West Virginia’s new Republican governor, Patrick Morrisey, launched a slew of executive orders Tuesday to, I assume, set the tone for his administration.
A lot of what Morrisey threw out is silly culture war stuff that won’t do anything to help West Virginia’s stagnant economy, high poverty rate or nation-leading population decline. Attacks on diversity or attempts to define gender in state code are just handy distractions to keep eyes off of the lack of progress in this state for all but a select few, as it’s always been.
However, there is one initiative in Morrisey’s first salvo that will actively hurt West Virginians, and that’s his directive to loosen school vaccination policies.
Vaccines have been something of a political football since the COVID-19 pandemic, but this is one area where politicization is very dangerous.
West Virginia requires all children entering public or private school to be current on vaccinations. The state allows exemptions only for medical reasons — such as a child being allergic to a vaccine. The result is that West Virginia has one of the highest child immunization rates in the country and is one the few states that hasn’t seen a recent outbreak of previously eradicated diseases, like measles and polio. Surges in those illnesses have surfaced in states with loose vaccination standards for children.
Morrisey said West Virginia’s vaccination policy makes the state an “outlier,†which is a really strange argument. He’s basically saying children in West Virginia should have the opportunity to get polio just like a kid in North Carolina. Applying equal-opportunity logic to public health emergencies is just plain weird.
Equally odd is Morrisey wanting West Virginia to be like other states when, in fact, more states are starting to follow our model when it comes to immunizations. Not so long ago, West Virginia was one of only two states that didn’t offer religious or philosophical vaccination exemptions for children entering school. Now there are five, most of which enacted the policy within the past two years, after experiencing outbreaks of eradicated diseases.
West Virginia shortchanges its youth on so many fronts, but this is one area where state policy protects them. In fact, it’s one of the few areas pertaining to health or quality of life where West Virginia isn’t near or dead last in the country.
Not only are vaccines safe and effective, they work better under a policy that allows for few exemptions. If nearly every child is immunized, disease has a lower risk of spreading, and that ends up also protecting children who are immunosuppressed or can’t receive vaccinations for medical reasons.
I’m not sure what religion is against keeping children healthy, so I’m skeptical of someone who might use that as an excuse to avoid vaccines.
Despite what some conspiracy theorists might believe, vaccines have no link whatsoever with autism. They aren’t used by the government for any of the nefarious reasons spouted out from tinfoil land, which is now, unfortunately, polluting mainstream common sense backed by medical expertise and public health know how at an alarming rate.
Oh, and anyone who thinks vaccination requirements for children entering school is a violation of their parental rights needs to grow the hell up. The argument of “you can’t tell me what to do†is superseded by important guidelines or regulations with the aim of keeping people healthy and safe in just about every other aspect of life. That’s why we have seat belts in cars and 10-year-olds aren’t allowed to work in steel mills anymore. By the way, it’s also selfish to put other children, not to mention teachers and school service personnel, at risk of potentially severe health problems because you don’t want people telling you what to do.
Morrisey is way off on this one, and he, along with at least some officials in his administration, probably know it. His predecessor vetoed a bill that would’ve allowed for vaccine exemptions at private schools, and there was a lot of other crazy stuff he just let ride. If that guy knew this was a bad idea, Morrisey certainly does.
