There are children who, for medical or religious reasons, cannot be vaccinated against (what were once considered) common childhood diseases like mumps, measles, chicken pox, polio, and whooping cough. Then, there are children whose parents have simply refused to vaccinate, using a personal beliefs exemption to get around the mandated vaccination law for school-age children.
The anti-vaccine movement can be largely traced to a 1998 report in a medical journal that suggested a link between vaccines and autism. A study that was proved fraudulent and retracted, and whose author lost his medical license. Non-immunized children come primarily from anti-vaxxers – parents who still believe the study – in addition to illegal immigrants of pre-school age, and a sub-culture of parents trying to create an “all-natural” environment for their little vegan progeny.
As an aside, I assume these all-natural parents don’t allow their children to drink water (fluoridation) or milk (added artificial vitamins) and refuse to eat papaya, corn, soybeans or sugar beets. They grow their own fruits, vegetables and grain from non-G.M.O. seeds using neither pesticides nor fertilizer, and are aware that only the “Organic” seal is a federally regulated guarantee that a food has virtually no G.M.O. ingredients. (Only 15 countries in the world,-by law, require foods to be labeled, and the US is not one of them.)
As to the subject of this blog. According to the NY Times, schools in Orange County, CA – a center of the all-natural movement – report 50 – 60% of kindergartners are not fully vaccinated. In one town, almost 25% of school age children have not even been vaccinated against polio. The CDC reports more measles last year than in any other year in the last decade and, since January 1, measles has been confirmed in 14 states with 91 cases just in California stemming from an unvaccinated infected child visitor to Disneyland. And it’s not just vaccinations against childhood diseases that are being refused. Despite her 8 year old son having come down with chicken pox and whopping cough, Kelly McMenimen refused a tetanus shot for her son after he cut himself on a wire fence saying, “he has a strong immune system”.
So who is really at risk from this movement? Only 97% of those vaccinated have full immunity so the other 3% are at risk, as well as babies too young to be vaccinated, pregnant mothers, and people of all ages whose immune system is compromised. Epidemiologists emphasize the benefit of “herd immunity” wherein successful immunization of 95% of the population protects the 5% who cannot be protected. And all of the diseases for which vaccinations exist can have dire consequences – including encephalitis, blindness, lifelong heart and lung issues, paralysis, and death.
I am not a litigious person, but I wonder what will happen when the first child who cannot be vaccinated dies as a result of the inaction of parents whose child could have been.
We govern what people can and can’t do with guns, seatbelts, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes and more, all in the interest of the majority. While the Constitution (see First Amendment) does protect the right of the minority versus the majority in many important instances, there is no constitutional right for a minority to hold a risk of infecting any member of the majority with serious diseases, all of which have higher than average mortality rates.
As Mr. Spock so eloquently said, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” And it’s time to speak up and step in.