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Connecticut Couple Seek Stay On Release Of School Vaccine Data

Elaine Thompson
/
AP

A couple who sued the Connecticut Department of Public Health say they want to block the state’s release of school vaccination data while they appeal a Superior Court decision.

An attorney for Karen and Brian Festa filed a motion to stay the release of school-by-school data on students vaccinated for measles, mumps and rubella. The couple are activists who want the state to keep a religious exemption for vaccinations in place.

Brian Festa spoke to reporters earlier this month after a Superior Court judge dismissed the lawsuit.

“There are no casual exempters. No one decides just lightly they’re going to wake up one morning and not vaccinate their children. So the idea that you impose this mandate on Connecticut families is ridiculous, it’s not gonna happen.”

The couple says their lawsuit led to hateful statements on the internet about parents who don’t vaccinate their children.

Connecticut lawmakers considered a bill to end the religious vaccine exemption, but were unable to agree on whether unvaccinated children could return to school.

Copyright 2019 WSHU

Davis Dunavin loves telling stories, whether on the radio or around the campfire. He fell in love with sound-rich radio storytelling while working as an assistant reporter at KBIA public radio in Columbia, Missouri. Before coming back to radio, he worked in digital journalism as the editor of Newtown Patch. As a freelance reporter, his work for WSHU aired nationally on NPR. Davis is a proud graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism; he started in Missouri and ended up in Connecticut, which, he'd like to point out, is the same geographic trajectory taken by Mark Twain.
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