A couple months ago, Marin County Health and Human Services brought nurses, immunization information and almost a hundred doses of the measles vaccine to a clinic in the San Geronimo Valley: free preventive healthcare. Four people showed up.
This was despite advice from the medical community to get vaccinated for the measles outbreak and documented information that measles can cause ear infections (and permanent hearing loss), pneumonia (in one in 20 patients) and encephalitis, a swelling of the brain that occurs in one in 1,000 patients. For every 1,000 patients with the measles, one or two will die.
Still, at this year’s clinic, only four people were immunized against this disease. The rest stayed home.
If there ever was a public health challenge, this is it. Call it “vaccine-hesitant” or “vaccine-questioning.” We’re seeing it in Sacramento and Washington, D.C.—and in Marin, where “anti-vaxxers” have become infamous in The New York Times and “The Daily Show.”
The question is: how do you convince people that there are medically proven vaccines that can safely and effectively prevent serious and potentially fatal diseases, when they think they know better?
It’s the wisdom of everyone who went to medical school at the American Academy of Pediatrics versus a few people who looked stuff up on the Internet. (And you certainly can find an article or alleged research online to support a belief of any kind. That doesn’t make it reputable, factual or scientific.)
People who are opposed to vaccinations truly believe they are harmful, or are worried they can be harmful. There are plenty of stories available. We cannot, however, abandon vaccinations because some individuals believe there have been bad reactions. Just as we wouldn’t abandon seat belts because some people don’t survive car accidents, we cannot abandon a life-changing public health program that has saved millions of lives worldwide.
But the vaccine opponents are trying to do just that. It’s evident in the state capital, where anti-vaccine protesters have turned out at recent legislative hearings related to Senate Bill 277. Senator Richard Pan’s proposed bill would delete the “personal belief exemption” to vaccination requirements for school entry in current law. Recent amendments clarify that the bill doesn’t apply to children who are home schooled. For everyone else, the vaccinations required in current law would apply—unless there is an exemption “for medical reasons.” The bill passed the senate’s education committee on Tuesday, with a 7-2 vote.
For those who are unvaccinated, the likelihood of contracting and spreading disease is high. The risk to other children, especially infants, is very high; there’s also the risk to the elderly, pregnant women and those with compromised immune systems, such as those receiving chemotherapy.
For those of us who can be vaccinated, we can promote community immunity to serious and deadly diseases. Vaccination is a personal and a public responsibility that trumps personal choice—at least as it applies to our schools, where 20 to 30 children spend several hours a day together, five days a week.
Though I can respect parents’ choice to do what they believe is best for their children, I can’t respect a choice that endangers other people. That’s why the vaccination laws are on the books: not just because vaccination will help protect your child, but because it will prevent your child from endangering others.
And that’s just what the problem is in Marin County. We are a danger to ourselves.
About 20 percent of Marin kindergarteners don’t have all the vaccinations required by law. We have one of the highest rates of personal belief exemptions in the state, 6.5 percent; five schools have astronomical exemption rates, ranging from 36 to 74 percent. Clearly, parents with shared beliefs about vaccines can be found in these clusters. And their unvaccinated children can be found in clusters, too. That’s how epidemics begin.
In Marin, the poster child for this ongoing battle of public health and personal beliefs, some will never be convinced. They will not see or hear the data about disease prevention, disability prevention and death prevention. They are not going to agree with the science of immunization.
But for those who are not entirely opposed, and are just “vaccine questioning,” I urge you to expand your research. Speak with a physician, and consider a second opinion with another viewpoint. Ask all your questions. Ask for the evidence. Seek reputable, science-based sources of information. Please do not rely on personal stories for the medical decisions you must make for your child. One person’s story is not your child’s fate.
Make informed decisions about vaccinations; your child’s life depends on it. And so does mine.
Heather Richardson is a San Geronimo Valley resident and a mother of two.