[ad_1]
Arizona, a state with one of the highest rates of unvaccinated children in the United States, may soon be able to make it easier for parents to obtain non-medical vaccine exemptions for their children.
Rejecting the advice of public health officials at the national and federal levels, the Conservatives of the House Health and Social Services Committee passed a series of bills to change vaccine requirements in Canada. l & # 39; State. The most controversial of the three, HB270, would remove an existing provision that requires parents to seek a form from the state health department that allows the student to circumvent the school vaccination requirements.
The other two bills would increase the obligations of the health professionals who administer the vaccines. HB 2472 would require them to offer additional tests, while HB 2471 was an informed consent bill that would require the dispersion of additional medical information relating to the ingredients and risks of vaccines, AZ Central reported. All in all, the bills would reduce the barriers to remaining unvaccinated while broadening eligibility for personal and religious vaccine exemptions.
Republican Republican Nancy Barto de Pheonix, who introduced the three bills, described the state's current requirements as coercive. It has positioned bills as prohibitive for parental freedom.
"When a parent does not have a government statement to sign in order to qualify for an exemption with which he does not agree, that is This allows him to sign or make his own statement, "Barto told a committee hearing on Thursday.
Barto had the support of several parents who had spoken at the committee's hearing. Brandy Williams, Logan Simpson's mother, spoke passionately and said her son had a severe negative reaction to the rotavirus vaccine. She added that she was not fully informed by the doctors of all the risks.
But several doctors who spoke at the committee hearing argued that easing the exemptions would increase the risks for immunocompromised children. In addition, asking physicians to perform additional tests could potentially impose a financial burden on patients. A polio titration test, for example, could cost the patient at least $ 230 without insurance, explained the doctors at the hearing, which can be viewed in full here.
Despite a growing anti-vaccination movement in the United States, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which reports to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, recommends routine immunization of children under 24 months of age to protect against serious, potentially life-threatening diseases. .
Pediatrician Liz McKenna, representing the chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics of Arizona, read a prepared statement in which she warned lawmakers against exceeding the trio of bills.
"If they are passed, these bills will undermine our efforts to ensure the safety and health of children, as they would reduce immunization rates in our communities and increase the risk of epidemics in children. community scale, "she said.
McKenna highlighted decades of research showing that vaccines are among the most rigorously tested medical procedures. If measles were to come to Arizona, she said that more than 5,000 children could be susceptible.
"Deadly outbreaks of measles, which had disappeared from our practices, are now happening in every community in the country where children are not vaccinated," she said, adding that the bills were "extremely heavy and n & # 39; In no way improve the care provided to patients ".
Arizona is home to the largest number of unvaccinated children. A 2015 survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that the state had the lowest MMR vaccination rate in the country at about 84 percent.
If the state succeeds in passing bills, which must first go through the remaining legislature, this could result in an increase in the number of unvaccinated children. A 2018 study published by the medical journal PLOS 1 revealed that "the number of non-medical derogations to the vaccine with" philosophical conviction "has increased in 12 of the 18 states" that allow this policy.
[ad_2]
Source link