After Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that kids would be required to get the COVID-19 vaccine to receive in-person learning, California is blocking many of them from getting medical exemptions from the shot.
The Wall Street Journal reported that doctors such as Dr. M. Kelly Sutton are at risk of losing their medical licensing for issuing “improper” medical exemptions to a handful of students.
“I think the parent knows best, and the parent is going to live with the outcome,” Sutton told WSJ. “I’m warning my patients to have a Plan B.”
As many as 1,000 students who successfully received exemptions from Sutton could lose them according to a new state law that invalidates any exemptions issued before Jan. 1, 2o2o by doctors who have been punished and only offers an appeals process to parents who want to deal with the state’s health and human services agency. Any exemptions that are written by a licensed doctor must go through a heavily regulated state database that is monitored for possible “unjustified” actions by reviewing suspicious instances “such as doctors writing more than five a year.”
Since 2020, at least a dozen California doctors were punished for “issuing unjustified exemptions for school-required vaccines.” At least six other medical professionals face disciplinary retaliation for similar actions.
Since California offers no religious exemptions, parents who don’t want their child to get the shot are left with no other option but to homeschool or leave the blue state.
“I told myself it’s time to go,” said Kristal Flores, a mom who, after her son’s exemption was revoked due to his doctor’s disciplinary action, moved to Arizona to get away from the vaccine mandate for schoolchildren.
Newsom announced on Oct. 1 that he would require any eligible K-12 students in California to get the COVID-19 shot. Students who don’t comply, he said, whether they are enrolled in private or public school, would be barred from in-person instruction.
“CA will require our kids to get the COVID-19 vaccine to come to school. This will go into effect following full FDA approval. Our schools already require vaccines for measles, mumps and more. Why? Because vaccines work. This is about keeping our kids safe & healthy,” Newsom wrote in a tweet.
BREAKING: CA will require our kids to get the COVID-19 vaccine to come to school.
This will go into effect following full FDA approval.
Our schools already require vaccines for measles, mumps and more. Why? Because vaccines work.
This is about keeping our kids safe & healthy.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) October 1, 2021
The FDA last week authorized Pfizer’s COVID shot for children as young as 5 years old, formally enacting Newsom’s order beginning next summer.
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