Three anti-vaccine bills progress in Arizona despite measles outbreaks

Arizona lawmakers are going ahead with three bills that will help parents more easily evade their children's immunization – and might even encourage them to do so, according to a report released in July. March The Republic of Arizona.

This shameless piece of legislation comes as the country grapples with six measles outbreaks, a highly contagious and vaccine-preventable disease that can be disabling and even deadly for young children. One of these outbreaks occurs in Clark County, Washington, where creeping anti-vaccine designs and lax vaccination laws have fueled the spread of the disease. Since the beginning of the year, officials have recorded 65 cases, mainly in children under 10 years (47 cases out of 65) and almost all unvaccinated (57 cases out of 65).

In the hope of preventing future outbreaks, lawmakers in the state of Washington are pushing forward legislation that would eliminate immunization exemptions for personal and philosophical reasons. But Arizona lawmakers do not seem to have considered the efforts of their counterparts in Washington, even as public health experts had condemned the bill proposed by Arizona.

"Do we want the next story of the new outbreak to be in Arizona?" Dr. Steven Brown, a family doctor from downtown Phoenix, questioned lawmakers. "As a family doctor concerned about the health of our fellow citizens and our children in particular, I am discouraged and fearful of having to debate it … Nobody is here to tell the story of living people and not disabled by the vaccine – a preventable disease, "he added, according to the Republic.

Freedom to spread diseases

At a vote by 5 votes to 4, the Health Committee of the House and Social Services of Arizona introduced three anti-vaccine bills at the end of last week. One of the bills, HB 2470, would expand access to religious and personal conviction immunization exemptions for preschool and elementary school children. This would also eliminate the requirement for parents to complete a state authorization form for these exemptions.

The other two bills, HB 2471 and HB 2472, would require parents to receive a booklet on the risks of vaccination before vaccinating their children and require doctors to offer blood tests to determine if a child is already immunized against a disease preventable by vaccination.

The chair of the committee, Nancy Barto (R-Phoenix), sponsored the three bills. She stated that "each parent has the right to decide the place of the vaccine in the child's life". She also falsely claimed that there was credible data to recommend against large-scale vaccination. "We need to examine the data, examine the science and recognize that there is research on both sides."

Large, high-quality, well-known scientific studies unanimously conclude that the benefits of vaccination far outweigh the risks.

Arizona is already one of 17 states in the country that allows personal belief exemptions for immunization. Dr Scott Gottlieb, a member of the Commission for Food and Drug Administration, warned last week that lax state laws could prompt the federal government to take action. If "some states continue their momentum, I think they will force the hand of the federal health agencies," he told CNN.