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About 3% of preschool children benefit from a "personal belief" waiver in Grand Forks County. This represents an increase of 1.35% in 2016. In Polk County, this represents about 2% of kindergarten children.
Again, these numbers are not striking.
The problem, however, is that they exist at all. We believe that most exemptions are based on erroneous evidence and that unvaccinated children pose a potential threat to other children vaccinated against infectious diseases.
According to an article in the Herald today, the numbers have shown an increase in recent years, despite the efforts of the medical community to reassure parents that vaccinations against diseases – TB and TB measles, for example – are beneficial for both the good of the child and for the children. other.
Earlier this year, social media sites such as Youtube and Facebook took steps to hide misinformation and conspiracy theories about vaccination. It was at the heart of an increase in measles cases nationwide.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 303 cases of measles were reported in the United States only in March. That number jumped to 341 in April. From January 1 to September 5, there were 1,241 confirmed cases in 31 states. The CDC notes that this is the largest number of measles cases in the United States since 1992.
According to the CDC, the majority of measles cases this year involve people who have not been vaccinated against the disease.
In the United States, there were only 55 cases in 2012. Although this number increased to 667 in 2014, it dropped to 86 in 2016.
Two decades ago, measles was considered a vanquished enemy. Yet this year, there are already at least 1,241 confirmed cases.
It is good, then, that Youtube and Facebook strive to make more difficult the search for an anti-vaccination propaganda.
In the meantime, we reiterate what we have said in the past: we have chosen to believe experts and therefore believe that vaccinations are safe for a child and are important in the ongoing struggle against infectious diseases that have come back to life .
One of the experts cited in today's Herald story is Dr. Paul Carson, from the Department of Public Health, University of North Dakota. He said that only one or two in a million people have severe reactions to vaccines; He also said that not vaccinating children can have disastrous consequences.
And without "group immunity", which means a vaccination rate of nearly 100% among the groups, other children, even those who have been vaccinated, are at higher risk if they are surrounded by unvaccinated peers.
To improve vaccination rates, the state should tighten the exemption process. In California, for example, state legislators have been working this year to impose new restrictions on certain exemptions.
If this is needed to stop the next outbreak of measles or tuberculosis, so be it. The North Dakota legislature should also consider its options at future sessions.
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