US can impose tougher vaccine laws if states do not want to, says FDA official

The federal government could step in to impose the vaccination of drugs if the states did not do a better job, said the head of the Food and Drug Administration in the United States.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb addressed CNN on Tuesday, accusing "some states" of granting "wide exemptions" from vaccines prescribed after a measles outbreak, once it was eliminated in the states. United States, broke out in the state of Washington in January.

"Some states have put in place exemptions of such magnitude that they create epidemic outbreaks of a magnitude that will have national implications," said Gottlieb. If "some states continue on the path they follow, I think they will force hand to federal health organizations."

It is unclear how the FDA could force states to crack down on immunization exemptions. US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention establish policies recommending vaccines for children, but states impose legal requirements.

All states require measles immunization for children enrolled in public schools, but 47 states allow parents to avoid vaccinating their children for religious reasons. Seventeen of these states, including Washington, also allow parents to opt out if they believe that vaccination would violate their personal or philosophical beliefs.

Last week, the Washington state legislature passed a bill that would prevent parents from asking for a personal or philosophical exemption. Bill 1683 is now going to the Rules Committee of the House, Newsweek reported.

The measles epidemics in the United States have been attributed to an increase in the number of overseas travelers who contract the virus and then bring it back to the United States. It is also spreading in communities with pockets of unvaccinated people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The virus can spread through coughs and sneezes and can live for up to two hours in an airspace where an infected person coughs or sneezes, according to the CDC.

"Measles is so contagious that if someone is infected, 90% of those close to that person who are not immune will also be infected," says the CDC on its website.

Last year, there were 17 virus outbreaks in the United States. Three of these outbreaks occurred in New York State, New York City, and New Jersey, mainly in Orthodox Jewish communities where the population was not immunized. The virus was reportedly brought back from Israel, where there would have been a large outbreak, said the CDC.

"Eighty-two people brought measles to the United States from other countries in 2018. That's the largest number of cases imported since measles was eliminated from the United States in 2000," says the site. Web site.

The World Health Organization has ranked vaccine reluctance among the top health threats in 2019. The WHO list also includes air pollution and climate change, weak primary health care, Ebola and a global flu pandemic, among other health concerns.

"Vaccination is one of the most cost-effective ways of avoiding disease. It currently prevents 2 to 3 million deaths a year and 1.5 million more could be avoided if the worldwide coverage of vaccinations improved, "says the WHO website.