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Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Maine parents, health care workers again dispute bills to roll back vaccine requirements in schools
Apr. 7—AUGUSTA — In a Monday hearing on two bills to roll back school vaccine requirements in Maine, public health officials and medical professionals urged lawmakers to keep the state's vaccination laws, while parents who have chosen not to vaccinate their children argued the requirements prevent their families from accessing education. The first bill, LD 174, is sponsored by Rep. Gary Drinkwater, R-Milford, and would restore religious vaccine exemptions. The second, LD 727, is sponsored by Rep. Tracy Quint, R-Hodgdon, and would repeal vaccine requirements for a child to attend school in Maine. The Education and Cultural Affairs Committee combined the bills into a single hearing Monday, drawing a smaller crowd than similar bills in years past. Maine eliminated philosophical and religious exemptions for school vaccinations in 2021 following a voter referendum on the law that received 73% support. That change shifted Maine from the state with one of the lowest childhood vaccination rates to one of the highest in just two years. In 2024, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the state had reached "herd immunity," meaning at least 95% of the population had been immunized. Before those exemptions were banned, Maine had one of the highest kindergarten vaccine opt-out rates in the country. During the 2017-18 school year, 5% of Maine kindergarteners did not have childhood vaccines for religious reasons, compared to a 1.8% national average. But the sponsors of the two bills heard Monday argued that Maine's rapidly improved vaccination rate is misleading because the law change prompted many families to opt out of traditional school and children began being homeschooled instead of getting immunized. And, they said, barring religious exemptions infringes on religious freedom and prevents certain students from receiving a public education. During the hearing, public health experts and many parents defended the state's vaccination progress and pointed to growing concerns about outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases elsewhere in the country. But many parents argued that a ban on religious exemptions has unfairly kept their children out of school and extracurricular activities like sports. Ana Frazier of Solon said she homeschools her son because he is not vaccinated and argued that, as a taxpayer, she should still be able to send her child to public school. "It feels like coercion, and it's heartbreaking to see my child and many others face this segregation and isolation from their peers. Every child deserves the right to participate in school activities regardless of their vaccination status," she said. Dawn Murray, a parent of five daughters, said her decision not to vaccinate her children has kept them from public education, sports, music and field trips. "We live in a society that demands that we accept beliefs and practices that we do not share," Murray testified. "Yet what we are experiencing now with the current vaccination law is not true freedom nor universal acceptance." Dr. Puthiery Va, the director of the Maine CDC, said the bills would threaten the health of students and put Maine at risk of an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease. Va pointed to Texas, where a second child recently died from measles, and which she said has one of the most lenient school immunization policies. Other medical professionals, like pediatrician Dr. Joe Anderson from the Maine chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the Texas outbreak should be a warning to Maine. "We don't have to imagine what happens when these protections are weakened. We're seeing it happen in real time. Texas is currently battling a massive measles outbreak with nearly 500 reported cases," Anderson said, adding that Maine is one of only four states that has increased its measles vaccination rate since the pandemic, which he said can make a big difference if the highly contagious disease reaches the state. The committee also heard from long-time school nurses like Rebecca Bell, from Casco Bay High School in Portland. "Removing vaccine requirements is dangerous to children, educators, health care workers and families of those unvaccinated, especially the elderly and those who are immunocompromised," Bell testified. In their questions to speakers, some lawmakers implied that immigrants and refugees in Maine are not being held to the same vaccination standards, and also suggested that border crossings in Texas are responsible for the measles outbreak, something that public health officials there have said there is no evidence for. Doctors and school nurses who testified pushed back on that position, saying immigrants and refugees are bound by the same vaccine requirements as all Mainers; anybody newly enrolling in a Maine school who doesn't have the required vaccines, including both immigrants and students who move from a different state, has a 90-day grace period to get up-to-date on immunizations. Copy the Story Link We believe it's important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers. At its best, our comments sections can be a productive platform for readers to engage with our journalism, offer thoughts on coverage and issues, and drive conversation in a respectful, solutions-based way. It's a form of open discourse that can be useful to our community, public officials, journalists and others. 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Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Health experts urge caution as Maine lawmakers revisit vaccine exemptions
Dr. Puthiery Va, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, cited the ongoing measles outbreak in Texas — now affecting 22 states — as a clear warning against rolling back the state's vaccine requirements. (Photo: Eesha Pendharkar/ Maine Morning Star) Amid a growing measles outbreak in other parts of the country, Maine legislators heard testimony on Monday from parents, educators, and medical professionals on a proposal to repeal the state's vaccine requirements. The hearing reflected a sharp divide: some Republican lawmakers and parents called for reinstating religious exemptions, while health care professionals urged the state to maintain strict immunization rules to protect public health, especially in light of the anti-vaccine rhetoric of the federal government. 'It's frightening to see that the purveyors of these falsehoods are now in positions of authority in Washington,' said Dr. Sydney Sewall, a longtime pediatrician in Hallowell, said in an apparent reference to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 'Their misleading statements, which generally amplify the risks of vaccines and downplay the dangers of these diseases, have given strength to the anti-vaccine movement.' Two bills — LD 727 by Rep. Tracy Quint (R-Hodgdon) and LD 174 by Rep. Gary Drinkwater (R-Milford) — would reinstate nonmedical exemptions for school-required vaccines, six years after that provision was repealed. Supporters of the legislation raised concerns about vaccine ingredients and enforcement, particularly regarding immigrant students. Opponents, including doctors, school nurses, and public health officials, pushed back with scientific evidence and public health data showing that Maine's stricter vaccine policy has worked. Since the 2019 law ending religious and philosophical exemptions, the state's vaccination rate has risen from about 94 to 97%—enough to surpass the 95% herd immunity threshold. Public health advocates also pointed to Mainers' support for the law in a 2021 referendum, when voters rejected an attempt to reinstate nonmedical exemptions. Dr. Puthiery Va, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, cited the ongoing measles outbreak in Texas — now affecting 22 states — as a clear warning. 'The elimination of these requirements not only threatens the health of students, but also increases the likelihood of school and community outbreaks, disrupting education, creating an unnecessary burden on our health care system and financial burden,' Va said. Experts also cited the measles outbreak, which has resulted in two deaths, as an urgent reason to double down on vaccination requirements. 'While the science supporting vaccines hasn't changed — we still consider them to be safe and effective — the danger facing unprotected children seems to have escalated,' Sewall said. Drinkwater argued that Maine's law is 'not neutral,' and that religious exemptions to vaccines were protected by federal civil rights. A handful of parents and students who chose to leave public schools because of the vaccine requirements supported both bills, citing the sacrifice that unvaccinated children had to make to miss out on school and learning, as well as isolation from their peers due to being unable to participate in school sports and other activities. 'When they passed the law and I no longer had teachers around to help me, it became a struggle with my math skills,' said 14-year-old Caliope Murray-Trefts, who had to leave school when the vaccine requirements took effect. 'When I think about school now, I think how unfair it is … that I can't do any of that.' Some lawmakers and speakers, including Rep. Barbara Bagshaw (R-Windham), a member of the Education Committee, claimed there is a double standard for immigrant students. 'If our children have to be vaccinated, there's not the same standard for people coming from other countries that don't have the same requirements,' Bagshaw said. 'We're not enforcing that they take the same vaccinations.' But school nurses working in diverse districts — including Portland and South Portland — disputed those claims in public testimony and interviews with the Maine Morning Star. They explained that schools follow the same immunization process for all students, regardless of immigration status or where they moved from: schools review vaccination records and work with local public health networks to get students up to date, following Maine's 90-day compliance window. 'There is absolutely no difference' between immunization requirements for immigrant students and students who move from other U.S. states, said Becky Bell, a registered nurse with Portland Public Schools. Immigration status, she told the committee, 'has no bearing on whether they get immunized.' In fact, most immigrant students who move to Maine are already fully vaccinated, according to South Portland school nurse Mary Robbins and guidance clerk Natalie Dunn, who monitor immunization records in the district. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
