[ad_1]
An Arizona legislative group voted Thursday to approve a series of bills that expand exemptions for mandatory vaccinations.
The Arizona House Health and Social Services Committee approved three bills on a five-to-four vote, despite warnings from public health officials, the Arizona Republic reported.
Arizona parents are currently allowed to apply for non-medical exemptions from "personal belief" for immunization of schoolchildren from kindergarten to grade 12.
The bill would include exemptions for "religious belief" and broaden exemptions for non-medical vaccines to include preschool children, the newspaper reported. This also removes the requirement for parents to sign a state health service form to obtain an immunization exemption for their child.
Dr. Elizabeth McKenna, a pediatrician affiliated with the Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics of Arizona, told the committee that no major religion was opposed to vaccination.
The Arizona representative, Nancy Barto (right), chair of the committee that sponsored the three bills, said that asking parents to fill out a government form regarding a policy with which they were not involved. not agree was "coercion".
"This allows them to sign or make their own statement," Barto said. "We are talking about a political decision now for parents and we should assign the best expectations to the parents, not the worst."
The committee's vote comes amid measles outbreaks in the Pacific Northwest and New York State.
An outbreak in Clark County, Washington State, led the state to to declare a public health emergency. The county was dubbed a "hot spot" anti-vaccination and had seen 64 confirmed cases as of Friday, the majority of them were not immune to the infection.
So far in 2019, the Center for Disease Control has reported cases of measles in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, New York, New York, New York, and New York. Oregon and Texas.
Washington is one of 17 states that allow the exemption of "philosophical beliefs" because of personal, moral or other beliefs, according to at the National Conference of State Legislatures. The vast majority of states – 47 – allow parents not to be vaccinated for religious reasons.
According to state data, about 7% of Clark County students were exempt from the requirement to be vaccinated as soon as they entered kindergarten due to personal or religious reasons during the course of the year. 2017-2018 school year.
Barto's two other bills are creating more work for the doctors, AZ Central said.
Physicians should be required to offer parents an "antibody titre" blood test to determine if the child is already immune to a disease or if he needs the vaccine. Critics say the tests are unreliable and difficult to interpret.
The third measure, a bill on informed consent, would require doctors to provide parents with an additional 30 pages containing information on vaccine ingredients and associated risks.
"Providing this book without the proper context and without adequate explanation can confuse and intimidate parents and lead to lower vaccination rates," McKenna warned.
Barto emphasized that the three bills she sponsored relate to the rights of parents. The measures do not affect the positive or negative aspects of vaccination, said the Republican legislator.
"We are here to recognize that vaccines have a place, but every parent has the right to decide the vaccine's place in the child's life," Barto said.
[ad_2]
Source link