Missoula County opposes HB 954: Revise day-care facility immunization requirements, up for hearing at 3 p.m. this afternoon in the House Human Services Committee. This bill removes the requirement of Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, varicella, pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines for all childcare settings. Also, family daycare settings (4-8 children) and group daycare homes (9-15 children) cannot require immunizations. This bill will make it difficult to find childcare settings that require immunizations, which poses a safety issue for families with babies who are not fully immunized yet or who have immunocompromised children.
Vaccines protect not only one’s self, but families, neighbors and communities. They are important for children, older adults, those who are immunocompromised and those who may not be able to get vaccinated. Vaccines also help save money. The CDC estimates that the vaccination of children born in the United States between 1994 and 2021 will prevent 472 million illnesses, 29.8 million hospitalizations, help avoid 1,052,000 deaths and save nearly $2.2 trillion in societal costs.
This bill will cost local property tax payers money. This is an unfunded mandate for state health departments that will be tasked with investigating and containing a disease outbreak. For example, the cost of a whooping cough outbreak in a single school is $51,000. The cost of a measles outbreak in Minnesota in 2017 was $1.3 million, and the cost of an average flu season is $87 billion.
Representatives Howell and Zephyr,
ReplyDeleteMissoula County opposes HB 954: Revise day-care facility immunization requirements, up for hearing at 3 p.m. this afternoon in the House Human Services Committee. This bill removes the requirement of Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, varicella, pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines for all childcare settings. Also, family daycare settings (4-8 children) and group daycare homes (9-15 children) cannot require immunizations. This bill will make it difficult to find childcare settings that require immunizations, which poses a safety issue for families with babies who are not fully immunized yet or who have immunocompromised children.
Vaccines protect not only one’s self, but families, neighbors and communities. They are important for children, older adults, those who are immunocompromised and those who may not be able to get vaccinated. Vaccines also help save money. The CDC estimates that the vaccination of children born in the United States between 1994 and 2021 will prevent 472 million illnesses, 29.8 million hospitalizations, help avoid 1,052,000 deaths and save nearly $2.2 trillion in societal costs.
This bill will cost local property tax payers money. This is an unfunded mandate for state health departments that will be tasked with investigating and containing a disease outbreak. For example, the cost of a whooping cough outbreak in a single school is $51,000. The cost of a measles outbreak in Minnesota in 2017 was $1.3 million, and the cost of an average flu season is $87 billion.
Please oppose HB 954.