Originally published on www.childrenshealthdefense.org by Brenda Baletti, Ph.D.
Senate Bill 1437 would eliminate all non-medical exemptions as a way to ensure high rates of vaccination coverage. The bill is part of the "governor's package," a set of proposed bills that make up Gov. Josh Green's legislative agenda. Health freedom advocates said they expect significant public pushback.
Hawaiian legislators last month introduced a bill to eliminate religious exemptions for vaccines required by the schools.
Democratic state Sen. Ron Kouchi on Jan. 23 introduced Senate Bill 1437 -- which has a corresponding House Bill 1118. The bill aims to eliminate all non-medical exemptions as a way to ensure high rates of vaccination coverage.
The House version of the bill will be discussed in a health committee hearing this Friday.
In addition to testifying during the public section of that hearing, several organizations are planning a rally at the legislature on Feb. 20, when legislators are supposed to recess and hear feedback from their constituents.
According to the bill, 95% coverage is necessary to protect against the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases by creating "herd immunity."
Non-medical exemption rates in Hawaii have grown over the last 10 years from 2.5% in the 2015-2016 school year to 5.3% in the 2023-2024 school year, according to the bill. Rates among individual schools vary, with 55 of 382 reporting schools having exemption rates of over 10%.
If passed, the law would allow children who were granted exemptions in the 2024-2025 school year or prior to maintain their exemptions.
Hawaii's proposed legislation is a national outlier, as public opinion on exemptions has become more favorable in recent years.
A survey published last week by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania shows public support for policies that allow parents of schoolchildren to opt out of vaccinating their kids for medical, religious and personal or philosophical reasons has grown substantially since 2019.
Last month, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey issued an executive order allowing for religious exemptions from mandatory school vaccinations, ending one of the most restrictive vaccination policies in the country. West Virginia legislators are expected to introduce a bill to codify that executive order into law.
Mississippi also began allowing religious exemptions in July 2023, Under a federal court order.
California, Maine, New York and Connecticut are the only remaining states that don't allow religious or philosophical exemptions from childcare and K-12 immunization requirements.
Lawmakers in New York, Virginia, Connecticut and Mississippi have also reportedly introduced bills that would allow more people to waive routine shots, The Associated Press reported.
Other states are also considering bills to establish state-level vaccine injury databases or to change rules about what providers must tell patients about the shots, the AP reported.
The Hawaiian bill is part of the "governor's package," a set of proposed bills that make up Gov. Josh Green's legislative agenda.
The package includes at least one other vaccine-related bill, Senate Bill 1434, which proposes to institute a universal immunization funding program that would provide state-purchased access to some or all vaccines for children and adults.
Gary Cordery, former gubernatorial candidate and founder of the Aloha Freedom Coalition -- formed in 2020 in response to the state's COVID-19 lockdown and mandate policies -- said that most bills proposed to the legislature don't even get hearings, but that all bills in the governor's package make it to the floor for a vote.
He said the Democratic Senate and House will likely rubber-stamp the bill into law unless there is significant public pushback.
Green recently was in the national spotlight, making the rounds in mainstream media and in political ads smearing Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Children's Health Defense (CHD) founder and President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Green tried to blame Kennedy for a 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa. The outbreak followed the Samoan government's 10-month suspension of its measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) program after two nurses accidentally killed two infants with the MMR shot after mixing it with a paralytic solution instead of saline.
Kennedy had coincidentally visited the island for unrelated purposes just before the outbreak, which Green claims resulted from Kennedy's alleged "anti-vaccine rhetoric" -- an assertion that experts supportive of vaccination, like Dr. Vinay Prasad, said "falls apart on first glance."
Kim Haines, former head of CHD's Hawaii Chapter, said it was frustrating that the governor was "everywhere telling these blatant lies," and using them to justify regressive vaccination policies.
According to Follow the Money, a nonpartisan national nonprofit organization that tracks campaign-donor and lobbyist money, the health sector has contributed more money to Green's political campaigns than any other sector.
Green, an emergency medicine doctor, previously served as lieutenant governor and led the state's COVID-19 response during the pandemic, heading up a pandemic response that local organizers told The Defender was one of the most draconian in the country, often requiring vaccine passports.
Cordery said that Green used his medical credentials for political ends during the pandemic -- frequently appearing publicly in scrubs and with a stethoscope and using his perceived authority as a doctor to push for severe restrictions on personal liberties.
Aloha Freedom Coalition helped organize protests against the COVID-19 measures. They are also working with other organizations to organize people and educate them about the proposed legislation to eliminate religious exemptions.
Hawaii had history of pushing more stringent immunization rules
Hawaii's vaccine requirements and exemption rules have become more stringent since 2019 when a series of administrative rule changes were first proposed, said Renee Dieperink, a Hawaii educator and organizer with Hawaii For Informed Consent.
The changes were implemented in 2020, despite strong public opposition. Dieperink explained that officials used a rule-change procedure that allowed top political officials to change some aspects of vaccine policy without consulting the legislature.
As part of that change, Hawaii added several vaccines to the list of required immunizations for K-12, including the HPV vaccine for both boys and girls starting in 7th grade. The new rules extended vaccination requirements to daycares, private schools and post-secondary education.
Before 2020, medical exemptions required only a letter from a doctor, which would exempt a child from all required vaccinations. This exemption could also be extended to siblings or other family members, "because family history matters when it comes to medical issues," Dieperink said in a video explaining the exemption process and the rule changes.
They also added requirements that made it more difficult to obtain a medical exemption. "With the rule change, they gutted our medical exemption," Haines said. "Now it's just a bare-bones exemption."
Once the new laws took effect in 2020, physicians had to fill out a standard medical exemption form. The form specifies that children can be exempted from a vaccine only if they have suffered a recognized injury from that vaccine or one of its ingredients. Exemptions could not be extended to siblings -- even in cases of severe injury and death. The exemptions are also time-limited and must be renewed.
At that time, the religious exemption was still available to parents or guardians whose "religious beliefs prohibit the practice of immunization." That request process also changed -- parents had to agree that in the case of an outbreak, their children would be excluded from school. They also could not request exemptions only from specific vaccines.
Haines said the changes in 2020 were "egregious," especially because they happened outside of the legislative process. "Now they want to take away our religious exemption and leave us subject to forced healthcare."
However, she expects significant public pushback against the new bill. "COVID really woke up the sleeping giant and enlightened a lot of people," she said.
"Support for medical freedom has grown a lot in our state, and I am really hopeful that we're going to have not only a lot of testimony but also a lot of bodies in person at the capital to protest this bill," she said.
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