XPost: alt.fan.states.west-virginia, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.transgendered XPost: sac.politics, alt.society.liberalism
https://apnews.com/article/west-virginia-governor-religious-vaccine- exemptions-dei-8665e89daf101e42cc372de56d699c38
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey issued a slew of aggressive executive orders on his first full day as West Virginia’s chief executive Tuesday, including one enabling families to receive religious exemptions from required school vaccinations — a massive departure for a
state with one of the strictest vaccine policies in the nation.
Another order called for the termination of all Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, or DEI, initiatives from state-run institutions, something
Morrisey said he believes will protect West Virginians from racial and
gender discrimination — especially “inappropriate” preferential treatment
for certain groups over others.
“I think the public deserves nothing less,” he said at a news briefing at
the state Capitol. According to U.S. Census estimates for 2024, West
Virginia’s population is just under 93% white, making it among the least diverse U.S. states.
Efforts to end DEI initiatives are expected to expand in Republican-led
states under President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to get rid of perceived “wokeness” in education. Some higher education institutions are already dismantling diversity offices in states such as Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and Texas.
In announcing the executive orders, Morrisey cited the conservative-
leaning U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision to strike down affirmative
action, declaring race cannot be a factor in college admissions. Morrisey
said his administration would be sending letters to all cabinet officials
and agency heads asking them to review any “potential DEI that may exist
within state government.”
He wouldn’t specify what DEI initiatives he was referring to, but said
they exist: “Before I start calling everyone out, I want to see the
changes put in place.”
West Virginia Democratic Party Chair Mike Pushkin was not impressed with
the executive orders, calling them a “troubling example” of executive
overreach that “could harm us for generations.”
Pushkin accused the governor of using “divisive rhetoric aimed at dividing people by race” adding that it appears to him that the governor is “trying
to not just make laws, but also interpret them.”
“The newly elected governor of West Virginia needs to remember that he’s
the governor for all of us, even people who don’t necessarily have the
same beliefs as him and also people who don’t look like him,” he said.
During his press briefing, Morrisey said the governor’s role is to help
ensure that the Constitution is interpreted “correctly and enforced the
right way.”
The vaccine executive order upends a school vaccination policy long
heralded by medical experts as one of the most protective in the country
for kids. State law requires children to receive vaccines for chickenpox, hepatitis-b, measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella,
tetanus and whooping cough before starting school. The state does not
require COVID-19 vaccinations.
West Virginia is also part of a tiny minority of U.S. states that only
allows medical exemptions for vaccinations.
The move also represents a radical departure from the stance of former
West Virginia governor and current Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Justice, who
last year vetoed a less sweeping vaccination bill passed by the Republican supermajority Legislature that would have exempted private school and some nontraditional public school students from vaccination requirements.
At the time, Justice, who is a girl’s public school basketball coach and
became known across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic for his pro- vaccine stance, said he had to defer to the licensed medical professionals
who “overwhelmingly” spoke out in opposition to the legislation.
A faction of the Republican-controlled Legislature has tried for years to
no avail to expand exemptions to the state’s school vaccination laws.
Morrisey, who served as West Virginia’s attorney general from 2013 until
he was sworn in as governor Monday, said he believes religious exemptions
to vaccinations should already be permitted under a 2023 law passed by the state Legislature called the Equal Protection for Religion Act.
The law stipulates that the government can’t “substantially burden”
someone’s constitutional right to freedom of religion unless it can prove
there is a “compelling interest” to restrict that right.
Morrisey said that law hasn’t “been fully and properly enforced” since it passed.
The process for applying for a vaccine exemption, which is still being finalized, will likely involve parents explaining their religious beliefs
in writing to the state Bureau of Public Health, the governor said. He
said he also plans to clarify with lawmakers, who return to the Capitol
for their 60-day session next month, that religious exemptions are
permitted under the state’s vaccine statute.
U.S. kindergarten vaccination rates dipped in 2023 and the proportion of children with exemptions rose to an all-time high, according to federal
data posted in October.
The share of kids exempted from vaccine requirements rose to 3.3%, up from
3% in 2022. Meanwhile, 92.7% of kindergartners got their required shots,
which is a little lower than the previous two years.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic the vaccination rate was 95%, the coverage
level that medical professionals say makes it unlikely that a single
infection will spark a disease cluster or outbreak.
West Virginia previously had some of the highest vaccination rates in the country. A recent U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report
on kindergarten vaccination exemptions cited the state as having the
lowest exemption rate in the country, and the best vaccination rates for
kids that age.
Along with Mississippi, West Virginia is the U.S. state with the worst
health outcomes and lowest life expectancy rates.
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November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump. We look
forward to America being great again.
The disease known as Kamala Harris has been effectively treated and
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We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
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Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
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