Bill Text: WV HB2881 | 2022 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Removing Hepatitis B from the list of required vaccinations
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-01-12 - To House Health and Human Resources [HB2881 Detail]
Download: West_Virginia-2022-HB2881-Introduced.html
WEST virginia legislature
2021 regular session
Introduced
House Bill 2881
By Delegates Steele and Sypolt
[Introduced March 03, 2021; Referred to the Committee on Health and Human Resources then Education]
A BILL to amend and reenact §16-3-4 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to removing Hepatitis B vaccine from the list of from compulsory immunizations.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
ARTICLE 3. PREVENTION AND CONTROL OF COMMUNICABLE AND OTHER INFECTIOUS DISEASES.
§16-3-4. Compulsory immunization of school children; information disseminated; offenses; penalties.
(a) Whenever a resident birth occurs, the commissioner shall promptly provide parents of the newborn child with information on immunizations mandated by this state or required for admission to a public, private, and parochial school in this state or a state-regulated child care center.
(b) Except as hereinafter
provided, a child entering school or a state-regulated child care center in this
state must shall be immunized against chickenpox, hepatitis-b,
measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus, and whooping
cough.
(c) No child or person may
be admitted or received in any of the schools of the state or a state-regulated
child care center until he or she has been immunized against chickenpox, hepatitis-b,
measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus, and whooping
cough or produces a certificate from the commissioner granting the child or
person an exemption from the compulsory immunization requirements of this
section.
(d) Any school or
state-regulated child care center personnel having information concerning any
person who attempts to be enrolled in a school or state-regulated child care
center without having been immunized against chickenpox, hepatitis-b
measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus, and whooping
cough shall report the names of all such persons to the commissioner.
(e) Persons may be
provisionally enrolled under minimum criteria established by the commissioner
so that the person’s immunization may be completed while missing a minimum
amount of school. No person shall may be allowed to enter school
without at least one dose of each required vaccine.
(f) County health departments shall furnish the biologicals for this immunization for children of parents or guardians who attest that they cannot afford or otherwise access vaccines elsewhere.
(g) Health officers and
physicians who provide vaccinations must shall present the person
vaccinated with a certificate free of charge showing that they have been
immunized against chickenpox, hepatitis-b, measles, meningitis, mumps,
diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus and whooping cough, or he or she may give
the certificate to any person or child whom he or she knows to have been
immunized against chickenpox, hepatitis-b, measles, meningitis, mumps,
diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus and whooping cough.
(h) The commissioner is
authorized to may grant, renew, condition, deny, suspend, or revoke
exemptions to the compulsory immunization requirements of this section, on a
statewide basis, upon sufficient medical evidence that immunization is
contraindicated or there exists a specific precaution to a particular vaccine.
(1) A request for an
exemption to the compulsory immunization requirements of this section must
shall be accompanied by the certification of a licensed physician
stating that the physical condition of the child is such that immunization is
contraindicated or there exists a specific precaution to a particular vaccine.
(2) The commissioner is authorized to appoint and employ an Immunization Officer to make determinations on request for an exemption to the compulsory immunization requirements of this section, on a statewide basis, and delegate to the Immunization Officer the authority granted to the commissioner by this subsection.
(3) A person appointed and
employed as the Immunization Officer must shall be a physician
licensed under the laws of this state to practice medicine.
(4) The Immunization Officer’s decision on a request for an exemption to the compulsory immunization requirements of this section may be appealed to the State Health Officer.
(5) The final determination
of the State Health Officer is subject to a right of appeal pursuant to the
provisions of §29A-5-1 et seq. of this code.
(i) A physician who
provides any person with a false certificate of immunization against
chickenpox, hepatitis-b, measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio,,
rubella, tetanus and whooping cough is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon
conviction, shall be fined not less than $25 nor more than $100.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to remove the hepatitis B vaccine from the vaccines mandated by this state or required for admission to a public, private, and parochial school in this state or a state-regulated child care center.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.