pushkin said in the release. “West Virginia has long been recognized for its effective vaccination policies, which have protected our children from preventable diseases. Eroding these safeguards will inevitably lead to increased illness and suffering among our most vulnerable populations.”
Senate Health Committee Chair Sen. Laura Chapman, R-Ohio, told West Virginia Watch that there will be bills in the upcoming legislative session that would offer additional exemptions to the state’s childhood vaccination requirements.
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