Charleston Gazette-Mail: Governor right to veto anti-vax bill

Proponents of the bill likely would never acknowledge it, but Justice’s decision will protect children’s health and save lives.

West Virginia is one of five states that will waive immunization requirements for children entering school and child care only for a medical reason, such as an allergy to the vaccine. Because West Virginia does not allow religious or philosophical exemptions, the state has one of the best child immunization records in the nation. More important, the state has not been hit in recent years with outbreaks of mostly eradicated diseases such as the measles, which have resurfaced elsewhere after many states started allowing religious and philosophical exemptions.

Vaccinations have been proven safe and effective, and not only protect a child’s health but also that of teachers, school service personnel, parents and entire communities. This is one area where West Virginia, typically at the bottom of the nation for anything involving public health, truly excels.

Anti-vax movements have been around for a while, previously spurred by since-debunked pseudo-science that claimed to link immunizations to conditions such as autism. In fact, right-wing lawmakers in West Virginia have tried numerous times to loosen immunization requirements for all schools, including public institutions. Such efforts could certainly resurface, but, if Justice hadn’t vetoed this bill, the door would have been flung wide open.

Unfortunately, anti-vaxxers picked up significant momentum during the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing mainstream attention to farcical conspiracy theories about vaccines and also deploying a shift in tactics, framing the argument as one of personal freedom (conveniently ignoring that exercising one’s “personal freedom” in some situations could make someone else seriously ill or even kill them).

This further politicized an issue that shouldn’t be political at all. Rest assured, Justice, who is running for the U.S. Senate, will take some political blowback for this from the far-right fringe that seems ever more in control of the Republican Party.

Indeed, his opponent in the Republican primary, Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., has already blasted Justice’s veto as “disregarding religious freedom” and “parental rights.”

Mooney didn’t specify which religion promotes transmitting communicable diseases that are preventable through immunization. It’s also debatable whether parents should have the “right” to expose their children and, by extension, many others, to previously eradicated and serious communicable diseases. But such vacant blathering is to be expected of Mooney, even if he weren’t down massively in the polls and desperate to find a foothold.

It’s not like Justice is an immunization purist, either. During COVID, when vaccines were first made available, West Virginia stunned the nation in compiling the highest vaccination rates in the country. Justice was the darling of national media, as the folksy bard of an underdog tale.

Within a few months, though, West Virginia had some of the lowest vaccination rates in the nation and, at one point, the highest COVID death rate per-capita of any state.

When the vaccines were only available to the elderly or those with serious health problems, it was easy to get to them and get them vaccinated. Once vaccines were available to the public, it became a matter of getting the public to come to the vaccine, which proved to be much more difficult. Justice’s straddling of the fence and caving to political pressure didn’t help.

All that aside, Justice made the right decision to veto House Bill 5105 and, in so doing, put public health above petty, election-year nonsense. Mooney’s criticism is cynical and, frankly, unfair. Protecting West Virginia’s children from measles, mumps, rubella, polio, diphtheria, tetanus, hepatitis B, chicken pox and whooping cough should be a public health issue, not a political or religious bone to pick.