The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Opponents of mandatory vaccinations dominate hearing
Dozens of parents on Tuesday threatened to move out of the state — and at least one suggested legal action — if the General Assembly makes them vaccinate their kids to attend public and private school.
The hearing that was set to last 24 hours, until Wednesday morning, was about lawmakers’ attempt to severely limit exemptions to the mandatory vaccination of schoolchldren for measles, mumps, rubella and other diseases, ending religious objections.
In a heated, sometimes confrontational hearing, a four-hour string of opposition testimony was finally broken by two health professionals who stressed that medical science underscores the need to increase school vaccination rates.
Minority Republicans on the Public Health Committee forced a test vote on the measure, which was easily won by Democrats who favor the legislation.
The three minutes of testimony from each of the veteran health workers stretched to two-and-a-half hours of back-and-forth with lawmakers, creating a stark difference between emotional parents and at least half a dozen children who testified earlier, and the medical warnings of declining statewide vaccination rates.
The backdrop for the hearing was a morning event in a Bloomfield church, when Gov. Ned Lamont joined Black leaders including Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Robinson, for high-profile, televised COVID inoculations aimed at attracting vaccine-hesitant urban residents. The bill, however, was not about the COVID vaccine.
Amid dozens of grievances and declarations of constitutional rights in the legislative hearing, a Greenwich man suggested that the bill would not withstand a legal challenge, even though there are similar requirements in New York, California and other states.
“What a sham this is,” Lindy Urso, a criminal lawyer and father of three who is a member of two anti-vaccination groups, Informed Choice Connecticut and Health Choice Connecticut, said of the legislative process and the hearing — which was online due to the pandemic.
He charged that lawmakers are ignoring a petition filed by 15,000 residents asking that the legislation be delayed until the General Assembly can hold an in-person hearing. A 22-hour event at the state Capitol last year on similar legislation was approved by the committee but died when the session was abandoned on March 12.
“We’re in the middle of this COVID pandemic with its countless public-health challenges, and you people are making this committee’s No. 1 priority what is by far the most controversial issue probably ever before this committee,” Urso said, claiming that the state’s school vaccination rate is among the highest in the nation, while in recent years use of both religious and medical exemptions have fallen.
He said Democrats were allied with “Big Pharma” and against religious freedom in forcing parents to inoculate their children from childhood diseases.
“So, in short you’re proposing this draconian solution to a problem that doesn’t exist,” Urso said, before launching into a criticism against Speaker of the House Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, a proponent of the bill.
Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, D-Westport, co-chairman of the committee, warned Urso that personal attacks were unacceptable. “So why are we here attempting to desecrate one of the first freedoms that our forefathers came to this world seeking to exercise?” Urso replied. “When did the Democrat Party become the party against the free exercise of religion and medical freedom?”
Urso said that he is preparing for a potential legal challenge. “Actually, we like our chances very much,” he said.
“Connecticut, the Constitution State, needs to defend the Constitution,” said state Rep. John Hennessy, D-Bridgeport, a longtime defender of the religious exemption, who in past years had been on the committee, but this year was not assigned to serve on it. “Government has no business interfering with a parent’s right to make medical decisions when there is a possibility of harm. If this bill passes, people will be leaving the state of Connecticut.”
“This is a philosophical and personal rights issue,” said state Sen. Tony Hwang, R-Fairfield, a member of the committee.
“It’s taken away our rights in a free country to do what we think is right for our children,” said Erin McWilliam, an East Haven mother.
In the scheduled 24-hour-long hearing of the General Assembly’s Public Health Committee, with 1,931 people registered to speak for up to three minutes each, minority Republicans delayed the start by pushing for a vote to extend it further into Wednesday or beyond. Democrats easily won, 21-11, in what could be a similar vote for the legislation when it comes up for debate in the full committee, possibly before the end of the month.
The hearing itself began a half hour late, at about 9:30 a.m. One after another, parents charged that the bill would violate their rights. Several school-age kids also asked lawmakers not to kick them out of class over their religious freedom. Other claimed that state officials are trying to force the COVID vaccines on their families.
“We’re not forcing anybody to have that,” said Rep. Michelle Cook, DTorrington, a committee member. “We have made it very clear that we are going to follow CDC guidelines.”
At 1:30 p.m., Donna Kosiorowski, representing the Association of School Nurses, which has about 363 members among the approximately 1,200 school nurses in the state, became the first to voice support of the legislation end religious exemptions. Under questioning from committee members, her three minutes extended to an hour.
“I’m not sure why the term ‘religious exemption’ was used, but it started in the ‘60s when we did have an epidemic of polio,” said Kosiorowski, a retired West Haven school nurse who said many parents are not honest when they claim the exemption. “I think people are resorting to the religious exemption because they have no other option. It’s really a personal objection for many of the parents in my experience anyway. It’s not a religious exemption.”
She said that parents against the legislation, both last year and this, are tenacious.
“I’m not sure if any amount of data or scientific evidence is going to change their minds,” Kosiorowski said.
Dr. Jack Ross, a retired infectious disease physician representing the Connecticut State Medical Society and the Connecticut Infectious Disease Society, stressed the need for the legislation, because vaccination rates over the last 20 years have declined sharply.
“Part of it is complacency,” he said. “We as a society have become complacent. The amount of information goes up astronomically each year on the internet that the people have access to. We are a very polarized society. Some of it comes from, perhaps, the politicalization of vaccination, which is actually the wrong thing to do.”