A hate-filled pressure campaign, including death threats, led the author of a bill seeking to lower California’s age of vaccine consent to abandon his effort Wednesday.
“Sadly, months of harassment and misinformation—including death threats against me and teen advocates—by a small but highly vocal and organized minority of anti-vaxxers have taken their toll,” state Sen. Scott Wiener (D) said in a written statement.
Weiner said his bill seeking to let those 15 and older get vaccinated on their own volition (S.B. 866) was a few votes short of the support it needs, and wouldn’t come up for a vote in the final hours of the legislative session.
“The anti-vaxxers may have prevailed in this particular fight, but the broader fight for science and health continues,” he said, praising the student activists who pushed the bill for exhibiting “passion, tenacity, and willingness to sustain personal attacks by adult anti-vaxxers who were absolutely cruel toward them and anyone else who believes in science.”
Though prompted by a national backlash from people who didn’t want governments to require Covid vaccines, Wiener’s legislation sought to go beyond pandemic response. It sought to let teenagers 15 years or older consent to any FDA-approved vaccine that meets the recommendations of the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
Already, California children 12 years old and older may independently decide to get the human papillomavirus (HPV) and hepatitis B vaccines, both of which protect against sexually-transmitted infections.
Other States
In Idaho and Washington, minors can make decisions on any health-care procedure if their provider deems the child mature enough, according to the office of the bill’s co-author, state Sen. Richard Pan (D).
In Tennessee, Oregon, and Rhode Island, the age of consent for vaccinations is 14, 15, and 16, respectively. And in Alaska and Delaware, residents between 12 and 18 years old may consent to any vaccine except the Covid ones, according to Pan’s staff.
A separate initiative prompted by the Covid pandemic did make it to the desk of Gov. Gavin Newsom (D). That measure (A.B. 2098), which won final passage Tuesday, would declare that spreading false or misleading medical information to patients as “unprofessional conduct,” subject to punishment by the Medical Board of California, which licenses doctors.
