State health leader must take stand on vaccines

Surgeon General C. Everett Koop startled the country — and Congress — in 1988 when he sounded the alarm on the tobacco industry’s tactics. Nicotine had addictive qualities similar to heroin or cocaine, he said, and during his tenure in the Reagan and Bush administrations he issued eight reports on health dangers associated with tobacco use, including the first on the consequences of secondhand smoke.

This was a surgeon general who fought for the public’s health.

We need similar courage and commitment in Connecticut now.

But the protector of the state’s health is oddly silent on an immediate threat to public health, especially of children — measles.

Renee ColemanMitchell, who has been commissioner of the state Department of Public Health since April, has not taken a stand on averting a widespread outbreak of the sometimes deadly childhood disease.

Democratic House and Senate leaders months ago asked for ColemanMitchell’s advice on whether to repeal the religious exemption for the measles vaccine, which is required for children to attend school. She has yet to respond. In testimony during a hearing in the spring she said, however, that the “department takes

no position regarding whether there should or should not be religious exemptions.”

The leader of the Connecticut’s public health should take a position on the health risk.

Meanwhile, the public health commissioners in three other states — New York, Maine and Washington — backed legislators in recently eliminating the exemption.

ColemanMitchell’s reticence is surprising. In May she had released previously confidential immunization data for public and private schools in the state. We praised her at the time for “true public service.” Parents needed to know whether their children were vulnerable in schools with low immunization rates.

The eyeopening data showed that 108 public and private schools in Connecticut were below the 95 percent immunization rate for measles, mumps and rubella recommended by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is serious. Rates above that amount provide for a “herd” immunization, which protects the few who might not be vaccinated. Below that amount, however, highly contagious diseases can erupt.

Outbreaks of measles, once thought eradicated in 2000, surfaced over the winter and spring, most notably in nearby New York.

As many as one of every 20 children with measles will get pneumonia, “the most common cause of death from measles in young children,” according to the CDC. Encephalitis, which can lead to convulsions and cause deafness or intellectual disability, is another complication; for every 1,000 children who contract measles one or two will die.

Connecticut has had only three reported cases of measles this year, but that could change after school reopens. Legislators should remove the religious exemption; no mainstream religion bans vaccines. Some parents may have worried the vaccines could cause autism, but that decadesold study, since retracted, has been thoroughly debunked.

Connecticut’s public health commissioner should fulfill her responsibility and do everything she can to protect public health.

Eyeopening data showed that 108 public and private schools in Connecticut were below the 95 percent immunization rate for measles, mumps and rubella.