From the Immunization Safety Office, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, CDC, Atlanta, Georgia.
Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia.
Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2020 May;39(5):369-373. doi: 10.1097/INF.0000000000002585.
California Senate Bill 277 (SB277) eliminated non-medical immunization exemptions. Since its introduction on February 19, 2015, the rate of medical exemptions in the state has increased. Filing a report to Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) may be perceived as helpful in applying for a medical exemption. Our objective was to describe trends in reporting to VAERS from California coincident with introduction of SB277.
This was a retrospective study of Californian children <18 years for whom a VAERS report was submitted between June 1, 2011 and July 31, 2018. VAERS is a national, passive, vaccine safety surveillance program co-managed by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and FDA. The main outcomes were the proportion of VAERS reports submitted by parents (vs. other reporter types), time from immunization to VAERS report (reporting time), and adverse event type. We also performed spatial analysis, mapping reports pre- and post-mandate by county.
We identified 6703 VAERS reports from California during the study period. The proportion of reports received from parents increased after implementation of SB277, from 14% to 23%. The median reporting time by parents increased from 9 days in 2013-2014 to 31 days in 2016-2017. After the introduction of SB277, we observed an increase in reports describing behavioral and developmental symptoms among reports submitted >6 months after immunization.
These recent changes in reporting patterns coincident with the introduction of SB277 may indicate that more parents are using VAERS to assist in applying for a medical exemption for their child.
加利福尼亚州参议院法案 277（SB277）取消了非医学免疫豁免。自 2015 年 2 月 19 日推出以来，该州的医学豁免率有所增加。向疫苗不良事件报告系统（VAERS）报告可能被认为有助于申请医学豁免。我们的目的是描述 SB277 推出后加利福尼亚州向 VAERS 报告的趋势。
这是一项对加利福尼亚州<18 岁儿童的回顾性研究，这些儿童在 2011 年 6 月 1 日至 2018 年 7 月 31 日期间向 VAERS 提交了报告。VAERS 是一个由疾病控制和预防中心与 FDA 共同管理的全国性、被动、疫苗安全监测计划。主要结果是父母（与其他报告类型相比）提交的 VAERS 报告比例、从免疫到 VAERS 报告的时间（报告时间）和不良事件类型。我们还进行了空间分析，按县划分了授权前后的报告。
在研究期间，我们从加利福尼亚州确定了 6703 份 VAERS 报告。自 SB277 实施以来，父母提交的报告比例从 14%增加到 23%。父母的中位报告时间从 2013-2014 年的 9 天增加到 2016-2017 年的 31 天。在 SB277 推出后，我们观察到在接种疫苗后>6 个月提交的报告中，描述行为和发育症状的报告有所增加。
这些与 SB277 推出相吻合的报告模式的近期变化可能表明，更多的父母正在使用 VAERS 来帮助为他们的孩子申请医学豁免。
