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THEY WANT MORE The issue at hand is non-medical or parental vaccine exemptions.
These high compliance rates, in the low- to According to the National Vaccine Information Center, seventeen states
mid-90th percentile, weren’t reached until the provide for a philosophical exemption, forty-eight states offer a religious
1990s. Public health could give itself a gold star exemption, and two states (Mississippi and West Virginia) have no choice
for achieving these rates. But they’re not satisfied. at all. This was pre-Disneyland.
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They want more. And the post-Disneyland response? State legislatures across the
All fifty states have medical exemptions to country, propelled by industry lobbyists, are moving to eliminate parental
mandatory vaccination. This is not the issue at vaccine exemptions, or to restrict them so severly that they are effectively
hand. Medical exemptions are not a realistic op- eliminated. Since late last year, parental vaccine exemptions are or have
tion for most children. For starters, they’re almost been under fire in eighteen states representing well over half of the U.S.
impossible to get. The CDC’s list of accepted population. During the brief window that I was writing this article, Vermont
medical contraindications to vaccination is so became the first state in the country to remove a philosophical exemption
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narrow that a child must be sacrificed, or nearly to compulsory vaccination.
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sacrificed, before a parent learns that the child It’s not enough that vaccines are mandatory for day care and school
cannot be vaccinated. The CDC is so clear that admission, and over 99 percent of children are vaccinated. They want to
most sick and immunocompromised children eliminate the idea that you could have a choice. They want every last one.
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should be vaccinated that it published “Condi-
tions Commonly Misperceived as Contraindica- HERE’S WHAT THEY’RE NOT TELLING YOU
tions to Vaccination” lest parents and clinicians Measles is not deadly. The CDC reported no measles deaths from
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falsely assume that the following serious condi- the Disneyland cases and told Fox News that there have been no measles
tions qualify as valid reasons to skip vaccination: deaths in over ten years. (This CDC report, however, lists two deaths,
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fever greater than one hundred five degrees, im- one each in 2009 and 2010. ) The World Health Organization states that
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munosuppression, seizures, autoimmune disease measles mortality is clinically insignificant.
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and nonvaccine allergies. Not even a family The official health journal of the U.S. Public Health Service asserts
history of injury, death, seizures or sudden in- that measles is benign; we’ve had a stable relationship with measles for
fant death syndrome following vaccination will centuries; complications are infrequent; fatality is rare; and after contract-
qualifiy a child for a medical exemption. Even ing measles, immunity is solid and lifelong. And for those who have
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a child who has already had a vaccine reaction succumbed to the narrative that the measles vaccine has saved millions
will have trouble getting an exemption— doctors of U.S. children’s lives, take a look at the chart below from the CDC’s
hate to give them and many refuse outright. Department of Vital Statistics.
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