Amid growing concerns about the spread of measles and other preventable illnesses, Colorado lawmakers are bringing back a bill that seeks to make it harder for families to exempt children from vaccines required by public schools.
And Democratic Gov. Jared Polis — who played a key role in killing last year’s bill — says he will support it.
The Senate bill, unveiled Monday, would require parents seeking an exemption for nonmedical reasons to first speak with an immunizing provider and then have the provider sign an exemption form to submit to the school, or take an online class about vaccinations, print the confirmation and submit it to the school with their exemption form. Currently, parents simply must sign a request and submit it to their children’s school.
It’s noteworthy that Polis is on board with this bill. Last year he described himself as “pro-choice” on vaccines and did not support the vacine bill despite protests from health experts and lawmakers.
“The Governor believes immunizations are key to protecting our children’s and Colorado’s public health,” spokesperson Conor Cahill said in a statement Monday afternoon. “… The most recent draft of the bill honors the rights of parents while supporting the administration’s efforts to boost immunization rates and that is a bill that the Governor can support.”
Bill sponsors had told reporters Monday that they were prepared to stand up to Polis if they couldn’t get him on board.
“I lose sleep at night,” Rep. Kyle Mullica, D-Northglenn, said Monday, “wondering if there will be an outbreak, wondering if there’s a child who could be harmed by us not taking action.
“We will continue to work with the governor,” added Mullica, a lead sponsor of the bill and a nurse by trade, “but the governor will not dictate if we move forward on this policy because it’s too important to our communities.”
The bill is likely be popular outside the Capitol. Polling released by Democratic-leaning Keating Research on Monday indicates that 73% of Coloradans support requiring parents who are opting their children out of vaccines to get a form signed by a doctor before sending their kids to school. The group interviewed 500 voters across the state in October, and the poll has a margin of error of 4.4%.
The results showed bipartisan support across regions throughout the state, with 79% of Democrats supporting the exemption requirements in the bill, 73% of unaffiliated voters and 67% of Republicans.
“It’s not even a 50-50 issue in any one caucus,” bill sponsor Sen. Kevin Priola, R-Brighton, said.
Priola and Mullica said they were taken aback with how partisan the issue became last year, with Priola being the only Republican to support a measure that was ultimately killed in the Senate.
They say their cause has only gotten more urgent since then. The latest data show that Colorado’s vaccinations rates are still among the lowest in the nation, and have in fact been dipping. Colorado is one of 15 states that allow parents to exempt their children from vaccines because of personal beliefs.
The Polis factor
Last year’s bill died in the final days of the session after the governor threatened not to sign the bill if it contained the provision that parents had to go in person to the state office or local health department to submit exemption paperwork, or if it eliminated any medical exemptions.
The governor later issued an executive order launching an educational campaign to increase Colorado’s vaccination rates, though that also faced opposition from vaccine critics who accused the state of running a phishing scheme.
Anticipating another strong showing this year from vaccine opponents, Mullica says he wants to be clear that “nothing that we’re doing is mandating anything.”
Mullica added, “We’re formalizing the process on how to get those exemptions. The exemptions are still in place.”
But the lawmakers backing the bill this year are making clear that they won’t give in to pressure from the anti-vaccine community.
“At the end of the day, my job is to represent my community, though, and to represent my constituents, to make sure that I’m passing policy that creates a safer community for them,” Mullica said.
“An irreconcilable difference”
For many, including Pam Long of Colorado Health Choice Alliance, there is no compromise to be made on this issue. She opposed last year’s bill because of privacy concerns related to the state collecting data on families who have children that aren’t vaccinated. (Gonzales said Monday that this year’s bill is designed to keep private family information off of any state database.)
Long also fought against a bill five years ago that would have required additional education before being able to opt their child out of a vaccine. She has said that her teenage son had an abnormal reaction to a vaccine, causing a brain injury.
“To send a parent like me to re-education … is complete harassment,” Long said.
She also worries about a tracking system that officials could use to force parents to vaccinate their kids, though the bill sponsors say that won’t happen.
And she questions the data on Colorado’s low immunization rates — 63% of students don’t have full vaccine protection — noting that not all schools report their rates to the health department. That’s another issue the sponsors are hoping to address through the bill.
Although vaccine skeptics are in the minority, according to polls, they’ve got plenty of support from top Republicans at the Capitol.
“I think we’re all pretty lock-stepped that that’s a parent’s decision and a parents’ rights decision to make,” House Minority Leader Patrick Neville, R-Castle Rock, recently told The Denver Post. “I don’t think any of us Republicans are against vaccines. It’s just something that we believe is a role between the parent and their doctors, not the government.”
But the sponsors say they have spent time listening to constituents on both sides and that it’s time to move the needle for the sake of public safety — a stance supported by science and health experts.
Dr. Sean O’Leary, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Children’s Hospital, called vaccines one of the greatest public health achievements in history, and he commended the lawmakers’ effort to increase the rates in Colorado. He said the state is ripe for an outbreak because of its low vaccination rates.
“The science is clear that the benefits of the vaccines far outweigh the risks,” he said.
“I think that we’ve made a lot of compromises already,” Mullica said, noting some other states have completely eliminated nonmedical exemptions.
Lawmakers continue to listen to people opposed to vaccinations, but Priola said they ultimately have to move forward.
“We’ve tried to have dialogue, we’ve tried to think of creative ways, but I think there is a vocal group of folks that fervently believes that vaccinations are actually the wrong thing, (that) they’re actually bad,” he said. “And they would prefer to go the other way, where fewer and fewer and fewer people are vaccinated, not more and more. So and that’s where myself and they have an irreconcilable difference.”
