Here's what happened after California got rid of "personal belief exemptions" for childhood vaccines

[Pluvious]

Take THAT, you evil Russian Troll Army !!

California puts children's health above superstition and propaganda.

Huzzah !!

Health authorities in California have more power to insist that a dog is vaccinated against rabies than to ensure that a child enrolled in public school is vaccinated against measles.

That’s just one of the frustrations faced by health officials in the first year after California did away with “personal belief exemptions” that allowed parents to send their kids to school unvaccinated, according to a study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

In the 2014-15 school year, when parents could still opt out of vaccinations for any reason they chose, only 90.4% of kindergartners in California public schools were fully immunized. That’s below the 94% threshold needed to establish community immunity for measles, according to experts.

Gaps like that helped persuade state lawmakers to pass Senate Bill 277, which was signed into law in 2015. It requires every child taught in public school classrooms to be fully immunized against 10 diseases: diphtheria, hepatitis B, haemophilus influenzae Type B, measles, mumps, pertussis (a.k.a. whooping cough), poliomyelitis, rubella, tetanus and varicella (a.k.a. chickenpox) — unless a doctor providesa medical reason for why it would be unsafe to do so.

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-vaccine-medical-exemptions-20181029-story.html

[MyOwnPeace]

1. Glad to see

some branch of government do something about keeping our kids safe in schools.
I guess the NRA doesn’t sell vaccines.

[leftieNanner]

2. We need this to happen in Oregon too!

A woman I know is an anti-vaxxer as are many in our community. She believes that her family will be safe if they only eat organic food and that her daughter caught a cold because she ate a candy bar! She's a Republican, of course.

For me, having grown up in the Polio era (a friend in kindergarten had it) - I know that vaccines are life savers. This woman doesn't seem to understand that my generation and subsequent ones have nearly eradicated these diseases by vaccinating our children. She's an idiot. Oh, I already said that, didn't I?

[Aristus]

3. I had to listen to the blitherings of an anti-vaxxer right here on DU

who airily proclaimed that she couldn't get the flu because she always washed her hands and never touched surfaces in public areas.

I wanted to tell her that influenza is spread by airborne droplets from coughing or sneezing. But I don't think I could have penetrated that mind even if I had a steam drill with an industrial bit.

[leftieNanner]

5. I think the steam drill with the industrial bit is for

sinus infections, right?

Needless to say, we don't discuss politics. One day, she went off on the "lazy homeless panhandlers" (this was before I knew her political persuasion) and I asked her how she could know what caused people to become homeless. "Maybe they are vets with PTSD, maybe they were abused, maybe they have mental health issues or addiction." Let's just say that she was not receptive to my arguments. So I went out and paid for a homeless man's small food purchase at our grocery store. HA! SO THERE!

[Aristus]

8. Thank you for that; standing up for the homeless.

Most of my DU friends know that I'm a medical provider for patients at a clinic for our homeless population.

Anyone following me around for a day of clinic might be astonished by how much they didn't know about the homeless.

Many of my patients have jobs (how many times have you heard "Why don't they just go get a job?" ), but they are rarely enough to get them off the streets when they need first and last month's rent, credit check, criminal background check, damage deposit, etc.

And yes, many, many of my patients come from homes where they were abused, and the emotional toll that can take may make it difficult to live a mainstream life, ie hold a job, pay rent, wrangle bills, etc.

A distressingly large number of my patients suffer from mental illness. And despite what the stereotype implies, far more mentally-ill patients are victims of violence than the perpetrators of it.

One of the reasons our country is in decline is because far too many people lack empathy for their fellow citizens. If we would seek to understand rather than rush to judge, we could recover some morality as a nation.

[leftieNanner]

9. Thank you, Aristus.

Compassion seems to be in short supply lately.

[Blue_true]

12. Does she wear a self breathing air bubble around her nose and mouth.

Does she wear a no touch hazmat suit over her clothes? If no to any of that, she is deceiving herself and that may well kill her or her spouse or kids.

[BigmanPigman]

4. As a former Elementary School teacher in CA

I am grateful for my former co-workers too. Kids Aren't the only ones that get sick. Before the Chicken Pox vaccine was available I got the disease. I also got mono and pneumonia many times and even with flu shots was still sick 75% of the time. I eventually had to stop teaching since I was out sick more and more.

[diversast]

6. Polio 1950s

I had polio in the early 1950s in one of the last major polio epidemics prior to mass inoculations. I was severely ill, but had no lasting effects--or so everyone thought. Now I have been diagnosed with post-polio syndrome. That's right, more than 60 years later, polio is with me and affecting my life.

I remember every spring my grandparents and parents worried there would be another outbreak. Even after the vaccine was distributed nation-wide, the fear was still there for more than a decade.

All states should require vaccination of all school-age kids except for those who cannot be vaccinated for documented medical reasons. California leads the way and more should follow.

To the anti-vax people out there: Every time I struggle to get out of a chair because of muscle weakness in my legs, I will send to you a silent, heartfelt 'fuck you' for not protecting your children. My parents didn't have a choice, you do.

[Mariana]

11. My next door neighbor is deaf because he had mumps.

A while back I was reading some newspapers from 1895. Apparently, that city had just made smallpox vaccination for schoolchildren mandatory, and there were people who strenuously objected to this. The arguments were remarkably similar to the ones being given today - they didn't want poison injected into their kids, they thought a healthy diet would prevent infection, they didn't want to subvert the will of God, etc. etc.

[Omaha Steve]

7. There is an anti-vaxxer in my family

[central scrutinizer]

10. We've lost our link to the past

I attended a family reunion in Nebraska in 2007. We looked at family trees. Every one showed the effects of childhood diseases in the 19th century. One family had nine children, only two lived past puberty. My neighbor was severely crippled due to polio. Nobody seems to remember the “good old days” when childhood death or disability was common .