CA Gov signs the vaccination bill in to law

[anniemae]

I vaccinate & believe in the good of them. I do not believe the rights of a parent to make decisions for their children should be stripped away.
Parents should be allowed to refuse any (or all) vax. They should, however, expect to see their children's opportunities to be involved (in schools, camps, sports) restricted.

I have many friends who do not vax, but the all homeschool.

But that is what has happened here. You can still choose not to vaccinate, you just have to homeschool. Nobody is going to show up on their doorstep with a needle and force a vaccination. You choose not to vaccinate? Fine, but stay away from those who do not want to be exposed to potentially life threatening diseases.

 

[eliza61]

I vaccinate my children, but I oppose vaccinations being forced on those who don't believe in them. Just as women have the right to choose whether to terminate a pregnancy or not, a parent should have the authority to make health decisions such as vaccinating their children or not.

I'm on the fence Dawn. We had a serious outbreak maybe 6 years ago from measles and the traced it back to one family who had 6 kids, none vaccinated. evidently they went on vacation some where picked up measles, came back to sj and then all heck broke lose

Now I will be fully honest, I would have been ticked if my kid got seriously ill from this.

Anyhoo maybe a compromise is that sure you can choose to make health decisions, you just have to keep your kid away from others.

tough call. I see both sides but I'm going to lean toward mandatory vaccinations

 

[Under the Library]

We home school in Fl & so many people around here assume that because of home schooling, we also don't vax. We do and have, luckily, had zero issues with following the standard suggested schedule. I don't mind talking with people about the reasons we decided to homeschool and our family; wonder if I will have more of an opportunity to do so now.

 

[Dawnlight]

But that is what has happened here. You can still choose not to vaccinate, you just have to homeschool. Nobody is going to show up on their doorstep with a needle and force a vaccination. You choose not to vaccinate? Fine, but stay away from those who do not want to be exposed to potentially life threatening diseases.

That is until laws protecting the rights to homeschool are further eroded or laws are changed to include children that are homeschooled.

 

[declansdad]

Also, this- from the article- really bothers me. We're essentially restricting rights of US citizens because non-citizens are importing diseases. We need to be stricter with border control.

"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and California state health officials said pockets of people philosophically opposed to vaccines were helping measles cases imported from other countries take hold and spread."

You really think this is only an issue because of things coming through your border? That all domestic disease has been eradicated in your country?

 

[bcla]

I wish all states would pass this.

In the debate on this, there was a discussion that Mississippi was a state that has no "personal belief" exemption for public or private schools.

 

[Dawnlight]

You really think this is only an issue because of things coming through your border? That all domestic disease has been eradicated in your country?

Where did I say that I think it's the only issue? I think it's part of the issue, and one that needs solving, but it's certainly not the only issue.

 

[bcla]

You really think this is only an issue because of things coming through your border? That all domestic disease has been eradicated in your country?

However, we have US citizens and permanent residents with freedom of movement. For the most part, these diseases aren't found in the United States any more, and when they find their way they do die out because it eventually gets stopped by herd immunity.

If "border security" means not allowing people to return or perhaps mandatory quarantine, then I suppose that might be helpful, but I don't see that as workable. Beyond that it seems more of a scare tactic that has little basis in fact.

 

[declansdad]

Where did I say that I think it's the only issue? I think it's part of the issue, and one that needs solving, but it's certainly not the only issue.

Didn't say that was all you said, just asked if that is what you were thinking.

 

[morgan98]

I understand children not being able to be vaccinated due to health issues. They of course need to be exempted from the mandatory vaccination rules/laws.

What I personally find wrong, is people who are against vaccinations (for various other reasons, ie may cause autism, against being told what to do, whatever) who benefit directly from people who choose to protect their children from disease through vaccination. It almost feels like an attitude of me and my children are not going to get vaccinated but the rest of you go ahead so we can benefit from the fact that a majority around us are vaccinated. This is hypocritical, in my opinion.

It is scary to think what could happen if the majority just decided that vaccination were no longer vogue and stopped vaccinating their children.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

DO anti-vaxers vax their animals?

 

[kidshop]

That is until laws protecting the rights to homeschool are further eroded or laws are changed to include children that are homeschooled.

How about if/when 'controversial' vaccinations become required for school...like hpv? Drug companies have a lot of money, someday parents may have no option for any of it. If they make it, you must inject it into your child. Slippery slope.

 

[undertheradar]

Too bad the law will not go far enough to restrict those who refuse to vaccinate from using public areas. Just because they are restricted from some activities does not eliminate the risk that they expose the rest of society to. Sorry, not a fair risk to those who follow the law and the science behind it.

 

[gemini2727]

How about if/when 'controversial' vaccinations become required for school...like hpv? Drug companies have a lot of money, someday parents may have no option for any of it. If they make it, you must inject it into your child. Slippery slope.

Sorry, this is not a good comparison. I am not going to contract HPV from your child while walking down the street. Common sense says easily transmittable, possibly dangerous diseases should be held to a different standard as far as public health goes.

 

[pat fan]

I vaccinated my kids, so I am not an anti-vac person. In fact I strongly think you SHOULD vaccinate, but I am not going to tell someone else what to do. Now, states can make their own decisions, but it should be based on the people's will, not on some politician who is most likely bought off by either big pharma or pressure from bigger govt. Did Californians vote on this? If they did, ok. Did the gvt do this on their own? Than not ok.

 

[Geoff_M]

I would be very interested in statistics from other countries- vaccination compliance rates and outbreaks recorded....if what many here are applauding as a 'great thing' really is all that 'great' or effective then the US schoolchildren should be the safest kids in the world.

Here's this article, from the time of the Disneyland outbreak, that provides some contrast:

Think the U.S Has a Measles Problem? Just Look at Europe

The case count for the measles outbreak linked to Disneyland is steadily ticking upwards. Health officials in more than a dozen states are tracking down thousands of people to try to make sure they don't spread the virus any further.

It sounds bad, but European health officials say they're looking at the United States with envy.

To them, America's current total of just over 100 measles cases looks comparatively good.

Last year, Europe had 3,840 measles cases. Italy alone had 1,921 cases. And that's an improvement over 2013, when there were more than 10,000 cases across Europe. France has had more than 23,000 cases in the past five years.

In comparison, the United States last year had 644 measles cases in 27 states.That's the most since measles was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000. When you look at that another way, it's about the same rate Britain had in 2014, when 137 cases there equaled a rate of 2.1 cases per million people. But it's much lower than Italy's rate of 32 cases per million or the Czech Republican's rate of 21 per million.

"In Europe, we are looking at the American continent as the example of measles elimination," said Niklas Danielsson, senior expert in the Vaccine Preventable Disease Programme at the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC).

Even with regular outbreaks, the United States and other countries in the Americas have been able to stop outbreaks before they spread out of control — at least ever since the bad epidemic years of 1989-1991, when 55,000 measles cases were reported and 123 children died. Soon after federal health officials recommended in 1989 that kids start getting two vaccines instead of one, measles virtually vanished.

"We look at it with some envy," Danielsson told NBC News.

In both the U.S. and Europe, one simple thing underlies the outbreaks — a lack of vaccination.
...

But the reasons why people go unvaccinated differ from country to country. Some European countries mandate vaccination, others actively encourage it, and still others leave it up to people to decide. Danielsson says none of these approaches seems to really affect vaccination rates.

Some of the countries that mandate vaccination do little or nothing to enforce it.
...

"We have countries that, very early on after the introduction of the measles vaccine eliminated measles and maintained measles-free (status) since then," Danielsson said. Three examples: Bulgaria and Portugal had no cases last year; Greece had one.

"Then there are other countries that reduced the transmission of measles but never really eradicated it." They include Poland and the Czech Republic.

The solutions vary, too. In Britain, a full-court press has returned vaccinations to desired rates and brought measles cases way down.

"They spent a lot of time and effort trying to do a catch-up vaccine campaign," said Dr. Jonathan Read, an expert on population health at the University of Liverpool. Britain went through wave after wave of outbreaks of measles and mumps after the now-discredited reports by Andrew Wakefield in the 1990s linking measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccines with autism.

Vaccination rates in Britain plunged to 85 percent and measles cases rose: 1,000 cases 2011, 1,900 in 2012 and again in 2013. A mumps epidemic made more than 56,000 Britons sick in 2004-2005.

Now vaccination rates are back up to 95 percent and just 137 cases were reported in Britain in 2014. Measles cases were mostly among children aged 10 to 19 who missed the normal vaccination schedule during the vaccine scare years, Read said.

"It was the legacy of those times coming to fruition," he said.

I realize that this issue has regained some traction lost having pivoted from an issue of science to one of "health freedom" that will appeal to a wider audience, but as previously mentioned the notion of "forced vaccination" is a red herring. Parents may still opt to not have their kids vaccinated for mere reasons of "fear", but they would lose the option to have their kids attend a group school. What the "health freedom" supporters are really demanding is that they have complete "freedom" on this issue without any consequences attached to their decision. They in effect want to be able to tell schools and health officials "Here's my unvaccinated kid... deal with him. If he becomes part of a disease vector because the Vitamin C I give him didn't prevent him getting measles, mumps, etc., hey, it's not my problem." I like the way that The Onion framed the "parental choice" notion with vaccines: "I demand the right to determine which eradicated vaccine preventable childhood diseases come roaring back!!!"

But, the affluent parents of California need not fret too much. There's still a medical exemption option available to them, and there are sympathetic pediatricians in the state that for the cost of an office visit, would be more than happy to issue their kid a "medical exemption" to do an end-run around the new law.

 

[anniemae]

I understand children not being able to be vaccinated due to health issues. They of course need to be exempted from the mandatory vaccination rules/laws.

What I personally find wrong, is people who are against vaccinations (for various other reasons, ie may cause autism, against being told what to do, whatever) who benefit directly from people who choose to protect their children from disease through vaccination. It almost feels like an attitude of me and my children are not going to get vaccinated but the rest of you go ahead so we can benefit from the fact that a majority around us are vaccinated. This is hypocritical, in my opinion.

It is scary to think what could happen if the majority just decided that vaccination were no longer vogue and stopped vaccinating their children.

I believe that is the "herd" immunity. It should be reserved ONLY for those kids who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons. When anyone can willy nilly subscribe to this thinking it simply does not work.

 

[morgan98]

That is what it is called. And I completely agree about only being reserved for medical reasons. I just can't wrap my head around someone coming to the conclusion that vaccinations "might" be too risky for their children, but hey everyone else put your own child at risk because it will protect my child anyway. I find that to be very selfish.

 

[bcla]

That is what it is called. And I completely agree about only being reserved for medical reasons. I just can't wrap my head around someone coming to the conclusion that vaccinations "might" be too risky for their children, but hey everyone else put your own child at risk because it will protect my child anyway. I find that to be very selfish.

Of course there can be complications from vaccinations. There can also be injuries from seat belts and airbags. However, it's a risk that is far less than the benefit.

 

[undertheradar]

I vaccinated my kids, so I am not an anti-vac person. In fact I strongly think you SHOULD vaccinate, but I am not going to tell someone else what to do. Now, states can make their own decisions, but it should be based on the people's will, not on some politician who is most likely bought off by either big pharma or pressure from bigger govt. Did Californians vote on this? If they did, ok. Did the gvt do this on their own? Than not ok.

Since California is the train wreck that it is, there just is not enough money to fund all of the medical treatments caused by the "anti" crowd. There are free vaccination clinics in every county in the state, along with clinics held at various schools. The ignorance of those that choose to accept sound scientific data is what is placing the rest of society at risk.