Vaccination Records to be Reviewed by Public Health

Starting this summer, schoolchildren’s vaccination records countywide will be reviewed by the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department in accordance with SB 277, the controversial new state law requiring students to be fully inoculated against 10 commonly targeted diseases. The law, which goes into effect July 1, does away with personal-belief exemptions but still permits medical exemptions. The health department’s Medical Exemptions Pilot Program will “collect and analyze data, identify any medical exemption not meeting SB 277 criteria, and provide helpful information to physicians issuing such exemptions,” according to a 6/6 letter by Dr. Charity Dean, the department’s health officer. Department spokesperson Susan Klein-Rothschild added, “We are not looking at the reasons for medical exemptions; we are just making sure that everyone is treated equally.”