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JEFFERSON CITY, MB (AP) – A group of Missouri lawmakers on Monday considered banning the prohibition of discrimination against unvaccinated children, an effort that must be pursued while other states seek to strengthen immunization in case of epidemic.
Parents testified to legislators that their non-immune children had been denied child care and doctors. Republican Lynn Morris, a pharmacist in southwestern Missouri, said parents are under pressure to vaccinate their children.
"Parents are being bullied," Morris said. "They get hurt by the county health services, they get hurt by the schools, they get hurt by their doctors, they're intimidated, and I just do not think it's true."
The Republican bill would prohibit discrimination against unimmunized children in doctors' offices, daycares, public schools and colleges if families had a legal exemption. Missouri grants exemptions for religious and medical reasons.
The hearing was held just days after a judge temporarily blocked an emergency order from a suburban New York County barring children from traveling to places public unless they have been vaccinated against measles.
Lawmakers from other states are also seeking to step up vaccination in case of outbreaks of diseases such as measles and whooping cough.
In March, Washington legislators pbaded a measure to remove exemptions for measles immunization after an outbreak of disease. There is an effort to end the non-medical exemptions for vaccines in Maine, where there were 95 cases of pertussis until February.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the vaccination rate remains high in the United States, but the number of children under two who have not received any vaccine is increasing. The CDC largely attributes this to the lack of health insurance: Uninsured children are much more likely to be vaccinated than children with health insurance.
Janessa Baake, of Peculiar town in southwestern Missouri, expressed concern over potential medical risks and told lawmakers that her 3-year-old daughter had not been vaccinated. She said that after she was refused by a Missouri doctor, she now takes her daughter to a Kansas pediatrician.
Another man said that his two children had developed autism after being vaccinated as toddlers.
"All the stories and anecdotes we've heard are very important, but I do not think they can be used to refute science," Ferguson Democratic representative Cora Faith Walker told reporters. a break in the audience.
Several studies have refuted claims that measles, mumps and rubella vaccines increase the risk of autism, and the National Institutes of Health reports that severe reactions are rare: about one in 100 000 vaccinations. In the United States, more than 90% of the national population is properly vaccinated.
"What we know and what we have studied, study after scientific study, is that the vaccines are safe and effective," said Jefferson City pediatrician, Katie Blount, a member of the chapter of the World Health Organization. American Academy of Pediatrics in Missouri. "In the end, it comes down to saying that it's one of the best ways for me to take care of a kid."
A similar bill was not introduced last year.
The House Health and Mental Health Policy Committee also plans to legislate to require physicians to provide information on the benefits and risks of vaccines, CDC information and other information before give vaccines.
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