I have great news

Our state health officer died last month.

That's not the great news.

The great news is that now we have an interim health officer, and she is much more reasonable and much less cranky than her predecessor.

As many of you know, I have been working tirelessly in an effort to update our state's laws regarding vaccine requirements for school admission. We are the last state, as usual, to finally get with the program and give a little credit to our doctors when it comes to the health of our kids.

Without going on and on and on like I usually do with this topic, let me just say that the new health officer called one of the legislators that we have been working with to tell him that she is in charge now, and it is her show. And she is changing the state's policy regarding medical exemptions!!

Now in Mississippi, if your child's doctor requests a medical exemption from a vaccine, it will be granted!! Finally, we have caught up with the rest of the country in that area. It's nice to know that after all the work we have done over the past 2 years, they are finally coming around a little bit.

However, we still have a battle to get religious and/or philosophical waivers.

For those of you who care, we have a new bill which I think is a much better compromise from last years attempt. It was written by doctors and lawyers at Johns Hopkins, and I have a meeting next week with the Lt. Governor regarding this bill and (hopefully) where it will be referred.

I would also like to say hooray for Senator Gary Jackson, who has always been so kind to me and is filing this bill for us. Many of the senators I met with last year were very dismissive or downright rude, but Senator Jackson has consistently taken my calls and has been very supportive of what we are trying to do. (This guy even remembered the name of the neighborhood where I live!!) So Senator Jackson, when you get ready to run for reelection, let me know, and I will rally the troops!

Have a great day.