State Lawmaker Moves To Nix Popular Vaccination Waiver

Amid concern over the Wisconsin’s declining vaccination rate, a Democratic state lawmaker has introduced a bill to eliminate the most popular exemption parents use not to vaccinate their children.

To enter school, students need to receive a set of specific vaccinations but Wisconsin law does allow exemptions. The rate for religious and medical exemptions has been low but state records show use of the so-called personal conviction waiver has risen steadily.

A measure from state Rep. Gordon Hintz of Oshkosh would do away with that option. He said fewer students getting vaccinated against serious diseases like measles puts others at risk.

“We think we need to have this conversation before we see the kind of outbreaks that took place in states like California last year,” Hintz said.

Wisconsin didn’t have any measles cases in 2015, but 189 people in two dozen other states did. Many of those cases were linked to an outbreak at Disneyland.

A study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked at vaccination rates among kindergarteners across the country last school year. It showed parents in Wisconsin exempting their children from getting shots at a rate more than double the national average.

This summer, the Wisconsin Medical Society adopted a policy supporting exemptions for medical reasons, but not personal ones.

The doctors’ group also supports making vaccination rates of public and private schools available to the public.