A California lawmaker wanted to push more middle schoolers to get vaccinated against a sexually-transmitted disease that causes cancer. But now she's shifting her efforts to college students.
Assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, D-Winters, authored a bill that would have added the human papillomavirus, or HPV, vaccine to a list of shots required for eighth grade enrollment. But amendments to her bill have since stripped the enforcement provision from the middle school requirement, stating that students entering eight grade are "expected to be fully immunized."
The newer version of the bill would still require the HPV vaccine in the University of California and California State University systems. Students enrolling at public colleges would need to get HPV shots to attend classes.
Aguiar-Curry said she's taking this approach because out of concern that a mandate could hurt children already negatively affected by COVID-19 school closures and distance learning.
"I'm doing this bill to help kids avoid serious health impacts later in their lives from this virus," Aguiar-Curry said in an email. "But I decided not to enforce the requirement at the K-12 level because I don't want removal from the classroom to cause further harm to California children."
HPV is transmitted through sex and can cause cervical cancer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend children get vaccinated against HPV through a two-shot series starting at age 11 or 12, in order to protect them long before they become sexually active.
About 69% of teens age 13 to 17 are up to date on their HPV vaccinations, according to data from the CDC's National Immunization Survey. But 89% of teens in the same age group have received at least one dose of the tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis, or tdap, vaccine, which is required for seventh grade attendance.
No middle school shot mandate?
California has strict vaccine requirements for public school students. Children must be vaccinated against a list of illnesses before enrolling in transitional kindergarten and seventh grade.
Legislators in recent years have worked to close loopholes allowing for personal belief or medical exemptions, making it very challenging for parents to avoid vaccinating their children.
Aguiar-Curry's bill would place the HPV vaccine in a gray area. It would be on the list of required shots for seventh graders, but schools couldn't bar unvaccinated students from enrolling in classes.
The assemblywoman believes even an unenforced requirement would help encourage more HPV vaccinations.
"The bill still requires HPV vaccines be added to the list of required vaccinations so parents will be made aware by their pediatrician," Aguiar-Curry said. "I feel that educational process, with a health professional who cares for their child, will provide more education about and awareness of the virus and the ability to avoid potential illness in the future."
Struggle to pass vaccine bills
Anti-vaccine opposition grew during the COVID-19 pandemic and has become more organized. Lawmakers have struggled to pass bills expanding vaccine mandates.
Legislators pulled nearly all their vaccine bills last session. This included a measure from Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, that would have allowed teens ages 15 and older to get vaccines fully approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration without their parents' permission.
Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration eventually pulled back from requiring the COVID-19 vaccine for public school attendance.
Groups that oppose vaccine mandates are also fighting Aguiar-Curry's bill. Freedom Angels, which has been organizing against shot requirements since 2019, celebrated the amendments and the lawmaker's decision to postpone the bill's Assembly Health Committee hearing in March.
Group members on social media say they're against the bill because HPV can't be transmitted in schools and young people 12 years and older can already get the vaccine without parents' consent.
But Freedom Angels also spreads debunked misinformation about HPV shot side effects and Merck, the pharmaceutical company that manufactures the widely-used Gardasil-brand vaccine.
Catherine Flores Martin of the California Immunization Coalition said she hasn't heard a lot of opposition to the HPV shot or other childhood vaccines in the same way parents expressed concerns about COVID immunizations.
"I'm not sure that mainstream parents would be that upset about HPV," Flores Martin said. "Ultimately, I think it would be successful. Ultimately, I think if we've stayed strong and made it happen, it would be successful. I think people were more concerned about COVID because of all the things around COVID, and it's a relatively new vaccine."
Planned Parenthood supports the bill, saying in a support letter it would "close the access gap among teens and young adults who receive the vaccine late, or not at all."
Flores Martin said the Immunization Coalition has not yet taken a position on Aguiar-Curry's bill.
A letter from the group suggests checking for the HPV vaccine at seventh grade, as schools already do for the tdap and chickenpox shots. The group would also like to see Hepatitis B added back onto the list of shots mandated for seventh graders.
"Education is great," Flores Martin said. "…. But I think a lot of education is already happening. So, not a bad thing, but we were sort of in a position of do a mandate or not, basically. So it's great that they want to check it, if they're proposing checking at college. But if you're going to do a mandate, the preferred time would be at junior high age."
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