Support House Bill 2554, An Act Relative to Routine Childhood Immunizations

July 21, 2026

The Honorable Ronald Mariano

Speaker of the House of Representatives

State House, Room 356

24 Beacon St.

Boston, MA 02133

The Honorable Aaron Michlewitz

Chair, House Committee on Ways and Means

State House, Room 243

24 Beacon St.

Boston, MA 02133

RE: Support House Bill 2554, An Act Relative to Routine Childhood Immunizations

Dear Mr. Speaker and Chairman Michlewitz,

On behalf of the Massachusetts Families for Vaccines Coalition, representing over 40 organizations across the Commonwealth, we write to respectfully request your support and urge favorable House action before July 31 for House Bill 2554, which would remove the non-medical exemption from required school vaccines and enhance data collection and sharing to better track immunization rates.

House Bill 2554 is supported by leading medical, public health, labor, education, and community organizations. Public support for this legislation is also clear: a poll conducted last month by Workbench Strategies found that 89% of Massachusetts voters support vaccinating K-12 students against contagious diseases for school and 70% want their legislators to vote in favor of H.2554. 73% of Democratic primary voters reported that they would be more likely to vote for an incumbent who supports House Bill 2554. Support for House Bill 2554 is broadly consistent across political party affiliations, demographic groups, and regions of the state.

Recent data from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health indicate that use of the non-medical exemption continues to steadily increase. During the 2025-2026 school year, over a thousand kindergartners received non-medical exemptions from at least one vaccine—more than in any previous year. Seven out of 14 Massachusetts counties reported county-wide kindergarten MMR immunization rates below the 95% needed to prevent outbreaks, with many individual schools reporting immunization rates falling well below that level.

Strengthening our school vaccine requirements will protect the Commonwealth’s most vulnerable students and community members, prevent costly outbreaks, and improve transparency around immunization rates to provide parents with better peace of mind around their children’s safety at school. We therefore respectfully urge the Legislature to pass House Bill 2554.

Thank you for your consideration of this important public health legislation.

Sincerely,

Katie Blair, JD, Director

Massachusetts Families for Vaccines

Northe Saunders, President

American Families for Vaccines

Jessica Tang, President

American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts

Patti Wukovits, BSN, RN, Co-Executive Director

American Society for Meningitis Prevention

Colin Killick, Executive Director

Autistic Self Advocacy Network

Azhar Majeed, Director of Government Affairs and Policy

Center for Inquiry

Anabel Santiago Gibson, Co-Executive Director

Coalition for Social Justice Education Fund

Justin Pasquariello, Chief Executive Officer

East Boston Social Centers

Alicia Stillman, Executive Director

Emily Stillman Foundation

Ryan D. Jayne, Senior Policy Counsel

Freedom From Religion Foundation Action Fund

Patti Wukovits, BSN, RN, AMB-BC, Executive Director

Kimberly Coffey Foundation

Chloe Schwartz, MPH, Director, Maternal & Infant Health Initiative

March of Dimes

Manju Mahajan, MD, FAAFP, AAHIVS, President

Massachusetts Academy of Family Physicians

Taylor Rich, MPH, CCHW, Senior Manager of Training

Massachusetts Association of Community Health Workers

David Lyczkowski, MD, President

Massachusetts Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics

Sunny Kung, MD, FACP & Hemal Sampat, MD, FACP

Co-Chairs, Health and Public Policy Committee

Massachusetts Chapter of the American College of Physicians

Rebecca W. Brendel, MD, JD, President

Massachusetts Medical Society

Jodie Nierintz, Safety & Wellness Chair

Massachusetts PTA

Oami Amarasingham, JD, Deputy Director

Massachusetts Public Health Alliance

Chloe Zera, MD

Massachusetts Section of the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists

Michael Constantine, MD, President

Massachusetts Society of Clinical Oncologists

Matthew Bach, President

Massachusetts Teachers Association

John Lippitt, Ph.D., Leadership Team Member

Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts

Jonathan Cohn, Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

Dan Hoffer, Political and Legislative Director

SEIU Local 509

Claire Karl Miller

UU Mass Action

Sign-on Letter: Let’s Strengthen Our Vaccine Laws

March 16, 2026
The Honorable John J. Lawn, Jr.
Chair, Joint Committee on Health Care Financing
State House, Room 236
24 Beacon St.
Boston, MA 02133


Dear Chairman Lawn and Committee Members,


The Massachusetts Legislature has worked quickly in recent months to ensure that the state’s vaccine recommendations are based on sound scientific evidence and that its residents are able to access immunizations. The undersigned organizations request that the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing report out favorably H.2554, An Act Relative to Routine Childhood
Immunizations, which would remove the non-medical exemption from required school vaccines and enhance data collection and sharing to better track immunization rates.


H.2554 is supported by Massachusetts’s leading medical and public health institutions. It is also popular with voters: polling shows that 70% of Massachusetts voters support H.2554’s passage, with support rising to 72% after respondents considered various arguments for and against the legislation. Support for H.2554 was broadly consistent among voters from various
demographic groups and areas of the state.


Major religious groups agree that immunization is part of society’s moral duty to care for the greater common good. For example, the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops disallows religious exemptions in Catholic schools, and released a statement in 2024 affirming its commitment to protecting the health of all children.


With two measles cases already reported in Massachusetts this year, we must act now to prevent its spread. Eliminating non-medical exemptions is the most effective way to prevent outbreaks and ensure strong immunization rates. We respectfully ask that the Committee report H.2554 out favorably.


Thank you for your leadership and your support of this important legislation.


Sincerely,
Katie Blair, JD, Director
Massachusetts Families for Vaccines

Northe Saunders, President
American Families for Vaccines
Patti Wukovits and Alicia Stillman, Co-Executive Directors
American Society for Meningitis Prevention
Azhar Majeed, Director of Government Affairs and Policy
Center for Inquiry
Alicia Stillman, Executive Director
Emily Stillman Foundation
Patti Wukovits, BSN, RN, AMB-BC, Executive Director
Kimberly Coffey Foundation
Chloe Schwartz, MPH, Director of Maternal & Infant Health Initiatives, New England
March of Dimes
Brenda Anders Pring, MD, FAAP, President
Massachusetts Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics
Hemal Sampat, MD & Sunny Kung, MD, Co-Chairs, Health and Public Policy Committee
Massachusetts Chapter of the American College of Physicians
Emily Dulong, Vice President, Government Advocacy and Public Policy
Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association
Olivia C. Liao, MD, FACS, President
Massachusetts Medical Society
Oami Amarasingham, JD, Deputy Director
Massachusetts Public Health Alliance
Michael Constantine, MD, President
Massachusetts Society of Clinical Oncologists
Jonathan Cohn, Policy Director
Progressive Massachusetts

Pro-Vaccine Voices Needed: Send in Testimony in Support of the Community Immunity Act

Yesterday, the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Public Health heard testimony on the Community Immunity Act.

If we want to be ready for the next pandemic, or even just ready for the next outbreak of a disease we thought we were decades past, we need to be strengthening and standardizing our infrastructure for immunization. We need to leave the past three years with lessons borne out in policy.

The Community Immunity Act is an essential part of that path forward. The bill facilitates robust data collection to assess gaps in statewide vaccine delivery, standardizes immunization protocols for our schools and other youth programs, and supports local interventions in communities lacking herd immunity against dangerous (and even deadly) yet preventable diseases.

Two years ago, I testified in support of the bill and was horrified by much of what I heard during the hearing. Over 15+ hours back in July 2021, the Committee heard from literally hundreds of individuals who espoused toxic disinformation about the safety and efficacy of vaccines, grossly distorted and flatly misstated the content of the Community Immunity Act, and personally attacked the character of any legislators and public health professionals who care about strong immunization policy and infectious disease prevention.

That’s why voices of people like YOU, who believe in pro-science and pro-public-health policy, are so important.

Can you submit written testimony in support of the Community Immunity Act?

You can use the link above or copy, paste, and adapt the text from it and send it to Rosalind Jordan (rosalind.jordan@mahouse.gov) and Brian Rosman Brian.Rosman@masenate.gov).

A Week Full of Hearings

This week has been full of hearings at the State House. If you haven’t already, make sure your voice gets heard in support of the following bills that we spoke about in recent emails:

Let’s Learn from the Pandemic and Pass the Community Immunity Act.

Vaccination

Wednesday, July 26, 2023

Dear Chair Cyr, Chair Decker, and Members of the Joint Committee on Public Health: 

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the Policy Director of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group committed to fighting for an equitable, just, democratic, and sustainable Commonwealth.

We urge you to give a favorable report to H.2151/S.1458: An Act promoting community immunity.

If we want to be ready for the next pandemic, or even just ready for the next outbreak of a disease we thought we were decades past, we need to be strengthening and standardizing our infrastructure for immunization. We need to leave the past three years with lessons borne out in policy.

A look at our current immunization infrastructure leaves much to be desired. We currently lack full and accurate reporting on vaccination rates among young people, relying instead on voluntary surveys of schools, summer camps, colleges, and daycares. The limited data available show alarming rates of under- and unimmunized children in communities across the Commonwealth. To put that into perspective, in the current school year, more than 200 high schools, more than 200 middle schools, more than 200 elementary schools, and more than 1,600 child care centers and preschools failed to report any immunization data to state public health officials. Of the kindergarten programs that submitted data, 152 lacked herd immunity to protect against the spread of measles, and 15 lacked herd immunity to protect against the spread of polio.  

We cannot fix a problem without a full and accurate read of it, and the Community Immunity Act’s data reporting requirements are a key first step. But the bill, as necessary, goes further, with targeted education and outreach about vaccine safety and efficacy and standardization and centralization of vaccination protocols. Standardized state-level policies determined by public health officials are crucial when determining exemptions if we are to make sure that medical and religious exemptions are not abused and that local superintendents are not overburdened.

We ask that you swiftly advance the Community Immunity Act out of the Public Health Committee with a favorable report. Please help to keep all of us safe and healthy, particularly people who are immunocompromised and rely on community immunity.

Thank you for your consideration and your service to the people of the Commonwealth.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

“The COVID-19 pandemic has shined a light on the weaknesses of Massachusetts’s public health infrastructure.”

Vaccination

Monday, July 12, 2021

Chair Comerford, Chair Decker, and Members of the Joint Committee on Public Health:

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the Chair of the Issues Committee of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group fighting for a Massachusetts that is more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic.

I am here today to testify in support of S.1517 / H.2271 (An Act promoting community immunity, or the Community Immunity Act) and S.1515 / H.2370 (An Act effectuating equity in COVID-19 vaccination, or the Vaccine Equity Bill).

The COVID-19 pandemic has shined a light on the weaknesses of Massachusetts’s public health infrastructure, and these bills are essential to both our short-term recovery and long-term stability and public health.

Although Massachusetts has vaccinated a greater share of our population than most other states, we still see wide regional discrepancies. As of last week, the percentage of eligible residents with at least one dose of the vaccine varied from a low of 62% in Hampden County to more than 100% in Dukes and Nantucket Counties, with sometimes wide gaps by race and ethnicity. [1] We see such gaps most strikingly in Hampden County, where there was a 20% gap between white and Latinx residents (with both numbers below the state average).

The Commonwealth’s Vaccine Equity Initiative is clearly not doing enough to close these gaps. Although parts of the Vaccine Equity Bill (S.1515/H.2370)’s goals may have been incorporated in part by now, its ambition and comprehensiveness have not, and we urge swift passage of the bill in order to strengthen our commitment toward public health, especially as new COVID-19 variants are on the rise.

As we work on the recovery to the current pandemic, it is vital for us to ensure a stronger and more stable public health infrastructure for the challenges to come. The Community Immunity Act will help us to do that. 

We currently lack full and accurate reporting on vaccination rates among young people, relying instead on voluntary surveys of schools, summer camps, colleges, and daycares. The limited data available show alarming rates of under- and unimmunized children in communities across the Commonwealth.

We cannot fix a problem without an accurate read of it, and the Community Immunity Act’s data reporting requirements are a key first step. But the bill, as necessary, goes further, with targeted education and outreach about vaccine safety and efficacy and standardization and centralization of vaccination protocols.

Please give a favorable report to S.1517 / H.2271 (An Act promoting community immunity, or the Community Immunity Act) and S.1515 / H.2370 (An Act effectuating equity in COVID-19 vaccination, or the Vaccine Equity Bill).

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Chair, Issues Committee

Progressive Massachusetts

[1] https://www.mass.gov/doc/weekly-covid-19-vaccination-report-july-8-2021/download