EDITORIAL: Pa. playing with fire on child immunizations
One doesn’t have to be a scientist to understand that the best way to prevent an outbreak of a disease is to immunize people against it, yet there remain pockets of resistance to this common-sense approach.
In a piece for Forbes magazine, Bruce Y. Lee, an associate professor of international health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, cites a new study in the journal PLOS Medicine, which found that over the past decade or so, more parents have been opting out of required immunizations for youngsters attending public schools in the 18 states that allow for nonmedical exemptions (NMEs).
“In other words,” said Lee, “more and more parents are taking the option to increase their kids’ (and other kids’) risk for getting measles, a highly contagious and potentially deadly disease.”
Lee notes NMEs are not medical exemptions. In those cases, doctors have determined it would be medically detrimental for a child to have a particular vaccine, whether because of a severe allergy to something in the vaccine, or perhaps an immune system disorder.
No, the folks who get NMEs fall into an entirely different category. Some cite religious objections to immunizations. But others, in some states, can get away with not immunizing their children simply because of a strongly held belief of some sort.
There are 18 states that allow for NMEs, and unfortunately, Pennsylvania is one of them. On the positive side, Pennsylvania is not among the states showing significant growth in the number of parents claiming nonmedical exemptions, but it could happen down the road.
Said Dr. Peter J. Hotez, one of the authors of the report published in PLOS Medicine, “While national immunization rates may not have changed much over the years, we are seeing a rise in nonmedical exemptions in 18 states that still allow them for reasons of personal belief. These hotspots of anti-vaccine activity are at risk for breakthrough measles and other childhood infectious diseases.”
Lee refers to vaccination of children against a wide variety of diseases as “one of the biggest successes in the history of public health” and notes that the practice “has saved millions upon millions of lives and prevented lots upon lots of suffering.”
To their credit, Pennsylvania officials significantly tightened the time frame allowed for parents to have their children immunized at the beginning of the school year. Previously, they had been given a ridiculously long eight months to secure the needed shots. In other words, almost the entire school year. Now, if parents do not have their children immunized within five days of the beginning of school, they must provide a plan from the child’s doctor detailing when the vaccines will be administered.
Yet, there’s still that gaping hole in the immunization rules in this state. According to Pennsylvania Code, “Children need not be immunized if the parent, guardian or emancipated child objects in writing to the immunization on religious grounds or on the basis of a strong moral belief or ethical conviction similar to a religious belief.”
That’s a loophole someone could drive a truck through, and our leaders in Harrisburg should put an end to it.
No one in Pennsylvania should have his or her health put at risk because of the “beliefs” of a child’s parents, whether they be based on a traditional religion or some YouTube video from a crackpot anti-vaxxer.
In the meantime, parents should be taking their medical cues from doctors and scientists, not from some Hollywood airhead or from discredited claims that vaccines are dangerous.