For decades, Louisiana's children have enjoyed a wall of protection from diseases both debilitating and deadly.
That wall came in the form of childhood vaccines, which have been required before children could enter schools. The vaccines greatly reduce the incidence of diseases like measles and polio, both of which exacted devastating tolls on children before the vaccines were created. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that childhood vaccines prevent 4 million deaths per year.
But in Louisiana, parental opt-outs and bills in the Legislature are chipping away at that wall, putting more Louisiana kids at risk from diseases once considered eliminated in the United States.
One bill under consideration would require that information on Louisiana's generous opt-out policy be included with immunization requirement information communicated to parents. House Bill 47's sponsor, state Rep. Kathy Edmonston, R-Gonzales, calls it an issue of "transparency." She argued in committee testimony that the opt-out policy has been in place for 20 years, but that many parents and school system employees don't know about it.
Even without the bill, the rate at which parents are opting their children out of the required vaccines doubled at the start of the 2022-2023 school year, according to numbers from the CDC. For that year, some 2.3% of Louisiana children — about 1,155 kids — were opted out of immunizations by their parents, compared to about 1.1% the prior year. Some New Orleans schools reported immunization rates in the 60%-70% range, far below what the CDC considers necessary for herd immunity.
Parents are taking advantage of Louisiana's broad allowances for vaccine opt-outs, which include a "philosophical" exemption for any reason. Louisiana is one of about 15 states with such an exemption.
Increasing opt-outs aren't just an exercise in parental rights. They increase the risk that those diseases will find their way to the most vulnerable, including children too young to be immunized or those with compromised immune systems.
In the case of measles, which is highly infectious, doctors estimate that about 95% of kids need to be immunized to achieve herd immunity. Several states have dealt with outbreaks in recent years. In February, two New Orleans-area children were diagnosed with the disease, the first cases in the state since 2018.
HB 47 is not the only bill targeting vaccines or vaccine policy in this year's legislative session. Others would prohibit schools from requiring the COVID-19 vaccine or put in protections for businesses that don't require the COVID-19 vaccine or other emergency vaccinations.
We urge parents and the Legislature to lean on the decades of settled science about the benefits of vaccines. Taking steps that reduce the number of children who receive them is not just misguided, but dangerous.