An effort to boost Oklahoma’s childhood vaccination rates was voted down Thursday in the state Senate.
Senate Bill 83 from Ervin Yen required parents to watch an informational video about vaccine risks and benefits in order for their child to qualify for a nonmedical exemption for immunization.
Yen tied recent outbreaks of formerly well-controlled diseases to celebrity Jenny McCarthy’s statements that vaccines cause autism.
"I presume she came up with that from a fraudulent study that occurred about 20 years ago, and that has been our main problem with decreasing vaccination rates," Yen said.
Yen said a recent kindergarten vaccination rate of 90.3 percent is too low, which Sen. Nathan Dahm wanted to know more about.
"I would be curious what the appropriate number, what the appropriate percentage would be if 90.3 percent is much too low," Dahm said.
"Depends on the disease, but on the order of 95, 96, 97 percent for herd immunity," Yen said.
The bill failed 16–26, with many opponents saying the government shouldn’t interfere in what should be a family decision. They were also critical of a parent not viewing a video potentially barring kids from public school, although that's currently possible under state law if a parent doesn't sign a nonmedical objection to immunization.
Sen. AJ Griffin said there’s a much bigger issue to address first.
"We just keep discussing about how we need to make people get their kids vaccinated, and we're talking about vaccinations where the costs have just skyrocketed," Griffin said. "And in rural Oklahoma, it's almost — if you have private insurance, it's almost impossible to get your kids vaccinated."
Yen, a medical doctor, has been working on this kind of legislation for two years.
