New California Bill Adds COVID-19 Vaccine to Long List of Required Inoculations for School Children

On Monday, a far-reaching bill was introduced in California that would require all students to be fully immunized for COVID-19 before they can attend public schools in the once-golden state. Senate Bill 871, authored by state Senator Richard Pan (D-Sacramento), adds COVID-19 vaccines to the long list of inoculations required for students to attend PreK-12 public schools in California.

What’s worse is SB-871 also expands Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom’s existing and onerous COVID-19 vaccine mandate for students by removing the personal belief exemption. As written, SB-871’s COVID-19 vaccination requirement can only be bypassed if a student receives a rare and bonafide medical exemption. Up to this point, California parents who refused to vaccinate their children could instead sign them up for an independent home-based learning program. It is, however, unclear if that program will continue and if Newsom can remove the personal belief exemption for the COVID-19 vaccination without the California Legislature acting first.

Pan, a pediatrician, has long been an outspoken advocate for more stringent vaccine requirements for school children. According to his official biography, “TIME magazine called Dr. Pan a ‘hero’ when he authored landmark legislation to abolish non-medical exemptions to legally required vaccines for school students, thereby restoring community immunity from preventable contagions.” California has already eliminated personal belief exemptions for all of the other vaccines students are required to receive, including chickenpox, measles, polio, and even tetanus.

“What we’re saying is that if you choose not to vaccinate your child, there’s a consequence,” Pan told the San Fransico Chronicle. “It’s to protect the other children because they have rights as well. We need to give confidence and certainty to parents and to school districts that schools can stay open and that they’re safe.”

California state Senate Republican Leader Scott Wilk (R-Santa Clarita) called SB-871 an overreach and compared the Democratic plan to George Orwell’s classic novel about authoritarianism. “I am both vaccinated and supportive of vaccines, but this draconian proposal undermines parental rights,” Wilk said in a statement to the Chronicle. “Democrats in this building continue to implement their own version of ‘Animal Farm.’”

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Both Pan’s SB-871 and his SB-866, introduced last week with Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), are expected to be strongly opposed by parents and other groups who object to the government mandates and believe parents should be the ones who decide whether to inoculate their own children without interference by the state. SB-866 would allow children 12 and older to be vaccinated—including against COVID-19—without a parent’s consent or knowledge. Across the nation, these types of invasive legislative attempts to force vaccinations have led not to compliance, but rather to intense school board meeting discussions, organized protests, arrests, and parents pulling their kids out of the public school system. Do Newsom and his leftist cabal in Sacramento really expect anything different to happen here?

“Given the fact that countries around the world are dropping restrictions, eschewing mandates, and accepting that COVID is becoming endemic, Sen. Pan’s new bill shows just how out of touch he is, both scientifically and politically,” Stefanie Fetzer, the founder of Parents United 4 Kids, which advocates for parental choice, told the Los Angeles Times. “California parents don’t want the state making parenting decisions for them.” But when has what their constituents wanted ever stopped the left?

Pan’s new bill furthers Newsom’s original COVID-19 mandate, and Newsom has said he is open to increasing the mandate–which is why it’s imperative that California’s parents speak up now to stop this government overreach and force their legislators to actually represent them and what they want for their children.