Explaining Medicine
  • News
  • Health & Lifestyle
    • Diet & Weight Management
    • Exercise & Fitness
    • Nutrition, Food & Recipes
    • Prevention & Wellness
  • Conditions
    • Custom1
      • Conditions A-Z
      • Procedures A-Z
      • Allergies
      • Alzheimer’s
      • Arthritis
      • Asthma
      • Blood Pressure
      • Cholesterol
      • Cancer
    • Custom2
      • Chronic Pain
      • Cold Flu
      • Depression
      • Diabetes
      • Digestion
      • Eyesight
      • Health Living
      • Healthy Kids
      • Hearing Ear
    • Custom3
      • Heart
      • HIV/AIDS
      • Infectious Disease
      • Lung Conditions
      • Menopause
      • Men’s Health
      • Mental Health
      • Migraine
      • Neurology
    • Custom4
      • Oral Health
      • Pregnancy
      • Senior Health
      • Sexual Health
      • Skin Problems
      • Sleep
      • Thyroid
      • Travel Health
      • Women’s Health
  • Medications
    • Medications
    • Supplements and Vitamins
  • Medical Dictionary
  • Health Alerts
Is It Dry Skin or Atopic Dermatitis?
Atopic Dermatitis: How to Get Enough Sleep
Atopic Dermatitis: Help for Broken Skin
Atopic Dermatitis and Food Triggers
What’s at stake as the Supreme Court hears...
Oncologists’ meetings with drug reps don’t help cancer...
Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria: What to Know
CSU: What to Wear and What to Avoid
Treatment Plan for Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria
When the Hives of CSU Don’t Go Away...
Top Posts

Explaining Medicine

  • News
  • Health & Lifestyle
    • Diet & Weight Management
    • Exercise & Fitness
    • Nutrition, Food & Recipes
    • Prevention & Wellness
  • Conditions
    • Custom1
      • Conditions A-Z
      • Procedures A-Z
      • Allergies
      • Alzheimer’s
      • Arthritis
      • Asthma
      • Blood Pressure
      • Cholesterol
      • Cancer
    • Custom2
      • Chronic Pain
      • Cold Flu
      • Depression
      • Diabetes
      • Digestion
      • Eyesight
      • Health Living
      • Healthy Kids
      • Hearing Ear
    • Custom3
      • Heart
      • HIV/AIDS
      • Infectious Disease
      • Lung Conditions
      • Menopause
      • Men’s Health
      • Mental Health
      • Migraine
      • Neurology
    • Custom4
      • Oral Health
      • Pregnancy
      • Senior Health
      • Sexual Health
      • Skin Problems
      • Sleep
      • Thyroid
      • Travel Health
      • Women’s Health
  • Medications
    • Medications
    • Supplements and Vitamins
  • Medical Dictionary
  • Health Alerts
  • News

    States Move To Restrict Parents’ Refusal To Vaccinate Their Kids

    by Patti Neighmond February 28, 2019

    Enlarge this image

    A combination vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella protects kids against all three illnesses with one shot. Courtney Perry/The Washington Post/Getty Images hide caption

    toggle caption

    Courtney Perry/The Washington Post/Getty Images

    A combination vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella protects kids against all three illnesses with one shot.

    Courtney Perry/The Washington Post/Getty Images

    All U.S. states require most parents to vaccinate their children against some preventable diseases, including measles, mumps, rubella and whooping cough, to be able to attend school. Such laws often apply to children in private schools and day care facilities as well as public schools.

    At the same time, beyond medical exemptions, most states also allow parents to opt out of this vaccination requirement for religious reasons. And 17 states permit other exemptions — allowing families to opt out of school vaccination requirements for personal or philosophical reasons.

    Michelle Mello, a professor of law and health research and policy at Stanford University, says the bar for claiming an exemption from vaccine requirements has been very low in many states. “You can believe that vaccines don’t work or that they are unsafe or they simply fly in the face of your parenting philosophy,” she says.

    In A Measles Outbreak, Demand For Vaccine Spikes

    Health

    In A Measles Outbreak, Demand For Vaccine Spikes

    But this winter’s outbreaks of measles across the nation are resulting in challenges to many exemptions: At least eight states, including some that have experienced measles outbreaks this year, want to remove personal exemptions for the measles vaccine. And some states would remove the exemption for all vaccines.

    Most of this year’s measles cases have been among children who were not vaccinated against the virus.

    Once considered eradicated in the U.S., measles has sickened at least 159 people since the start of 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in outbreaks ranging from Washington and Oregon to Texas and New York. Last year, there were 372 reported cases of measles nationwide.

    The move among state legislatures to tighten vaccine requirements is good news to Diane Peterson, the associate director for immunization projects with the pro-vaccine advocacy group Immunization Action Coalition.

    “Measles is not like a common cold,” Peterson says. “Children get very, very sick and can be hospitalized,” she says, adding that measles can even lead to death.

    The virus is highly contagious, airborne and easily spreads. It can survive in the air for a couple of hours.

    Beyond Rash And Fever: How Measles Kills 100,000 Children A Year

    Goats and Soda

    Beyond Rash And Fever: How Measles Kills 100,000 Children A Year

    “A patient with measles can go to the doctor, cough in the exam room and two hours later another patient coming into the same exam room can be infected,” Peterson says.

    The virus is spreading fast this winter, she says, because of the “pockets of children who have not been vaccinated, mostly due to parents who have decided not to vaccinate them.”

    This leaves not only those unvaccinated school children vulnerable to the virus but also many adults who have suppressed immune systems and infants who are not old enough to be vaccinated.

    According to the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, bills to restrict exemptions are now pending in a growing number of states.

    None of this sits well with activists who want their states to maintain personal and philosophical exemptions.

    “Nobody should sit in judgment of another person’s religious and spiritual beliefs,” says Barbara Loe Fisher, a spokesperson for the National Vaccine Information Center, a group that lobbies against mandatory vaccination and thinks parents should have a choice. “No person should be allowed to force someone to violate their conscience when they’re making a decision about the use of a pharmacological product that carries a risk of harm.”

    Refusing Flu Shots? Maybe You're A 'Denialist'

    Author Interviews

    Refusing Flu Shots? Maybe You’re A ‘Denialist’

    The scientific consensus about any risk from vaccines is that serious side effects are extremely rare. A suggestion that immunization might be tied to severe consequences like autism was debunked years ago, after findings supporting that link were proved fraudulent.

    Mello, the Stanford law professor who has been following the exemption debate, notes that the courts have repeatedly held that when a public health intervention is necessary to safeguard the public, individuals generally can be required to give up some personal liberty, particularly if that liberty is tied to a government benefit like school.

    So far, only three states — Mississippi, West Virginia and California — prohibit nearly all vaccine exemptions, including the one exempting families who say their religious belief conflicts with vaccination. (All states allow medical exemptions when, for example, a child has a compromised immune system.)

    The California state Legislature made that decision in 2015, less than a year after the state experienced a significant measles outbreak that got its first foothold among unvaccinated children visiting Disneyland.

    Read the article here

    Share this Post

    Share Explaining Medicine Share Explaining Medicine

    States Move To Restrict Parents’ Refusal To Vaccinate Their Kids was last modified: March 7th, 2019 by Patti Neighmond

    Related

    immune suppressionmeaslesparentsVaccine refusalVaccines
    0 comment
    0
    Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
    Patti Neighmond

    previous post
    One-Handed NFL Star Lifts Spirits — and a Toddler
    next post
    Study: Vaccine Law Evasion Fuels Measles Outbreaks

    Related Articles

    Tai chi helps boost memory, study finds. One type seems most beneficial

    November 6, 2023

    Flu and COVID are on the rise, but there are fewer severe COVID cases than last year

    January 5, 2024

    States Move To Tighten Medicaid Enrollment, Even Without A New Health Law

    July 6, 2017

    Hospitals Worry Repeal Of Obamacare Would Jeopardize Innovations In Care

    January 27, 2017

    Good News, Parents: Teens Are Delaying Having Sex

    January 4, 2018

    Doctor Salaries Show Modest Rise, Report Says

    April 12, 2018

    How to help young people limit screen time — and feel better about how they look

    February 26, 2023

    Talking to Your Kids

    January 10, 2024

    The hidden curriculum of medical school can be overwhelming and unforgiving

    March 10, 2019

    Cancer Rates Up More Than a Third in Past Decade

    December 3, 2016

    Recent Posts

    • Is It Dry Skin or Atopic Dermatitis?

      April 24, 2024
    • Atopic Dermatitis: How to Get Enough Sleep

      April 24, 2024
    • Atopic Dermatitis: Help for Broken Skin

      April 24, 2024
    • Atopic Dermatitis and Food Triggers

      April 24, 2024
    • What’s at stake as the Supreme Court hears Idaho case about abortion in emergencies

      April 23, 2024

    Keep in touch

    Facebook Twitter Google + RSS

    Recent Posts

    • Is It Dry Skin or Atopic Dermatitis?

      April 24, 2024
    • Atopic Dermatitis: How to Get Enough Sleep

      April 24, 2024
    • Atopic Dermatitis: Help for Broken Skin

      April 24, 2024
    • Atopic Dermatitis and Food Triggers

      April 24, 2024
    • What’s at stake as the Supreme Court hears Idaho case about abortion in emergencies

      April 23, 2024
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Policy

    @2025 - Explaining Medicine. All Right Reserved.


    Back To Top
    Explaining Medicine
    Proudly powered by WordPress Theme: soledad child.