Tiffany Gale: Lawmakers: Please keep young children safe from measles, mumps, polio and pertussis (Opinion)
As an owner of a childcare facility and a passionate advocate for early childhood education, I was concerned to learn that the West Virginia House of Delegates passed HB 5105 weakening legacy vaccine requirements for previously eradicated diseases such as measles, mumps, polio, and pertussis with parental “religious or philosophical exemptions.” The bill may now become law, and in effect threaten public health and our most vulnerable population: children under 12 months old who cannot yet be vaccinated.
As other recent insightful articles this week from Dr. Steven Eshenaur, Dr. Clay Marsh, Dr. Gozal, and Dr. Linda Boyd and other concerned citizens have pointed out, West Virginia is currently an exemplary example of a system that works. Due to our state’s strong immunization requirements put in place to achieve WHO’s recommended 95% herd immunity, our state has not seen a case of polio since 1970, and the last documented case of measles was in 2009. Many of these previously eradicated diseases such as mumps, measles, rubella and polio have no specific treatment or cure; as Dr. Eshenaur states, the only way to prevent these highly communicable diseases from spreading in our communities is an effective immunization program like the one West Virginia has in effect now.
Proponents of this bill claim that parents should have the right to make health care decisions for their own children. However, constitutional law has always carefully balanced personal freedoms with how that freedom could harm others, such as drunk driving laws. Requiring children to undergo routine vaccinations of previously eradicated diseases before entering the school system is a fair and reasonable balance of these considerations.
Ninety-five percent of the population must be vaccinated against measles to keep it from spreading, not only to the unvaccinated but also the vaccinated. For polio, that threshold is 80%. For example, if 5% of parents decided not to immunize their children against measles, we could see not only the unvaccinated contract the disease, but also those who are vaccinated. If 20% of parents decided not to immunize their children against polio, our children could suffer the same consequences – especially our young kids who cannot be vaccinated before the age of one.
