As expected, the legislature passed two harmful bills last week on a party-line vote & Ducey promptly signed both. HB2453 prohibits the state or any political subdivision from requiring people to wear a mask on their premises. There’s an exemption for places like Valleywise Health. This law will be quite harmful if it’s not repealed before the next time we have an outbreak of an airborne illness.
He also promptly signed HB2086 which will prohibit the ADHS from ever adding the COVID vaccine or it’s successors to the list of vaccines required for school attendance. See: COVID-19 vaccine for school kids not required after Ducey signs bill.
Editorial Note: This new law is totally unnecessary. The existing process for adding school required vaccines has been in place for decades and works well. ADHS has to do a rulemaking (with lots of public comment), and economic impact evaluation, and final approval rests with the Governor’s Regulatory Review Council.
Back in 2008 we added the Varicella (chicken pox) and Meningococcal vaccines to the list required for school attendance. We listened to & learned from the public comments & made sure the epidemiology & economics made sense.
Here’s an op-ed by Leslie Maier who was instrumental in inspiring us to add the meningococcal vaccine to the school required list. In it she talks about losing her son Chris to meningitis at the age of 17: Arizona vaccination rates are lagging. That’s even more dangerous now
BTW: Here are the results of our 2008 intervention (for Meningococcal disease):
“During SY 2006–2007, only 20.1% of 11-year-olds and 21.0% of 12-year-olds in the registry received the meningococcal vaccine. This proportion increased during SY 2007–2008 to 48.2% of 11-year-olds and 40.3% of 12-year-olds. The increase in on-schedule vaccination rates between 2007 and 2008 was statistically significant (Pearson’s corrected Chi-square value 5 2,426.07, degree of freedom 5 1, p,0.0001) at 95% CI.”
“This analysis suggests that implementation of school immunization requirements resulted in increased meningococcal vaccination rates in Arizona, with degree of response varying by demographic profile. ASIIS was useful for assessing changes in immunization rates over time.”
I’ll be presenting about the various preemption bills (ppt) that Ducey signed at the June 14, 15 Rural Health Conference in Flag. More info about registration here: 48th Annual Arizona Rural Health Conference | Arizona Center for Rural Health.
