Public health finally prevails
Score one for science and public health. After wavering a week ago, a state Senate panel has come to its senses by approving a health measure to ensure wider vaccinations for children. It’s an encouraging decision that sets established research and medicine above the misguided fears of a small number of parents who are putting their children and others at risk.
The latest iteration of SB277 does away with the “personal belief’’ option that allowed antivaccine parents to avoid shots as a condition of attending school. It also drops the idea of allowing the parents to opt out by citing religion.
Instead, the law will let these objectors home- school their unvaccinated children in multifamily groups, an arrangement that addresses the needs of parents who can’t or won’t handle teaching duties themselves. The bill also allows an exemption for students in independent study programs.
While not perfect, these exceptions approved by the Senate Education Committee answer concerns by several lawmakers about unduly limiting access to school with a broad vaccination requirement.
While relatively few parents object to vaccines, the numbers of antivaxxers have built to a tipping point where an outbreak of disease can spread quickly and do great harm to unvaccinated people and others with impaired immune systems. The problem was underlined by a wave of measles traced to public crowds at Disneyland that spread to other states, Mexico and Canada.
This risk became lost amid misinformation about the chemical dangers of vaccines ( not substantiated by research), links to autism ( unverified despite widespread myths) and demands for personal choice, now accommodated by the home- schooling option. A hearing last week and on Wednesday brought out scores of parents who remain opposed to the preventative shots despite a roster of health and medical groups that testified to their worth.
The bill’s authors, Richard Pan of Sacramento and Ben Allen of Santa Monica, both Democrats, were determined to limit loopholes used to evade the requirement for childhood shots. Last week, the education panel balked at approving the bill, obliging the authors to come up acceptable changes.
The bill’s legislative journey remains. It will need approval by another committee and the full Senate and Assembly before reaching the governor’s desk. It’s a process that California should encourage in the name of public health and safety.