The California bill requiring school children to be vaccinated for polio and measles regardless of their parents’ beliefs is on the table to be revived.
The bill was originally introduced in light of the recent measles outbreak that started at Disneyland last year, ultimately infecting 147 people. It was initially withdrawn before it could be voted on in the Senate education committee last week due to overwhelming opposition from religious groups and parents who fear the effects of the vaccines, according to the Huffington Post.
“These diseases not only paralyzed our country with fear, there are many people living amongst us who still bear the ravages of these diseases,” said state Senator Richard Pan, a Democrat from Sacramento. “Why would we not demand that children be vaccinated before they enter school?”
Senator Pan, who is also a pediatrician, was supported by two elderly polio survivors when he stated he was going to bring the bill back up for consideration a second time to the Senate education committee.
Adversaries of the bill are downplaying the risks of the disease, Pan says. He pointed out to them that before the vaccine became prevalent, polio crippled over 35,000 people in the United States alone. He also reminded them of the effects measles has on the infected which are hearing loss, encephalitis, pneumonia and death.
Democratic Senator Ben Allen of Santa Monica also is prompting the bill which would end the personal beliefs exemption in California’s vaccination law. At this time, the law protects parents that want to opt out of the vaccines for religious or other reasons.
If the bill comes to pass, the only way for parents to opt out would be if a doctor said the child should not receive the vaccines for medical reasons, such as a weak immune system.
At this time, most states do allow parents to opt out if their religion bans the protective procedure. About 20 states allow for personal belief exemptions. In most recent years, many parents fear the link between vaccines and autism, even though the connection has been proven to be false. Still other parents deny the vaccinations simply because they worry about health effects of their child receiving shots.
