Oppose SB871

SB 871 Introduced by Senator Pan on January 24, 2022

SB 871 would require that all children who will be attending in person day care, child care, public or private school must be fully immunized against Covid-19. In addition, this bill would remove the Personal Belief Exemption from any additional immunization requirements from future added vaccines by the California Department of Public Health. 

Currently these are that list includes: Diphtheria, Hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenza type b., Measles, Mumps, Pertussis (whooping cough), Poliomyelitis, Rubella, Tetanus, Varicella (chicken Pox), Covid-19 Vaccine, and any other vaccine deemed appropriate by CDPH,  taking into consideration the recommendations of ACIP, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Academy of Family Physicians. 

SB871 would also remove the 7th grade exemption for Hepatitis B.

Read full Bill Text here

“There will be bipartisan opposition because this bill is a “gross overreach”- Assemblyman James Gallagher 

“Parents do not want the government to interfere with their role as a parent, deciding what is best for their child.” - Senator Melissa Melendez

“A state senator is trying to mandate the vaccine for kindergarten and up without exemptions starting next year. This is not called science. It's called an obsession.” - Assemblyman Kevin Kiley 

We NEED everyone to contact your Legislator and ask important questions in regards to SB71 and ask that they oppose this bill.

Here are some key points and questions you can add in the email to your Legislator:

• Burden of disease: Children and adolescents (5-17 years) account for __14.6_%) of reported cases yet are 0.0 % of deaths. (Source)
• The covid vaccine is not  FDA approved. Why is this legislation being introduced without FDA approval when it will mandate the CV-19 vaccine for our kids to attend in-person school. 
• If we set the precedent that EUA vaccines can be forced on our children, where will it end? What is stopping our legislature and CDPH from assuming our children will do this again for any other disease the CDC or CADPH deems a risk?
• The removal of the Personal Exemption for additional vaccine requirements will make education options for our children even more limited. 

• “ALL OTHER DISEASES DEEMED..”

  Current text leaves ambiguity for medical decisions to be left at the discretion of public health officials.

• LAUSD tried to implement a covid vaccine requirement for children 12+ and had anticipated 30,000 students about to switch to remote learning because they would no longer qualify for in-person learning. They pushed back the enforcement of this mandate because it would overwhelm the remote learning program which is not set up for that large of an influx of students. So couldn’t it be expected that the same issue would arise with a statewide mandate? Especially if it is required for much younger children. 
• If more parents chose to enroll their children in remote learning then teachers would need to be moved from the classroom to remote learning to be able to accommodate this. How would the districts handle this staffing issue?
• Children are highly unlikely to be hospitalized for covid and even less likely to die from the illness. The vaccine does not prevent illness or transmission so why force children to be vaccinated? The risks of the vaccine outweigh the benefits as we are seeing increases in myocarditis rates and other adverse reactions. 
• Will boosters every five months be required as they are for adults? If they are, how will schools handle tracking this? Will students be removed from the school if they miss a booster?
• Parents who do not wish to get their child vaccinated and are unable to homeschool will be forced to leave CA causing even more of a mass exodus from the state. This will, again, cause decrease in school funding and layoffs which will hurt those who are left in the state. We will also lose the tax revenue from those people. 
• What about natural immunity in children who have already been diagnosed positive with Covid-19?
• Risk vs benefit for school age children…. CDC data on hospitalizations, icu, death vs. data on vaers (reports signed under penalty of perjury, vetted, and removed as necessary, as only data must be used to note red flags.) can pull data from here on death, hospitalizations, icu, etc for children contracting covid https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/meetings/downloads/slides-2021-11-2-3/03-COVID-Jefferson-508.pdf and current stats and compare to current vaers data.