When I reported that the Disneyland measles outbreak had officially ended, I also noted that a bill mandating vaccinations for children attending public or private schools was stalled in committee.
Due to California’s recent infectious disease challenges, which also includes a substantial increase in whooping cough infections, our legislators have cleared Senate Bill 277 repealing the state’s current personal and faith-based exemptions, and allowing only vaccinated children to attend public and private schools.
Legislation aimed at reversing the state’s liberal vaccine exemption law took a major step forward Wednesday in the state Senate, only a week after support for the bill seemed to be on shaky ground.The dramatic 7-2 vote by the Senate Education Committee surprised some Capitol observers, as one East Bay Democrat, Loni Hancock, of Berkeley, switched sides and voted yes.If the bill becomes law, California would become the third state after Mississippi and West Virginia to slam the door on any exemptions to vaccinations except those issued for medical reasons.
Children with problems like allergies or immune suppression would remain exempt under this new proposed law.
The mind-set of the politicians creating this mandate is transparently clear in the remarks of the Chairmwoman of the committee overseeing the bill:
“The penalty for not immunizing their kids is you either have to home-school or take your kids out of public schools, and I don’t think that’s a solution to the problem,” committee Chairwoman Carol Liu (D-La Cañada Flintridge) told Pan during last week’s meeting.
Liu may be shocked to discover that more and more families are opting for homeschooling after the implementation of Common Core. In fact, a fascinating study shows that homeschooled black are more successful academically than white students attending public schools.
On the other hand, California student math and reading scores are near the bottom of the nation-wide rankings for those attending public schools.
So perhaps the threat is not the best incentive to get people to vaccinate their children?
I might suggest undoing the vaccination-autism connection that was actually promoted by the press around the same time the vaccination rates in this country dropped. For example, a new study shows that the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine has no connection to autism.
A new study of close to 100,000 children shows no link between the vaccine to prevent measles, mumps, and rubella and an increased risk of autism.Researchers analyzed health insurance claims covering 95,727 children who had received either zero or one of the recommended two doses of the MMR vaccine over an 11-year period since 2001.The study found “no harmful association between the receipt of the MMR vaccine and the development of an autism spectrum disorder.””This was true even among those children who were at an increased risk of having autism spectrum disorders by virtue of having an older sibling with ASD,” said Dr. Anjali Jain.
However, given the amount of unemployment/underemployment among our college graduatesand the fact many of the most ardent anti-vaxxers are wealthy liberals, perhaps there is a burgeoning job market for private tutors?
For every legislative action, there is an equal and opposite citizen reaction.
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