Читать книгу Global Issues 2021 Edition - Группа авторов - Страница 57

Several state legislatures are reassessing their vaccine waiver policies after a dramatic increase in nonmedical exemptions has been shown to be associated with outbreaks of vaccine-preventable disease.²⁷

On Jan. 25, 2019, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, declared a state of emergency in all counties in response to more than two dozen confirmed cases of measles in the state. Months later, the state enacted a law that eliminated personal and philosophical objections to the MMR vaccine for children in public and private schools and day care centers.²⁸

In New York state, a bill introduced by Democratic Sen. Brad Hoylman to discontinue the religious exemption for immunizations for public school students became law in June.²⁹

On May 25, 2019, Maine enacted one of the country’s toughest vaccination laws, removing all nonmedical exemptions. “It is my responsibility to protect the health and safety of all Maine people, and it has become clear that our current laws do not adequately protect against the risks posed,” Democratic Gov. Janet Mills said in a written statement. Doctors and pediatric primary care givers will now determine if a child should receive a medical exemption and the Maine Center for Disease Control will report on the safety and effectiveness of vaccines in an effort to increase transparency. Unvaccinated students will have until 2021 to receive vaccinations required for school.

Given California’s experience with such laws, they may not solve the problem of vaccine avoidance. After a measles outbreak that began at Disneyland in 2014, the state eliminated all religious and personal belief vaccine exemptions in 2015.³⁰ But parents exploited another provision in the law, says Catherine Flores-Martin, executive director of the California Immunization Coalition, an advocacy group in Sacramento that promotes full immunization in the state.

“Some found doctors willing to write medical exemptions so that their children would not get vaccinations and still be in school,” she says. “We know this because they shared information on the internet, Facebook and other social media sites about where parents could find a vaccine exemption-friendly doctor.”

California State Sen. Dr. Richard Pan, a Democrat and a pediatrician, introduced a bill to require that a doctor’s waiver be approved by state health officials.³¹ Both measures have been strongly opposed by anti-vaccine advocates, including Kennedy, and groups such as the Informed Consent Action Network and Parents United 4 Kids. Actress Biel traveled to the state Capitol in Sacramento to lobby against the new legislation. Opponents say these provisions violate patient-doctor relationships and infringe on medical freedom.

Dorit Reiss, a UC Hastings law professor, has written extensively about the vaccine requirements and testified before the California State Senate judiciary committee in support of the current law and the proposed change. “No court, state or federal, has ever struck down an immunization law, because parental rights have never been absolute,” says Reiss. “They have always been limited. Vaccine mandates are especially natural because they protect the welfare of the child and the safety of others.”