Why California’s Approach to Tightening Vaccine Rules Has Potential to Backfire

[bonnie]

Why California’s Approach to Tightening Vaccine Rules Has Potential to Backfire

 

APRIL 14, 2015

 

Brendan Nyhan

 

In a number of states, parents are allowed to opt out of legal requirements to have their children vaccinated before entering school by claiming a “personal belief” or “philosophical” exemption. These provisions have raised a great deal of concern since the Disneyland measles outbreak, including in California, where it began. Unfortunately, the blundering approach state legislators there have taken shows how direct attacks on exemptions can rally the anti-vaccine cause.

Senate Bill 277, which would eliminate the personal belief exemption, passed the Senate Health Committee on a 6-2 vote last week and heads to its second hearing in the Education Committee on Wednesday. The bill is scheduled to go through multiple committees, which is creating numerous opportunities for opponents to promote misinformation about the supposed dangers of vaccines.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine leader, compared the issue to the Holocaust in comments in Sacramento before the screening of a scientifically unsubstantiated anti-vaccine film last week. An anti-vaccine group from Minnesota financed the airing of a television ad showing an infant having a seizure. Other vaccine opponents made similarly dubious claims about the risks of immunization in testimony to the Health Committee and jeered vaccine advocates from the audience.

Photo

 

In South Portland, Me., six-month-old Alexander Hickey had a doctor's visit that included a vaccination for pneumococcal meningitis. CreditGabe Souza/Portland Press Herald, via Getty Images

This process threatens to create more conflict around vaccination and to give undue attention to the claims of a tiny fringe of hard-core vaccine opponents. The San Jose Mercury News, for instance, headlined its articleon the debate “Incendiary Vaccine Bill Advances,” citing “a relentless parade of opposition” during “an emotional hearing that marked the beginning of a battle over what has become Sacramento’s most contentious issue this year.”

In reality, despite troubling signs of increased vaccine exemptions in some areas, the social consensus in favor of vaccination remains overwhelming. There’s no need to confuse parents with these sorts of acrimonious debates, which suggest that vaccines are a matter of scientific or public health controversy.

What’s worse is that most of the votes for the bill so far have come from Democrats, which could politicize a decidedly bipartisan issue. The safety of our children and our communities shouldn’t become a partisan matter, which could spur some people to oppose vaccine requirements as a result of their political views.

A smarter approach would be to retain a narrow personal belief exemption in states that already have one and avoid the kind of polarizing fight that California is now having. These states could tighten exemption rules as experts recommend to more appropriately strike the balance between parental choice and the health needs of the community. Given the potential risks that unvaccinated children pose to the community, the process of obtaining an exemption can be rigorous and demanding. Until a recent change in the law in California, for instance, it was easier to obtain a personal belief exemption than to document that a child was fully vaccinated, which gets the burden of proof precisely backward.

 

[phkrause]

Wow two threads of the same thing!!!!!