Banning public belief exemptions for vaccinations made people turn to medical exemptions instead
After California got rid of the personal belief exemption for vaccinations, medical exemptions for vaccinations went up, say researchers studying the public health effects of a California Senate bill. Though total exemptions still went down, the findings suggest that the bill isn’t as strong as was hoped, since anti-vaxxers were still able to find doctors willing to provide a medical exemption instead.
The measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine is typically required to attend schools. In 2015, California passed Senate Bill 277, which mandated that parents couldn’t claim personal belief as a reason not to vaccinate a kid. Instead, they’d have to get a medical exemption. Using data from the California Department of Public Health’s yearly…
