New Jersey May Require All Residents to Be Automatically Added to Electronic Vaccine Registry

The New Jersey Senate is set to vote on a bill that would require everyone who isn't already enrolled in the Immunization Information System to be automatically enrolled when they receive a vaccine.

Jun 06, 2025

The New Jersey Senate will soon vote on a bill (S1956) to automatically add all state residents to a statewide electronic vaccine registry when they get vaccinated.

The New Jersey Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee on May 19 approved the legislation, which expands the New Jersey Immunization Information System, a centralized database tracking individual vaccination histories, to require automatic enrollment whenever anyone gets a vaccine.

The existing legislation requires that people born after Jan. 1, 1998, be enrolled automatically unless their parent or guardian submits an opt-out request. People born before that date can enroll voluntarily, but must provide explicit consent.

The proposed legislation would now require that anyone who isn’t in the registry be automatically enrolled when they receive a vaccine, eliminating the requirement for explicit consent.

The bill will formalize into law a change made as an executive order by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy during the COVID-19 pandemic, one week before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the Pfizer vaccine. Murphy’s second term ends this year, and he can’t run for reelection.

S1956 passed the committee with a 5-3 vote. All Democrats supported the bill. All Republicans opposed it. It will now go to the full Senate for a vote.

The bill would not mandate any vaccines or affect medical or religious exemptions.

‘One big tiptoe’ to grabbing more data, more surveillance

Under the proposed legislation, New Jersey residents could still submit a written request to opt out.

However, the bill allows the commissioner of health to deny opt-out requests during a declared public health emergency, a state of emergency, an outbreak of a communicable disease, or the immediate threat of an outbreak of a communicable disease.

The power to deny requests would apply “for one or more vaccines for a specified period of time,” according to the bill.

Sen. Holly Schepisi, who opposed the bill, told New Jersey 101.5, “Now [people are] automatically put into a registry because of any sort of potential threat of any sort of outbreak, even if it’s inapplicable to why the person’s going in.”

Schepisi said she was concerned that the legislation might discourage people from getting vaccinated.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Joseph Vitale, said the automatic registration would help state officials track overall vaccination numbers and adjust their vaccination outreach campaigns accordingly.

Dominique Venezia from Children’s Health Defense’s New Jersey Chapter told The Defender that the number of people opting out of vaccination in New Jersey has been rising. She thinks the bill could be part of a “fearmongering campaign to tell parents to get more vaccines.”

Venezia also said that because the bill gives public health officials so much leeway to deny opt-out requests during emergencies, or just the threat of an emergency, if it passes, there wouldn’t be much protection for people who want to opt out of the registry.

She called the proposed legislation “one big tiptoe to grabbing more data, more surveillance, more track-and-trace. And that’s very concerning. That’s very worrying.”

During a standard pediatrician appointment, people have about seven minutes with their doctor, Venezia said. That isn’t even enough time to provide sufficient information for informed consent for the vaccines being offered.

“And now a physician is going to have to explain that there is a [database] opt-out option? Do they even have to inform the parents that there is an opt-out option? I doubt they are going to do that.”

Venezia believes everyone should opt out of the registry, regardless of their stance on vaccinations. “I think that would make it very messy for them and hard to continue with this track-and-trace surveillance data. Whether you vaccinate or not, they should not collect this medical data on you.”

The proposed legislation follows on the heels of a Senate Resolution that Vitale issued in March, urging New Jersey citizens to stay up-to-date on vaccinations.

The resolution blames religious exemptions and “various factors” for “outbreaks of measles, whooping cough, and other avoidable illnesses.” It says measles outbreaks are growing, and immunization rates for first graders in New Jersey have decreased 7.5% over 10 years.

The resolution formally urges residents to get vaccinated and the Department of Health to raise awareness of the measles outbreak in New Jersey. Three measles cases had been reported in the state in 2025 when the resolution was issued.

Related articles in The Defender