O'Scanlon, A Holdout On NJ Vaccine Bill: What Changed My Mind

MONMOUTH COUNTY, NJ — Less than a month ago, State Senator Declan O'Scanlon, a Republican who represents northern Monmouth County, was one of the holdouts in the state Legislature who refused to vote for this controversial bill that removes religious/personal exemptions for mandated vaccines for New Jersey children.

But now as of Thursday night, that bill has changed and is poised to pass in the state Senate on Monday. According to O'Scanlon, it was a last-minute amendment presented Thursday that changed his mind: The amendment allows non-vaccinated children to still go to daycare centers or private schools that accept unvaccinated kids, provided the schools give parents a list of the number of children who are not vaccinated.

The bill, which will likely be signed into law by Gov. Phil Murphy once it passes, did not have enough support when it was proposed by Sen. Joe Vitale (D-Middlesex) last year. The amended version narrowly passed in a 17-15 vote on Thursday night. Unlike in December, it now has enough votes to become law.

"Look, I've talked to hundreds of very reasonable people on both sides of this debate," said O'Scanlon on Friday, acknowledging the extremely tense atmosphere around the bill. "The original bill went too far. In its original form, these parents had no options. They could not go to daycare. Their kids could not attend private schools. Their only option was homeschooling."

"But this presents dramatically more options for these folks," he continued. "I said in December this was the change I needed. Vitale and (Senate President Steve) Sweeney all worked in good faith and they got that for me. And that's why I intend to vote for it on Monday."

Since 2011, O'Scanlon has represented towns such as Aberdeen, Hazlet, Holmdel, Atlantic Highlands and Highlands, Middletown, Marlboro, Rumson and others in the 13th legislative district in Trenton. O'Scanlon usually votes similarly to his colleague in the State Legislature, Monmouth County Assemblywoman Serena DiMaso (R-NJ 13).

However, DiMaso did not support the bill back in December and she said Friday her position has not changed. She plans to still not vote for the bill on Monday. She had a death in the family and declined to elaborate further.

With his new "yay" vote, some accuse O'Scanlon and others of only allowing the rich to get out of vaccine requirements, as the poor cannot afford private schools.

"I know I'm being accused of that," he said. "I'm just trying to find options for folks. Look, other deals would have been done to get this bill passed. I concede this was not a perfect option."

"I'm a big supporter of school choice," he continued. "If this foments that debate and we enable parents to exercise school choice, I'm all for that. And there is nothing to stop the anti-vax community from getting together and creating their own daycares or schools of some kind."

Once it becomes law, non-vaccinated children cannot attend public schools in New Jersey, as they can currently.

Ocean County mom Danielle Alpert, whose daughter could not receive all her vaccines due to having a compromised immune system, was one of the people who reached out to O'Scanlon to change his mind on the bill back in December.

Alpert said her daughter, now 9, has suffered severe health issues since she was about a year old. She regularly got high fevers and was in and out of hospitals throughout most of her early childhood. Doctors say she does not have lupus, but suspect another type of auto-inflammatory disease, said Alpert, 40.

"Because of her health issues, she was not able to get her full vaccine schedule as a baby. And, because I live in Ocean County, which has a high rate of unvaccinated people, her doctors told me they were concerned to send her to daycare," Alpert said. "I ended up having to take a three-month leave of absence to stay home with her."

Her daughter is now fully vaccinated.

"I think there's a lot of misinformation about what vaccines do and do not do to people's health. We need to protect the general public," she said. "Herd immunity is real and we need it to make sure that people like my daughter and other infants and the elderly are protected."

Meanwhile, another New Jersey mom, Jennifer Cerezo, 35, who lives in Bergenfield, is one of the parents fighting the bill.

"Whether you are pro-vax or anti-vax, the decision to vaccinate your child or not is your choice," she told Patch when the bill stalled in December. "This is taking away my Constitutional rights as an American, my right to follow my religion and do what I think is best for my child. Don't take away my rights as a parent."

Cerezo said she refuses to vaccinate her child because, among other reasons, the MMR vaccine contains aborted fetal cells, which violate her beliefs as a Catholic. Varicella (chickenpox), rubella (the "R" in the MMR vaccine), hepatitis A, polio and the rabies vaccine are all made with the cells of two fetuses that were aborted in the 1960s, according to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). These embryo cells have continued to regenerate in a lab and are used to make millions of those vaccines today. Since those initial two aborted fetuses, no further sources of aborted fetal cells have been needed to make the vaccines, according to CHOP.

O'Scanlon said he sides with the majority of the medical community who say that vaccines do not cause autism and are needed for public health.

"I don't think government has an interest to protect your children from what I might think are your bad decisions," he told Patch on Friday. "But where government does have an interest is where bad decisions could impact other children."