Lawmakers Continue to Face Hurdles for Vaccine Bill in California

The vaccination debate in this country is indeed heating up. California lawmakers have advanced a bill that would require school children in the state to be vaccinated despite the pleas of both parents and doctors. 

The debate evaluates the rights of parents verses the public health issue of exposing children to various diseases like Measles. 

This law, of course, spawned off the recent Measles outbreak that happened at Disneyland in California. 

The Rights of Parents

Parents argue they shouldn't have to vaccinate their kids due to religious or philosophical reasons. Parents believe a plan like this could have prevented their children from contracting measles at Disneyland. But lawmakers are debating the importance of parents rights and a major public health issue. 

Parents were upset - one parent threatening to put a curse on lawmakers who voted for the bill and another had to be removed after an outburst.

The number of 'personal belief exemptions from vaccines increased dramatically in recent years. In 2014 alone, 535,000 kindergartners in California and 2.5% had a personal belief exemption compared with less than 1% in 2000. 

Doctors and other experts are worried that vaccination ratea have falling so low in recent years. Some children cannot be immunized due to other health issues. Don't they deserve to be protected? 

What Vaccination Law Would Entail

Under the new law, parents would no longer be able to send their children to school with waivers citing religious or personal beliefs and exemptions would only be made available to children with health problems. Parents would be required by law to vaccinate their children.

Who Supports This Vaccination Law?

Supporters: it would increase the number of vaccinated young people and improve public health. Others say vaccines can be as dangerous as the diseases they aim to fight and that the bill would trample parental rights

Future of Vaccinations

If the bill passes the State Legislature and is signed by the governor, California would become the 3rd state along with Mississippi and West Virginia with such strict vaccination requirements. 

Public health officials believe an immunization rate of at least 90% is crucial to minimize a potential disease outbreak.

The bill still has a long way to go before being approved.

Samadi's Take on Vaccines

Unfortunately, there's a lot of misinformation about vaccine safety and effectiveness. No scientific controversy about vaccine safety and vaccine effectiveness and vaccines linked with autism have been disproven. This is not open to dispute among mainstream doctors and scientists.