What the federal government can actually do about anti-vaxxers
For starters, the president could say there is a problem.
Amanda Michelle Gomez
Feb 26, 2019, 8:00 am
After virtually eliminating the extremely contagious virus in the United States at the turn of the century, measles are back thanks to anti-vaccination misinformation.
More than 150 people, mostly children, in 10 states, have been infected by measles so far in 2019. These outbreaks are primarily linked to travelers from other countries, like the United Kingdom, who brought the measles into communities with low vaccination rates.
The public health crisis is largely seen as a policy failure: lawmakers have made it too easy for parents to opt out of getting their kids vaccinated. Two doses of the measles vaccine is 97 percent effective, but in order to protect everyone — including infants and people who can’t take the shot for medical reasons — a large percentage of people need to be vaccinated. This concept is called “herd immunity.”
Every state requires students to get vaccinated to some degree, and all grant exemptions to children for medical reasons. But 47 states grant religious exemptions. Seventeen of those also allow personal or philosophical exemptions. Experts are less concerned with the religious exemptions than they are with the personal or philosophical ones, as parents opting out these days are usually doing so because they are distrustful of the government or just misinformed.
To all of the anti-vaxxers running around, I really don't like the idea, that people have to live in fear, that you will not get your children vaccinated, because after all measles is dangerous, and without vaccinations, this adds a extra burden on the already health care costs in this country and the system, let alone education system.......................so grow up.................I mean really grow up.......................
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tightening up and reconsidering non-medical exemptions. They understand their issues and options for dealing with them. Including that all non-medical exemptions came about in response to citizen demands, lawsuits, politicians running on this issue, and court orders and now, totally predictably, the citizen demand is running the other direction.
Agree imo Trump should say something to the fools who listen to him, but frankly even the idea of his attention turning to anything makes me nervous. He's the bull who carries his own china shop around with him. He might threaten to withhold all school funding if unvaccinated children aren't expelled and to send the national guard to seize control of school campuses.
