WEST VIRGINIA REINSTATES STRICT SCHOOL VACCINE MANDATE

The West Virginia Board of Education is reinstating its school vaccine mandate after a decision from the state Supreme Court. State Supreme Court justices decided to stay a permanent injunction issued by a circuit court judge that ruled vaccine mandates without religious exemptions were illegal. West Virginia has one of the strictest school vaccine mandates in the country compared to over two dozen other states that have religious exemptions laws on the books. The state Supreme Court has reversed the decision while the appeals process takes place, and the decision comes as vaccination rates among school children are dropping below the 95 percent barrier experts say is needed for herd immunity.