LIHUE — Concerned Kauai citizens are gearing up for today’s public hearing on immunization and health requirements for school attendance, set to start at 2 p.m.
Located in the state Deparment of Health Kauai District Health Office conference room, at 3040 Umi Street in Lihue, the meeting is hosted by the DOH, and will run until 4 p.m.
Proposed changes to the requirements include the addition of six new vaccines to the list of required vaccinations: HPV (Human Papillomavirus Vaccine), MCV (Meningococcal Conjugate Vaccine), Tdap (Tetanus-diptheria-acellular pertussis), Hepatitis A, Influenza, Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) and rotavirus.
Currently, school children are required to be immunized for DTaP/DTP/Td (diphtheria/tetanus/pertussis), Polio, MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) Hepatitis B, Hib (Haemophilus influenzae type b) (for preschool attendance) and Varicella (chickenpox).
Several Kauai parents have already submitted testimony on the topic.
“The trend today is more and more people do not immunize because they see the results of damaged children and death,” said Toni Liljengren in testimony submitted to DOH and TGI. “We want to protect our basic, constitutional rights, and put an end to the travesty of toxic shots into humanity.”
She said she’s attending the meeting and submitting testimony because she’s worried about stricter rules on religious and medical exemptions and thinks there’s potential for those exemptions to disappear down the road.
“All’s I can tell you is it’s confused everyone,” Liljengren said. “We’re looking for clarity.”
Miguel Amador, of Kilauea, said Thursday he’s concerned because he watched California take steps toward mandatory vaccinations and said he’ll be at today’s meeting to stand up against that in Hawaii.
“It’s a business move, it’s not a health decision,” Amador said.
DOH maintains the goal is to bring immunization and examination requirements for school and child care facility attendance up to par with those recommended by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Those rules were last revised in 2001.
Parents can still opt out, even with proposed changes taken into account, due to religion or medical mandates, but those exemptions could be preempted in the case of an outbreak or potential outbreak, which has also always been within the rules.
Testimony on rule changes may be submitted orally or in writing during the public hearings. People who are not able to attend the hearing may submit written testimony to DOH by email to immunization@doh.hawaii.gov by Dec. 26 at 4 p.m.
For more information and to view the proposed rules, visit http://health.hawaii.gov/opppd/proposed-changes-to-department-of-health-administrative-rules-title-11/.
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Jessica Else, staff writer, can be reached at 245-0452 or jelse@thegardenisland.com.
