Some potentially good news.
Vaccination is not only important for the child, but for the protection of children who have have a medical condition that prevents them from being vaccinated, such as a condition in which a fever can trigger seizures. Herd Immunity must be maintained for those individuals.The bill, SB 277, proposed by Richard Pan, a pediatrician and state senator would bar children who are vaccinated for non medical reasons from attending public or private schools. Currently, the personal belief exemption serves as a loophole that allows parents to choose not to vaccinate their children for essentially any reason, including ones founded on misinformation.
According to public health experts, at least 92 percent of a population must be vaccinated in order to maintain the “herd immunity” needed to protect those who cannot be inoculated, including very young children and people with compromised immune systems due to illnesses such as leukemia. But over the past 12 years the percentage of families using the personal belief exemption in California has increased greatly, resulting in the loss of herd immunity in more than a quarter of schools in the state as of 2014.http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...id=SA_FacebookWhat are the arguments against this bill, and how have you addressed them?
The opposition’s arguments fall into three main categories: One is that they claim vaccines are dangerous and unfortunately bring up a lot of debunked ideas, such as that vaccines cause autism. Research shows that’s not true, that vaccines are very safe, and certainly much safer than the diseases that they prevent.
The second part of the argument is that these diseases aren't that serious. Of course, they haven’t had direct experience with these diseases. They haven’t seen children in the ICU [intensive care unit] with measles encephalitis or seen babies cough to death.
The third argument is that the bill imposes on personal choice. Generally, of course, we want to give people as much freedom as possible. The question is, should you have the right to do something that will harm others? The Supreme Court has said that you cannot. Children who have exemptions due to chronic illness need the protection of all the other [vaccinated] children. Do those families choose not to send their children to school in order to keep them safe? That’s not fair to those families because they didn't have a choice. They didn't choose for their child to have leukemia, for example
The bill is not law yet, but it did pass the Senate Education Committee by 7-2. It will next head to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Lots of posts about autism... Vaccines do not cause autism.
Source CDCOne vaccine ingredient that has been studied specifically is thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative used to prevent contamination of multidose vials of vaccines. Research shows that thimerosal does not cause ASD. In fact, a 2004 scientific reviewExternal Web Site Icon by the IOM concluded that "the evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosal–containing vaccines and autism." Since 2003, there have been nine CDC-funded or conducted studies Adobe PDF file [PDF - 316 KB] that have found no link between thimerosal-containing vaccines and ASD, as well as no link between the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and ASD in children.
Between 1999 and 2001, thimerosal was removed or reduced to trace amounts in all childhood vaccines except for some flu vaccines. This was done as part of a broader national effort to reduce all types of mercury exposure in children before studies were conducted that determined that thimerosal was not harmful. It was done as a precaution. Currently, the only childhood vaccines that contain thimerosal are flu vaccines packaged in multidose vials. Thimerosal-free alternatives are also available for flu vaccine. For more information, see the Timeline for Thimerosal in Vaccines.
Besides thimerosal, some people have had concerns about other vaccine ingredients in relation to ASD as well. However, no links have been found between any vaccine ingredients and ASD.