Colorado’s Vaccination Database Bill Dies on State House Floor

Colorado’s proposed bill to track children who haven’t been vaccinated died in the state Capitol. Currently, the state requires parents to notify their children’s school if they have not been immunized. The failed bill would have required parents to go a step further by notifying the state, so their child would then be placed in a registry.

When first introduced, the bill passed out of a hearing, despite the fact that many parents opposed to vaccinations raised points of protest.

However, the sponsor of the bill ultimately pulled the measure, as they felt that it didn’t have the support to be passed on the house floor.

While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend that everyone six months of age and older should get a flu vaccine every season, many parents are opposed to vaccinations. This often results in the proliferation of illnesses that haven’t been prevalent for close to a century.

Democratic sponsors felt that vaccine exemptions should be tracked by state health authorities. On the other side of the political spectrum, Republicans strongly opposed the vaccination exemption database. Parents opposed to vaccination fear that Colorado health authorities would make it harder to go to school without vaccines with the bill in place.

“There’s a lot of people in this state that do not want to vaccinate their children,” said Rep. J. Paul Brown, R-Ignacio. “They have that right.”

Many on the opposing side also felt that the bill served more as an act of public humiliation than anything else.

“Why would we want to post this on a website?” asked opponent Rep. Patrick Neville, R-Castle Rock. “The only reason I can think is to publicly shame someone.”

Rep. Dan Pabon says that Colorado will remain one of three states with no central tracking system for childhood vaccinations.