On June 18, a group of interested parties (IPs) met at the Ohio Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics to discuss legislative and regulatory strategies for improving Ohio’s immunization rates and specifically to reach consensus on immunization policy principles. Executive Vice President Ann Spicer represented the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians at the meeting.
- Reduces barriers to giving safe and effective vaccines
- Encourages adherence to evidence-based vaccine recommendations
- Supports providing accurate, science-based immunization information
- Standardizes opt-out processing
- Strengthens report of immunization opt-outs
- Strikes a better balance between parental rights and the overall health and well-being of Ohio’s children.
The group spoke with the staff of State Senator Sandra Williams relative to her plans to introduce legislation that would limit exemptions from school and children care immunization requirements to medical exemptions. The legislation would utilize Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria to define medical (clinical) exemptions. The ability to declare philosophical and religious exemptions has greatly increased numbers of children who have not been immunized.
Thought is also being given to pursuing an Ohio Department of Health Director’s Journal Entry that would focus exclusively on the standardization of opt-out forms as a means to decrease the numbers of children who have not been immunized. The opt-out form would have to be signed by a physician, physician assistant, nurse practitioner, or registered nurse working in a local health department stating that oral information had been provided to the parent or guardian relative to the risks and benefits of immunization, and the health risks presented to the child and community by one or more of the diseases. The signature would indicate information had been provided to the person seeking to opt-out, not that the clinician approved of the opt-out.
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