During these final days of the 2015 legislative session, lawmakers will decide whether to abolish the philosophical exemption that hundreds of parents use every year to avoid state vaccine mandates. On Monday night, the House Committee on Health Care held a public hearing on the matter. And turnout showed just how intensely Vermonters care about the issue.
Lawmakers had originally planned to hold the hearing in a large conference room on the first floor of the Statehouse. It quickly became evident the space wouldn’t accommodate the nearly 300 people who arrived to speak.
Hinesburg Rep. Bill Lippert, chairman of the House Committee on Health Care delayed proceedings for a half hour, so the event could be moved to the House chamber. His committee spent the next two hours listening to impassioned pleas for and against the proposed legislation.
“The state of Vermont forcing us to vaccinate our daughter against our best judgment would be a textbook example of excessive government involvement in what should be a private family health decision,” said Ken Wilickza.
Wilickza is a Williston father who invoked the philosophical exemption to protect his 6-year-old daughter from a state-mandated vaccination regimen. Wilickza told lawmakers he and his wife made the choice after his daughter suffered adverse reactions to multiple vaccinations.
"The state of Vermont forcing us to vaccinate our daughter against our best judgment would be a textbook example of excessive government involvement in what should be a private family health decision." - Ken Wilickza, Williston father
Wilickza’s plea for control over his own child’s medical care reflected the concerns of many parents who came out to speak Monday night. Though Vermont also has a medical exemption for vaccines, many fear doctors won’t sign off on it.
Parents like Maura Davis said the risks associated with vaccinations, no matter how small, mean government must defer to parents when it comes to decisions about immunization.
“We are their only defense at this point. Nobody else is protecting them at this point, no one. So please, do not take that away from us,” Davis said.
Dr. Barb Frankowski, president of the Vermont chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said decisions not to vaccinate have health implications for children beyond those of the parents making them.
Frankowski said the philosophical exemption has led to immunization rates below those needed to protect what’s known as herd immunity.
“We need to act before it’s too late,” Frankowski said.
Dr. Peter Reed, a pediatric resident at the University of Vermont Medical School, said personal choice in health care decisions is a vital precept of the medical system. But he said vaccinations are different.
“If my child is vaccinated, your child is protected. If your child is unvaccinated, my baby is at risk,” Reed said.
"If my child is vaccinated, your child is protected. If your child is unvaccinated, my baby is at risk." - Dr. Peter Reed, pediatric resident
The proposed legislation is scheduled to come to the floor early Tuesday afternoon. However the bill still has to make it through a Tuesday morning vote on Lippert’s committee. The chairman said Monday night he wasn’t positive of the outcome.
House Speaker Shap Smith says the Democratic caucus has no formal position on the exemption provision. He says caucus leadership won’t try to influence the vote one way or another, and he says he hasn’t spent a lot of time counting votes.
“So we don’t know where things will land when it comes to the floor,” Smith said Monday.
The Senate approved eliminating the exemption by a wide margin last month.
