WI: Republicans poised to block DHS vaccine updates for students
Republicans will likely block updated rules for student vaccination requirements implemented by the state Department of Health Services for a second time, following a public hearing Tuesday packed with vaccine skeptics wearing bright red clothes.
The recent DHS changes announced last month included a shift in when children receive the Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis) vaccine, a new requirement that kids be vaccinated against meningitis and a requirement that cases in which children have had varicella — or chickenpox — be verified by a medical professional. The updates didn’t change Wisconsin’s current broad vaccine exemption rules. Parents can still request an exemption from vaccines for health, religious or personal convictions reasons.
The GOP-controlled Joint Committee for the Review of Administrative Rules (JCRAR) will vote soon about whether to suspend updated portions of the rules.
Republicans legislators who blocked similar rules last session have called the changes “unnecessary and capricious” and said they imposed an “undue burden” on parents.
“The committee will make a decision on this and I think I know where the votes will be,” Committee co-chair Sen. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) said towards the end of the nine-hour hearing.
https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2023/03/08/republicans-poised-to-block-dhs-vaccine-updates-for-students/
