The decline, DelPonte said, is “very small.”

, polio and hepatitis A and B.Supporters say the bill streamlines an already legal exemption process that allows families to avoid vaccines for reasons of conscience, religious beliefs or medical reasons. It would let them download the required forms from a website instead of contacting state health officials and waiting for one to come in the mail.

The bill does not change which vaccines are required. However, critics say easing the exemption process opens a door to further outbreaks with potentially deadly results.“If this bill becomes law, Texas is likely to see more illness, more death and higher health care costs for families and business,” Rekha Lakshmanan, chief strategy officer for Texas-based nonprofit Immunization Project, told state senators before the bill won final approval.“The outbreak (in Texas) is not a coincidence. It is the canary in the coal mine screaming at the top of its lungs,” she said.

The exemption bill — as well as other bills passed by the Texas House on lawsuits against vaccine makers and removing immunization restrictions on organ transplants — are a snapshot of efforts across dozens of conservative states to question vaccines or roll back requirements.At the national level, this wave has been buoyed by still-lingering pushback from the COVID-19 pandemic and the Trump administration’s embrace of

, who was one of the nation’s leading anti-vaccine advocates before being appointed secretary of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department.

shows U.S. kindergarten vaccination rates have dipped since the pandemic — 92.7% in the“You can see I’m mentally incompetent and I can walk and I can beat the hell out of both of them,” he said.

In response to Democrats who question whether he should have initially run for reelection at all, he said: “Why didn’t they run against me then? Because I’d have beaten them.”During his formal remarks, he called upon the group to remember the sacrifices of those lost in battle, whose echoes he said can still be heard.

He also spoke of his son, Beau, who died at 46 of brain cancer. A twice-elected state attorney general, Beau Biden was considering a run for governor, and his death deeply affected the elder Biden.“This day is the 10th anniversary of the loss of my son Beau, who spent a year in Iraq, and, to be honest, it’s a hard day,” the former president said. “Being with all of you, quite frankly, makes things a little bit easier, it really does. So, thank you for allowing me to grieve with you.”