As of April 17, 2015, California’s Department of Public Health has declared the outbreak of measles that began in Disneyland last December officially over. But that isn’t stopping Democrat California legislators from pressing on with the vaccine legislation that broke out along with the measles.
Overwhelming opposition from parents appears to have prevented a California Senate bill from advancing out of committee Wednesday. The bill would strip parents of their right to exempt their children from one or more of doses of vaccinations. Co-author Senator Richard Pan stands behind it, and it appears to be inspired by a measles outbreak that began in Disneyland last December.
California’s hotly-debated vaccinate mandate, Senate Bill 277, has been delayed just in time for the anticipated official April 17 end to the measles outbreak that began spreading at Disneyland last December and that inspired two Democrat State Senators, Dr. Richard Pan and Ben Allen, to propose the bill. The new legislation would strip parents’ ability to exempt their children from one or more of the 27 doses of vaccine required for K-12 students.
Parents opposed to a California legislative effort to revoke their ability to exempt their children from some vaccinations plan to bring their children to a hearing Wednesday before the Senate Education Committee–and promise to yank those kids out of school if the measure passes into law.
California legislators voted a bill through a State Senate committee 6-2 on Wednesday that would eliminate parental ability to opt their school-aged children out of required vaccinations, despite a strong showing from parents opposed and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who condemned the bill as “anti-woman and anti-mother” at a rally in Sacramento.
California is one of 20 states that currently allow vaccine exemptions based on a person’s religious beliefs or other reasons of conscience. This Wednesday, Senate Bill 277 (SB 277) begins an uphill journey through California’s legislature in an attempt to remove all vaccine exemptions, except for medical ones.
The measles outbreak has provoked California lawmakers to back legislation that would reduce personal belief exemptions for some or all required school vaccinations–but Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., wants them to reconsider.
In the midst of the Disneyland measles outbreak, California legislators have been decrying the number of under-vaccinated children in schools in a push for legislation that would strip parents of the right to choose whether to vaccinate their children. However, California Department of Public Health (CDPH) statistics show that “personal belief” exemptions account for only 2.54% of under-vaccinated California school children.
Widespread public debate over vaccinations has experienced an uptick following a measles outbreak that began at Disneyland last December, bringing further attention to institutions such as California day cares, some of which report lower rates of vaccination among enrolled children than the state’s kindergartens.
A new bipartisan bill to end vaccine exemptions for personal belief has found a powerful opponent: the chiropractors’ lobby.
Health officials report four cases of measles linked to a restaurant at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, where a staff member listed as “under-immunized” appears to have infected two other Emeril’s New Orleans Fish House staff members and a patrol.
Three more cases of measles have popped up in California since Monday, according to California Department of Public Health numbers released Wednesday–an increase after a hopeful weekend of no new cases. There has been a slowdown in new cases connected to the Disneyland outbreak, while passage of a California bill seeking to reduce parents’ options to exempt their school-age children from required vaccines has become more likely.
Berlin (AFP) – A toddler suffering from measles has died in the German capital, health authorities said, amid the country’s worst outbreak in years and a debate about vaccinations.
Parenthood changes things, particularly a person’s perspective on health and wellness. Such is the case with House of Lies star Kristen Bell, who recently revealed that before she had her two little girls she had been skeptical of vaccination.
Between multiple public health agencies from the U.S. and Canada, at least 147 cases of measles have been documented between December 28, 2014 and February 19, 2015 in an outbreak that is believed to have started at California’s Disneyland theme park in mid-December. The outbreak has expanded to six other states, plus Mexico and Canada.
Furious debate has circled around the issue of parents vaccinating children since an outbreak began at Disneyland in mid-December last year. Whether or not teachers and school staff should be required to be vaccinated (again, in most cases), however, is a different story. Even records for those that are vaccinated have been found to be far out of date in some cases.
A bill to be offered by California Democratic state Sen. Richard Pan would eliminate the “personal belief exemption” for measles vaccinations, forbidding parents to reject vaccination for their children.
Measles continues to spread internationally, with ten cases now appearing in Quebec, Canada connected to a California outbreak, according to a Feb. 11 report by the Public Health Department (PHD) of the Agency for Health and Social Services of Lanaudière.
In the midst of a measles outbreak, the public continues to debate over the issue of childhood vaccinations. Actress Mayim Bialik has voiced reluctant expression of her personal position on vaccinations over the years.
It is commonly assumed that many people working in Silicon Valley possess higher intelligence, as the area is replete with scientists, technologists, and engineers. However, according to the California Department of Public Health (DPH), many of those same people are too smart–or not intelligent enough–to vaccinate their children.
Four-month-old baby Mobius Loop is up to date on American Academy of Pediatrics recommended vaccinations, but at his tender age, it’s too early for his measles shot. It was during a January 18 family trip to Disneyland that Baby Mobius is believed to have contracted the highly contagious measles disease–and his mother posted her “mixed feelings” online.
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) passengers in San Francisco may have been exposed to measles after an infected individual used the train to commute between work and home over three days last week, Contra Costa County health officials warned Wednesday.
Measles isn’t the only disease infiltrating the immune systems of Californians. Whooping cough is back, rising through 2014 and highlighting the diminishing effectiveness of the childhood vaccine. In response, public health officials are encouraging booster shots in adults and older children.
On his weekly Friday night panel discussion during his show Real Time, Bill Maher wasted no time jumping into the vaccination debate. Maher suggested that vaccines are preventable if people would simply eat better, attacked genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and defended climate change to make his own argument that inconsistencies within the medical profession are all the more reason not to trust vaccines.
The nationwide measles outbreak has swept 14 states, most predominantly in California, but the Lone Star state has been lucky so far, spared from the virulent virus. Yet amid this eruption, more Texas parents are saying “no” to inoculating their children from many childhood diseases including the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine.
