Eliminate measles vaccine exemption
Last week, the Connecticut Department of Public Health released updated schoolbyschool vaccination rates as reported by local media.
The data shows that there are 134 schools in Connecticut where the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine rate for kindergarteners falls below the federal recommendation rate of 95 percent. Last year the number of schools that fell under 95 percent was 102. Parents and the community have good reason to be alarmed. The rising number of schools below the 95 percent threshold is unacceptable. Kids deserve better.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for students to be relatively safe from measles, at least 95 percent of kindergarten students in each school must to be vaccinated.
Vaccination rates are on the decline. Some kids — such as those fighting cancer — cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons. But the rate of children who are not vaccinated for nonmedical reasons is sharply rising — up 25 percent between the last two school years from 2 percent to 2.5 percent. According to the department, the increase is the largest singleyear increase since the state started tracking data a decade ago. Kudos to Gov. Ned Lamont and Department of Public Health Commissioner Renee ColemanMitchell for making this information public in an effort to protect our children. Legislators in this region such as Public Health Chair state Rep. Jonathan Steinberg and Sens. Bob Duff and Will Haskell, along with their colleagues Reps. Matt Ritter, Josh Elliott and Liz Linehan, from other parts of the state stand ready to address this issue and protect Connecticut residents.
Despite recent measles outbreaks in New York and three cases in Connecticut, the state’s vaccination rate is moving in the wrong direction. According to ColemanMitchell, “This unnecessarily puts our children at risk for contracting measles and other vaccine preventable diseases.”
The Vaccination Alliance of Connecticut was created to raise awareness about this issue and to bring a voice to the debate in support of vaccines. We — medical professionals and children’s groups with wideranging healthcare experience — firmly believe vaccinations not only help protect those who receive the vaccine, but also those who cannot be vaccinated because of medical conditions. This is known as herd immunity or the resistance to the spread of a contagious disease within a population when a sufficiently high proportion of individuals are immune because of vaccination.
Good vaccination rates at schools are critically important to children who cannot be safely vaccinated. These same children are less able to fight off illness when they are exposed and are at greater risk because of a compromised immune system. In some cases, herd immunity is critical to their survival.
By eliminating nonmedical exemptions to mandatory vaccination policies, we are taking a stand for Connecticut’s children and people who are medically fragile and unable to be vaccinated against preventable diseases.
The health of our children, our schools and our communities relies on strong vaccination rates and herd immunity. We are fortunate to live in a country where effective and safe vaccines are available to prevent disease like the measles and protect us from meningitis. Don’t put our children at risk any longer, eliminate the nonmedical exemption in the next legislative session.