Parents challenge RFK Jr., Gov. Morrisey backed vaccine exemption in W. Virginia schools

A childhood vaccine showdown between West Virginia's Republican governor and school board could be settled by two competing lawsuits.

This is Part 2 of The Vaccine Divide, a data investigation into how an escalating movement against immunization is challenging public education, widening health disparities and threatening the health of America’s children.

When Marisa Jackson dropped her son Maxwell off at elementary school in St. Albans, West Virginia, in years past, she had the comfort of knowing that most, if not all, of the kids around him were vaccinated.

West Virginia was one of just five states in the country that allowed only medical exemptions to school vaccine requirements.

Sending Maxwell, age 10, to school this year felt different.

On his first day in office in January, the state’s Republican governor, Patrick Morrisey, issued an executive order allowing families to opt out of school vaccine mandates on religious or philosophical grounds.