MANDATORY VACCINATION BILL DRAWS PROTESTS

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version Share this

 

By Miriam Raftery

April 11, 2015 San Diego's East County) - A bill in the California state legislature, Senate Bill 277, would make vaccinations mandatory for all children, except those with medical conditions that would make it dangerous to have the vaccine.  California is currently one of only a handful of states that allows parents to exempt children from vaccines based on personal beliefs.  On Wednesday, the measure passed the Senate Health Committee.

The bill has drawn protests from parents opposed to mandatory vaccinations, including about 250 protesters who took to the streets in San Diego last week, KPBS reports. 

Opponents of the bill say that parents should have a choice in whether or not to vaccinate their children and voice concerns about possible side effects.

But public health officials argue that failure to vaccinate puts others at risk of diseases such as measles or whooping cough -- including children who cannot get vaccinated due to medical conditions; for instance children with cancer are advised not to get the measles vaccine. 

For the Center for Disease Control’s list of conditions that mean a person should not have certain vaccines, see http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/should-not-vacc.htm

Statewide, 10% of kindergartners have not been vaccinated. But in San Diego County, the rate is 7.3%, but it’s much higher at some schools.  In East County,  many schools have more than 20% of kindergartners unvaccinated.  Some schools had more than 50% unvaccinated and at one school, 90% of children had not been vaccinated against childhood illnesses, as we previously reported: http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/some-east-county-schools-have-high-rates-unvaccinated-children

Senate Bill 277 was introduced after an a measles outbreak in multiple states was linked to Disneyland; including cases in San Diego and East County.

 

 


Error message

Support community news in the public interest! As nonprofit news, we rely on donations from the public to fund our reporting -- not special interests. Please donate to sustain East County Magazine's local reporting and/or wildfire alerts at https://www.eastcountymedia.org/donate to help us keep people safe and informed across our region.

Comments

Vaccines

Education for the parents is needed. Schools should send information home with students or via email or
US mail.. No vaccination record ? Then no admittance to public schools.