Hours of contentious debate in California’s Senate Judiciary Committee resulted in a 5-1 vote earlier this week to advance SB 277, a bill that would eliminate parents’ ability to exempt their children from required vaccinations on the basis of personal belief.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Since the Disneyland measles outbreak began in December, public health officials have called upon parents to vaccinate to vaccinate their under-immunized children and for adults to obtain a booster shot to protect against the disease. Since then, the coastal, liberal enclave of Santa Cruz has seen a significant uptick in vaccination appointments, according to local news station KSBW and the Palo Alto Medical Foundation.
