Vaccine law may make it easier to seek waivers
Broader use of medical exemptions are allowed
While the repeal of the state’s controversial religious exemption from childhood vaccinations took effect as soon as Gov. Ned Lamont signed the bill at noon last Wednesday, littleknown sections of the new law may now make it easier for parents to obtain medical waivers.
That was a constant complaint of opponents of mandatory childhood vaccinations — that medical exemptions were extremely hard to come by.
Sections of the law provide an easier mechanism for medical professionals to document that inoculations might be inadvisable for some kids entering public and private schools, as well as preschool and daycare, beginning on September 1, 2022.
The legislation, which opponents vow to challenge in federal court, also extends the time frame for parents to comply with immunization requirements. A section also requires insurance providers to pay for 20-minute-long immunization consultations between parents and doctors, physicians assistants or advanced practice registered nurses.
Legislative leaders say those more-obscure parts of the bill, leading to last month’s votes in the House and Senate, were created in answer to complaints among some parents that their attempts to obtain medical exemptions were rejected by their physicians.
“If there was a significant change over the last couple of years, it was creating a legitimate path for parents and practitioners who can now focus on the contraindications on vaccine labels,” said state Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, D-Westport, co-chairman of the legislative Public Health Committee. “I hope I am not setting up false hopes for families that their physicians may now admit there is enough of a risk, or to wait to have certain vaccinations, but those kinds of decisions should be made.”
During the 2019-2020 school year, the parents of 8,328 students claimed the religious exemption in Connecticut’s 3,256 public and private schools, 134 of which had populations that were below the federally recommended 95-percent vaccination rate. The new law allows students with religious exemptions claimed previously to remain in school.
There are about 1,200 children with medical exemptions and an estimated 20,000 listed as noncompliant with the vaccination rules, among the 574,000 students in public and private schools.
“Basically, what the Public Health Committee has done was to work really hard to find a way that medical exemptions were practical,” said state Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk.
“What we heard over the last two years was it was very difficult to get a medical exemption, so the committee worked hard for ways where doctors felt more comfortable and if the condition is warranted, they would provide a medical exemption,” Duff said.
“What we heard was that doctors were reluctant to do it, so this is working to strike a compromise. If there are instances of where a medical exemption should be given and proper and appropriate, they will be given,” Duff said. “We made an effort to try to have a workable medical exemption, but it should not give anyone who is anti-vax and used the religious exemption as a loophole, some kind of comfort that they can now find another way around the law and science.”
Dr. Gregory Shangold, president of the Connecticut State Medical Society, said Friday that he did not know of particular instances where doctors have stood in the way of parents seeking legitimate waivers.
“In my 19 years in Connecticut as an emergency physician, I’ve seen a fair amount of kids with fevers, some of whom were not vaccinated and their parents truly believed they shouldn’t be vaccinated,” Shangold said in an interview. “I think, from their perspective, they’re trying to make the right choice. I disagree with their choice.”
A classic medical exemption, Shangold said, would be a kid with an allergy to eggs being allowed to miss a flu vaccine, the traditional versions of which which contain egg protein.
“Like anything in medicine there is always a risk and benefit that has to be weighed,” Shangold said. “Doctors should always be receptive. Sometimes it’s kind of like treating a patient with heart disease who smokes.”
Shangold said that the language of the law seems to be a way for the legislature to encourage doctors to maintain relationships with vaccine-hesitant or vaccineresistant parents, and to encourage medical professionals to document cases where kids might have adverse reactions to vaccines.
He said it is too soon to estimate how many more children may get medical exemptions, but physicians agree that the most-important thing is to protect school kids with immune deficiencies or who are undergoing cancer therapies, for whom a chicken pox or measles infection could be deadly.
“There might have been some stories and rumors that ‘I’m not going to take care of you if you are not going to vaccinate your child,’ but the difference now is whether you are going to be allowed to go to school or not,” Shangold said.