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Parents in the state of Washington will no longer be able to claim personal or philosophical exemption from their children's combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine prior to attending a nursery or school under any circumstances. 39, a measure signed Friday by Governor Jay Inslee.
The state has witnessed more than 70 cases of measles this year and Inslee signed the bill at Vancouver City Hall, in the county where most of these cases were concentrated. The new law will enter into force at the end of July.
Inslee said that while the bill was a milestone for public health, he warned that he was not doing "everything necessary to protect the health of our most vulnerable citizens".
"We should listen to science and medicine, not social media," he said. "It's science and truth that will keep us healthy rather than fear."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that by the end of last week, 764 measles cases had been confirmed in 23 states.
Washington is one of 17 states that allow non-medical vaccine exemption for personal or philosophical beliefs. In addition, medical and religious exemptions exist for public or private schools or licensed state daycares. The medical and religious exemptions remain in effect under the measure passed by the Legislature last month.
Unless exempted, children must be vaccinated against almost a dozen diseases – including polio, whooping cough and measles – or show proof of their acquired immunity before they can go to school or go to the center of the small childhood.
The state Department of Health said that 4% of K-12 students in Washington benefit from a non-medical vaccine exemption. Of these, 3.7% of the exemptions are personal and the others are religious.
While the Senate had first sought a bill that would have removed the philosophical exemption for all required infant vaccines, both chambers have finally decided to go forward with the bill proposed by the House solely on the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, also known as the MMR vaccine.
Parents opposed to these measures held public hearings and the Capitol of Washington State with their children regularly throughout the legislative session, which ended April 28. More than 30 parents carrying placards featuring slogans such as "Science is never settled" have arrived in front of City Hall. before the signing of the bill on Friday.
Christie Nadzieja of Vancouver, WA, was one of three protestors at the ceremony who stood up and turned her back on Inslee when she signed the bill.
"I am for medical freedom and choice of vaccine," said Nadzieja, who also watched the signature on her mobile phone.
Other parents were accompanied by their young children.
"We are simply asking parents the right to choose whether our children are vaccinated or not.We are not here to remove the right of someone else, whether they choose to vaccinate or not." said Kari Palomo, a relative in Vancouver. Washington.
Before mass immunization, every year 400 to 500 people in the United States died of measles. Serious complications include swelling of the brain that can cause blindness or deafness and pneumonia.
The first symptoms include a fever, a runny nose and discomfort, followed by a rash that starts around the head and moves along the body. Patients are contagious four days before and four days after the onset of rash.
Nine out of 10 unvaccinated people exposed will have the disease. A non-immune person may become ill up to three weeks after being exposed to the virus.
There has been a resurgence of the anti-vaccine movement after a study conducted in the late 90s affirmed a link between measles vaccine and the rise of autism. The study has since been discredited and the researcher has lost his medical license, but misinformation and fear persist.
California removed the non-medical exemptions for all vaccines required for public and private schools in 2015 after a measles outbreak at Disneyland that sickened 147 people and spread to the United States and Canada. Vermont abandoned its personal exemption in 2015.
Several other states are considering adopting similar legislation, including Maine, Connecticut and neighboring Oregon, which have seen a handful of cases related to the Washington State epidemic.
In Clark County, Washington, site of the recent measles outbreak, 15 out of 54 schools where people were exposed to the viral disease were in school, said Alan Melnick , director of public health of the county. Eleven people have caught measles because of an exposure to school, he added, and 800 children were banned from school because they had not not vaccinated or that their vaccination status was not clear.
"Getting the vaccination rate in schools is really essential to protect children," said Melnick.
– The Associated Press
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