Less than one day after COVID-19 vaccine requirements went into effect in Los Angeles County, demonstrators gathered outside Pacific Palisades High School to protest vaccine mandates in schools.
Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an order Oct. 1, requiring all California students to be vaccinated as soon as the FDA fully approves COVID-19 vaccines for their specific age groups. The FDA has already approved Pfizer for children ages 12 and older - meaning they will be the first group ordered to be fully vaccinated by July 1, 2022.
The mandate adds the COVID-19 vaccine to the existing list of required immunizations, including measles, rubella and mumps.
State health officials will allow personal belief and religious exemptions for those who refuse the vaccination, but many remain frustrated that the vaccination mandate exists at all - and call it “medical tyranny.”
Some state lawmakers disagree, and are looking to remove the exemption clause from the mandate.
“Anyone is entitled to their own personal belief, their own religious views,” State Sen. Scott Weiner told KNX.
“But when your personal views are putting other people at risk of sickness and death, that’s where we have to draw the line.”
Medical exemptions are allowed, but after Jan. 1, 2021 they can only be issued through the California Immunization Registry by physicians licensed in California, according to the Shots For School website.
The requests will only be reviewed by the department of health if a school or child care facility’s immunization rate is below 95 percent, if either fails to provide reports of vaccination rates to the department or if one doctor writes five or more exemptions per year.
Sen. Richard Pan, who authored the 2015 law that eliminated personal belief exemptions for required vaccines, said vaccines aren’t about control, they’re about avoiding school closures.
“We don’t want schools closing down or classes in quarantine,” Pan told the L.A. Times. “If you have a loophole or gap that allows too many students to remain unvaccinated, then you won’t have a school that is safe where students can learn. We have already had enough disruptions.”
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