Representative Kelly Townsend, R-Mesa. (Photo: The Republic)

In signing her message, "live free or die", state representative Kelly Townsend said on Facebook Thursday that mandatory vaccinations were being decried.

A day after Arizona Republican Governor Doug Ducey said that he was "pro-vaccination," said Townsend, a Mesa Republican, that she had heard of proposals to "force" the people of Arizona to vaccinate.

"The idea of ​​forcing someone to give up their freedom in the name of the collective is not based on American values, but rather on communism (sic)," she wrote.

Ignoring warnings from health officials, the House of Representatives Committee on Health and Social Services last week approved three bills that would reduce Arizona schoolchildren's vaccination coverage.

This action drew the country's attention, as health officials in the country became increasingly concerned about measles outbreaks due to declining child immunization rates.

"Our country is sovereign, our state is sovereign, our family is sovereign, our God is sovereign and the last frontier of the most sacred and sacred sovereignty is our own body," wrote Townsend. "My friends, I'm going to ask you to educate your children, educate your family, educate your entourage about the fundamental principles of freedom and what it means." It seems we have lost these fundamental principles along the way and we continue our fears. "

Vaccines are approved by all major public health organizations around the world, including the World Health Organization, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The World Health Organization cited "reluctance to vaccinate" as one of the top 10 threats to global health in 2019, saying it threatened to reverse the progress made in the fight against diseases that can be prevented by vaccination.

ROBERTS: Is there a vaccine against the communist plot of Townsend?

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"Vaccination is one of the most cost-effective ways to avoid the disease." It currently prevents two to three million deaths a year and 1.5 million more could be prevented if the global coverage of vaccinations was improved, "says a statement from the WHO.

Townsend, who served in the US military and was once a birth doula, wrote that she would insist that more money and time be spent "to discover what, in these vaccines, causes so much of injury ".

In 2015, the California Legislature removed all exemptions for non-medical vaccines as a result of a measles outbreak at Disneyland that affected seven residents of Arizona. The rate of schoolchildren vaccinated in California has since increased.

Representative Alma Hernandez, D-Tucson, presented this session in the Arizona Legislature without being assigned to a committee and appears to be dead.

Contact the reporter at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter: @pephanieinnes

Read or share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-health/2019/02/28/state-rep-kelly-townsend-says-mandatory-vaccinations-communist/3018342002/