Agreement Reached on SB276
Vaccinate California and thousands of parents across the state applaud Governor Newsom and Dr. Pan for reaching an agreement to advance Senate Bill 276 and for helping to protect our children from vaccine-preventable diseases. Today’s agreement is a victory for science over fear and for sound public health policy over conspiracy and misinformation. We urge Governor Newsom to sign SB 276 immediately.
No parent should have to make the choice to pull their child from school to protect them from vaccine-preventable illness. That is why parents from Vaccinate California have made their voices heard in support of SB276 – to help protect our communities and ensure that no schools in California have unsafe numbers of unvaccinated students. Unvaccinated children are at higher risk for contagious disease — in schools, in physician waiting rooms, on playgrounds, on public transportation and elsewhere — and they pose a significant risk to infants and immunocompromised children, including cancer patients and children who have had organ transplants. These children — the most vulnerable among us — need the rest of us to be vaccinated.
The parents of Vaccinate California are grateful to Dr. Pan and Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez for the leadership and the courage they have shown in bringing SB 276 to this point as well as Senate President Pro Tem Atkins for backing her legislative colleagues. Because of their efforts to ensure that medical exemptions can be reviewed and invalidated where appropriate, more of our children will be protected from vaccine-preventable illnesses in schools.