California, which led states in recent years in parents shying away from vaccinating their children, now has one of the country's strongest laws on vaccinations.
With the signature on Tuesday of Gov. Jerry Brown, the Golden State joined West Virginia and Mississippi as the only states where personal beliefs of parents do not exempt their children from vaccinations.
To a state that prides itself on being a trendsetter, we might say, "Welcome to the 21st century."
Science has been clear for years that vaccines offer children the greatest protection from dread and infectious diseases, but in California former celebrity couple Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy began to poison the water against vaccines several years ago when they alleged her son's autism was caused by a vaccination.
The state's legislation was prompted after a December 2014 measles outbreak at Disneyland sickened more than 100 people in the U.S. and Mexico. At that point, immunization rates at some schools in suburban areas of the state had declined to near 50 percent.
California's law requires that, beginning with the 2016-2017 school year, children whose parents refuse vaccinations and are not granted a medical exemption must be homeschooled. School-age children who under current law claim a personal-belief exemption must be fully vaccinated by kindergarten or seventh grade, depending on their age now.
Opponents, in the meantime, vowed litigation, and Carrey tweeted that Brown was a "corporate fascist."