# Impact of eliminating nonmedical exemptions in California

> **NIH NIH R01** · YALE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $728,232

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Vaccines are one of the most successful interventions in public health, preventing a variety of infectious
diseases and providing a substantial health care cost savings. Even so, many parents have become
concerned with vaccines and are opting out of required vaccination for their children through nonmedical
exemptions. This increase in vaccine refusal rates has contributed to recent infectious disease outbreaks
nationwide, causing many states to restrict immunization exemptions. In fact, California enacted immunization
legislation SB277, which will remove all nonmedical exemptions. As California is the first state in more than
three decades to eliminate all nonmedical exemptions we do not currently have an evidence base of the effect
policy changes such as this will have at the population level.
The implementation of SB277 provides an opportunity to evaluate the impact of elimination of nonmedical
exemptions. Due to the size and importance of California in the policy landscape, the implementation of SB277
has the potential to guide other states immunization policy modifications. Therefore, the evaluation of
California's recent immunization legislation could have national implications.
Our team has previously evaluated vaccine hesitancy and refusal and the impact of immunization exemptions
on disease control. Additionally, we have conducted analyses of the ease of obtaining nonmedical exemptions.
Through this work, we determined states with less stringent requirements have higher rates nonmedical
exemptions than the states with stricter requirements. We also conducted studies that documented the
association between nonmedical immunization exemptions and increased disease incidence. Thus, our team's
previous evaluation and analysis can be extended to study the effect of total elimination of nonmedical
exemptions.
The proposed study will develop an evidence base for the implementation of immunization exemption
legislation through 1) analyzing rates, clustering, and variances of immunization exemptions before and after
SB277 implementation, 2) evaluating the motivations, attitudes, beliefs, and health care practice burden
relating to vaccinations in the context of SB277, 3) assessing the determinants and implications of variability in
implementation and enforcement of legislation at the school level, and 4) ascertaining the impact of SB277 on
the rates of home schooling. Ultimately, we will develop an evidence base for the implementation and effect of
immunization legislation that has the potential to guide decision-making at the state and national levels.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10000010
- **Project number:** 5R01AI125405-05
- **Recipient organization:** YALE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Jason Lee Schwartz
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $728,232
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-09-26 → 2023-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10000010

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10000010, Impact of eliminating nonmedical exemptions in California (5R01AI125405-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10000010. Licensed CC0.

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