This week the forces of reason have a chance to advance the elimination of the philosophical exemption to vaccination in the State House.

The Senate Health and Welfare Committee is considering a bill, H. 98, on reportable disease registries. As you can tell, this is a bill that has passed the House and is now before the Senate.  

What's happening this Wednesday is that Senate Health and Welfare is taking testimony on an amendment to eliminate the philosophical vaccine exemption. They've allotted two hours, one hour for each side, with witnesses to be named later. After that there may be a vote on the amendment and on the bill as a whole.

This is the first time that the philosophical exemption bill, which had been considered dead for the session, is coming up for a vote, so this is a chance to protect our children and our schools from highly contagious diseases.

The first step is the committee. Please contact your senators, especially if they're on the Health and Welfare Committee, and ask them to support this amendment.

Here's the list of the committee members:

• Sen. Claire Ayer, Chair
• Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons, Vice Chair
• Sen. Anthony Pollina
• Sen. Dick McCormack
• Sen. Brian Collamore, Clerk

 And if you want to look up your senators, follow this link.

This is a great opportunity for the voices of reason, so please contact your senators before Wednesday.