As Measles Cases Rise, S.C. Advances Bill to Prohibit Vaccine Mandates

Skylar Laird/S.C. Daily Gazette

COLUMBIA — As measles cases in South Carolina continue to rise, vaccine supporters and opponents clashed Wednesday over two dueling bills on children’s immunization requirements.

A panel of senators voted 7-1 to advance a bill that would prohibit vaccine mandates for children under 2 years old, even though all vaccines are already optional.

The senators then voted 6-2 to reject a bill requiring all public school children to be vaccinated from measles — no longer allowing exemptions for religious reasons. In both cases, the “no” votes came from Democrats.

Conversations about the bills, which pitted the extremes of vaccine beliefs against each other, reached far beyond their specifics and into much broader questions of vaccine efficacy, medical freedom and the severity of the state’s measles outbreak, which is the worst in the country.

The state health department has reported 990 measles cases since October, when the outbreak began. The number of cases each week has slowed, but officials are bracing for a potential surge as spring break approaches.

Around 95% of those diagnosed with the disease were unvaccinated, said Linda Bell, the state’s epidemiologist, during her hourlong presentation to senators Wednesday.

Several dozen people filled the room and overflowed into the hallway with the hopes of speaking on the bills, many applauding when senators spoke in opposition to vaccines. Senators heard from only six before voting.

Measles outbreak

The outbreak was clearly the driving force behind both bills, said Sen. Josh Kimbrell of Spartanburg County, home to 94% of the people diagnosed with measles since the outbreak began.

For the Boiling Springs Republican, the issue is not so black and white as others have made it out to be, he said.

Kimbrell believes the measles vaccine is safe and effective. He urged fellow senators not to fall for misinformation about it. But he also supports parents’ rights to decide whether to vaccinate their own children, including for religious reasons, he said.

“People want to make it an either/or argument, that you either are for religious liberty exemptions or you’re for having people vaccinated against the measles,” he said. “I view that as a false choice.”

Many of the people sickened in the months-long outbreak are from eastern European countries, who may worry about government overreach because of past experiences with oppression, Kimbrell said.

The Department of Public Health does not disclose specifics on patients, but it has reported multiple exposures at churches that conduct services in Russian and Ukrainian.

The COVID-19 pandemic, with its lockdowns and a surge nationwide in skepticism about vaccines, also soured many people on immunizations they may not have thought twice about before, said Kimbrell, who’s among five Republicans running for governor.

A better way of encouraging vaccination than requiring it would be to better educate the public on what the science really says about vaccines, he said. For instance, public health officials should make clear that the measles vaccine doesn’t cause autism or contain human tissue samples, two common lies Kimbrell hears, he said.

“It’s going to have to be a campaign of winning hearts and minds, combatting misinformation, versus a heavy-handed over-response of, ‘We’re making you do it,’” Kimbrell said to Bell.

Proving Kimbrell’s point, half of the six people who spoke Wednesday repeated those false claims. One claimed a vaccine gave her daughter learning disabilities. Another said she believed the vaccine contained human DNA. Researchers have debunked both claims.

The health department is trying to focus its efforts on explaining the disease and its symptoms, Bell said. If people can understand what might happen if they get measles, they might be more inclined to get a vaccine to prevent that, she said.

Although the outbreak is still far from over, the department has seen an uptick in the number of people vaccinated compared to years past, Bell said. The number of people who received the measles vaccine went up 70% this February compared with the same month last year, she said.

“We don’t want to find ourselves back in a time where we’re suffering more from the complications of the disease,” Bell said.

Banning vaccine mandates for infants

When Sen. Carlisle Kennedy’s 1-year-old son was born without functioning kidneys last year, the senator became very concerned about vaccines for infants, he said.

His bill, which advanced to the full Senate Medical Affairs Committee, would prohibit mandates of vaccines before the age of 2 unless “at the voluntary request” of the child’s parent.

State law has no mandatory vaccines. Kennedy’s situation is an example. The Lexington Republican opted to wait before his child received vaccines usually given soon after birth. Parents can tell their doctors they don’t want their children immunized.

But Kennedy worried about the potential of future mandates, even though that’s unlikely in South Carolina. He wanted a law to explicitly tell parents they don’t have to vaccinate their young children, he said.

Even if vaccines aren’t required, he worried some parents may not know enough to opt out. His bill was meant to reaffirm that they could say “no,” so they understand that no doctor can override their wishes.

“It protects the parents and the child and protects parental rights to make the decision as to when would be the best time to proceed with medical products like vaccines,” Kennedy said.

Sen. Deon Tedder questioned why senators were passing a bill that didn’t actually affect anything.

“What’s the point of prohibiting something that’s not even done?” the Charleston Democrat asked, before being the only “no” vote against advancing it.

Religious exemptions

The other bill debated Wednesday would have eliminated parents’ ability to exempt their children from receiving the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine for religious reasons.

Technically, the 6-2 vote was to carry the debate into some future possible meeting. It’s a motion usually meant to kill a bill politely. But in this case, opponents made clear the bill will never come back up. It’s “graveyard dead,” said Sen. Shane Martin, another Spartanburg County Republican.

Most children receive their first dose of the vaccine between 12 and 15 months of age and a second between 4 and 6 years old. The vaccine is among those required for children entering school, but parents can opt out if they say it goes against their religion as long as they submit a notarized form to their school nurse.

The number of parents claiming that exemption surged after the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to fewer students entering school with all their vaccines, according to data from the Department of Public Health.

“If you as a parent, regardless of whether it’s religious or non-religious, decide that you don’t want any vaccination in your child’s body, that is your right,” said Sen. Margie Bright Matthews, the bill’s sponsor. “That is your right as a parent.”

However, she added, “If you don’t want that, you still should not be allowed to send your unvaccinated child to school.”

Her proposal was personal. Her sister-in-law died years ago of complications from measles, she said.

Legislators need to take action to prevent similar tragedies, said the Walterboro Democrat.

No one in the state has died of measles in this outbreak. It can cause pneumonia and encephalitis, diseases that are more likely to be fatal in children. But measles can cause other complications, including temporarily erasing the body’s immune responses to other diseases and, in very rare cases, causing a long-term fatal disease affecting the central nervous system.

Even though the bill didn’t technically require parents to get their children vaccinated for measles, since they could choose to homeschool or enroll their child in private school, it would leave many families with no options, said Sen. Matt Leber.

Parents might have to quit their jobs to care for their children if they can’t attend public school because of vaccine requirements, Leber said. Families that can’t afford that might be forced into a vaccination they don’t want, he said.

The measles vaccine is 97% effective, so parents who want to vaccinate their children shouldn’t worry about what those who don’t want to give their children the measles vaccine are doing, Leber said.

“The chances of an unvaccinated child giving a vaccinated child the measles is so rare, it’s not worth taking their rights away,” the Johns Island Republican said.

That line of thinking doesn’t account for vulnerable people in the community who can’t get vaccinated or are more susceptible to complications, including pregnant women, people with certain medical conditions and young babies, said Deborah Greenhouse, a Columbia pediatrician.

Talking to Kennedy, she told him his unvaccinated baby is protected by other people who are vaccinated.

“Parents in South Carolina deserve freedom,” Greenhouse said. “They deserve the freedom to know that when their children are going to school, then they’re in a setting that’s as safe as possible when they walk through the doors.”