Showdown looms with anti-vax activists
It was only a year ago that thousands stood outside the state Capitol to express opposition to mandatory vaccinations for schoolchildren. So much has happened since then that it’s easy to forget how polarizing the issue became. The bill in question would have repealed religious exemptions for vaccines that are mandatory for children. A public hearing lasted 21 hours and drew 500 possible speakers.
The core of the objection was that parents — not the government — should make medical choices for children. Though no major religion forbids vaccinations, an estimated 7,800 children leveraged the loophole in 2018-19, according to the state Department of Public Health.
One year later, the issue is on a collision course with efforts to halt the pandemic through vaccines. Right now the focus is on distribution to seniors, but it will eventually come down to the same debate — whether the government can mandate children get inoculations for the public good.
On March 5 of last year, we wrote that “without that immunity, measles or other diseases can erupt and affect not only children but also others they come in contact with, such as family members with auto-immune diseases or health compromised by cancer treatments, for example. This is not a minuscule threat. The global coronavirus outbreak makes evident the need for government to be proactive and nonpolitical in protecting public health.”
Our stance has not changed. Ironically, it was the surge of COVID that spiked the bill last March. If we’ve learned anything in the last 10 months, it’s that it’s impossible to get everyone to follow science and logic.
As the 2021 General Assembly session begins, a revival of the stalled measure will compete with a related bill proposed by a coalition of conservative Republicans to allow parents to cite “moral and philosophical” grounds as reasons not to vaccinate school-aged children.
The perils, of course, are real. It’s vital to address concerns from both sides quickly. A COVID-19 vaccine hasn’t even been rolled out yet for children, but must become part of the debate. In the meantime, children are lagging in getting their traditional vaccinations. Rolling over the religious exemption would not require a child to receive any vaccine, they just couldn’t enroll in school without them.
Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, DWestport, co-chairman of the legislative Public Health Committee that led the last round of hearings, predicts the revival of familiar arguments. But the anti-vax crowd may not have counted on the likelihood of harder pushback from peers, families that want to ensure their own children are entering safe environments.
If this were truly about addressing religious exemptions, lawmakers would be wise to do outreach by hosting community discussion with houses of worship throughout the state. But the “moral and philosophical” argument is an admission that this was never about faith.
Either way, when kids are able to return to school, teaching science will take on a new urgency.
As the 2021 General Assembly session begins, a revival of the stalled measure will compete with a related bill proposed by a coalition of conservative Republicans to allow parents to cite “moral and philosophical” grounds as reasons not to vaccinate school-aged children.