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Vaccinations and the lack thereof are becoming a very serious issue here in the United States and around the world. UCLA and Cal State LA have quarantined student body due to a measles outbreak. Several counties have declared a state of emergency. State legislators are tightening up vaccine exemption protocols. However, Colorado Governor Jared Polis has chosen the unhealthy stance of deciding not to sign the bill as it currently stands.
Currently, if a parent wants their unvaccinated child to attend a CO school all they have to do is fill out a form. That form doesn’t require any additional details nor a formal statement from a doctor or pastor to back up claims of medical or religious exemption.
CO House bill 19-1312 aims to tighten up the exemption requirements. It would require the CO Dept of Health to:
As the Denver Post explains, Governor Polis had already pushed back at the original version of the bill. Thus what you read above is watered down. However, now he says requiring parents to submit a form in person to a state or local health agency to get approval before child can attend school is a problem.
“Gov. Jared Polis told an audience this week that he opposes a major provision in a bill that aims to increase childhood vaccination rates in Colorado, and said he wouldn’t sign the measure into law in its current form.
~Snip
“Of course we don’t support things like requiring anyone to go in person and things like that,” Polis said”
In my opinion, if the exemption is THAT important to a parent who has chosen not to vaccinate their child, then submitting a form to a state/local office shouldn’t be that difficult. If the parents are that serious about exempting their children from vaccinations, then they should have no problem requesting a medical or religious exemption through a health agency.
Colorado has had issues with whooping cough, other measles outbreaks, and there is currently one adult in the state battling the measles right now.Thus the passage of this bill is important on multiple levels. Take a look at this chart.
Notice anything? Sure, folks are saying that 626 (actually it’s 695 as of yesterday) measles cases in the US this year isn’t too bad. Until you realize that that number is for the first THREE months of this year. 2014 saw 667 cases for the ENTIRE year. Furthermore, UNICEF has reported that the number of measles cases around the world is up 300% from last year. So yes, Virginia, we have a measles problem on our hands. A BIG one.
Fear of vaccines due to supposed links to autism and vaccine hesitancy are contributors to these outbreaks, as are people traveling here from countries that don’t have strong vaccine protocols. Which leads to the quarantines and legislation we are seeing today.
As for that failed science?
Once again, I will never forgive Andrew Wakefield.
Per @UNICEF, from 2010-2017, kids who missed the 1st dose of the MMR vaccine:
– 2,593,000 in the U.S.
– 600,000 in France
– 527,000 in the U.K.
And, we’ve had 695 measles cases in the U.S. so far this year, highest # since 1994.— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) April 25, 2019
Yes, Andrew Wakefield needs to sit down and shut up. His snake oil science was pulled from all major publications and his medical license revoked because credible scientists realized what he dumped onto the public was nothing but a dangerous sham.
Colorado ranks at the bottom for kindergarten vaccinations, and in Boulder County, several schools report that less than 50% of the students are vaccinated.
Why is Governor Polis stance on this legislation a problem? Listening to failed science and implying that those who refuse to vaccinate their children just aren’t capable enough to fill out a required form at a local or state health organization is unhealthy.
If parents want to exempt their children from vaccinations and still have them in public school, then it shouldn’t be too difficult for them to make the time to fill out the required forms. It seems that Polis refuses to grasp that point.
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Scott says: I see two reasons that Polis is taking this stance, and both are pandering.. first is to the hippie pot smokers in the Peoples Republic of Boulder, and the second is to illegals that have been flooding this state, with his support of “sanctuary” policies.. illegals obviously want to minimize their interactions with govt. officials, which explains his aversion to that part of it, and well, the idiots in Boulder can’t be explained, they just are what they are…
Jim says: The repercussions of Andrew Wakefield’s evil scam will take a long time to resolve. I understand he is now living with the ex-model Elle McPherson who has written in support of his anti-vaccination theories. When I entered the field of special education, teaching at a school for visually impaired children in 1976, there were a number of students who had been affected by measles in utero. With the advent of the MMR it became rare to meet measles affected children in later decades. I am old enough to remember children having polio and other childhood illnesses during my childhood and the great concern of adults to quarantine people having measles and keep them away from pregnant women. It is an interesting paradox that the most strident anti-vaccination people are often well educated and affluent, while people in third world countries where children are still being affected by childhood diseases are desperate to have their children vaccinated and cannot understand why people in the USA, Australia, GB and so on don’t have their children vaccinated.
0-The Fool says: Don’t forget the Jewish population.
I didn’t realize they were part of the anti-vaxxer lobby until they got hit, hard, in NY.
njc says: Not all are. A few of the many ‘ultra-Orthodox’ communities refuse vaccination–and many of those seek to remain isolated, a bit like the Amish. Many more accept vaccination. It depends on the rabbis (scholars) they follow. The Reform and Conservative branches are pretty much like the general population on this issue.
Laurie Wise says: I had all three diseases (measles, dbl mumps and rubella) in the early 50s as a child. No fun. My dad was very sick for several weeks after contracting the German measles from me.
He grew up in the 30s but never had it (although my mother did as a child in the 30s). My husband had whooping cough as a childalong with the “usual childhood diseases” growing up in the 40s.
But The greatest fear a parent had, back bethen was Polio. So when Dr Salk’s vaccine became available, in the early 50s, my parents made sure I was given the shot. Even received the Smallpox shot. I have seen people in iron lungs and had schoolmates with withered arms or legs from contracting Polio at some point. So I made sure my children received their vaccinations in the 80s before going to school.
Autism is Not caused by vaccinations and complications, including death, are very rare. I accepted the possibility, however Not getting these shots increase that same possibility a 100 fold. My parents would be aghast at what is touted by these missguided “experts” upon the gullible. “Shakes head”
0ldhawker says: Okay, I’ll be the cruel one. This is second-generation Darwinism. AND hey, federalism. Colorado can experiment with resurgent polio and other diseases; my kids will never attend school there.
Having researched the physiology of oxygen behavior in humans for 20+ years, I cling to this hypothesis: much like an embolism (a tiny bubble of air in the bloodstrream) that reaches the brain and causes immediate death, introduction of a relatively large mass of organic material that is the vaccine may cause an interruption of oxygen to the brain. In some infants, this may be the cause of autism. Our brains are affected by minute physiological changes and babies’ rapidly developing brains may be even more sensitive.
TheGeneFactory says: First of all, I don’t think you will find that vaccines are injected directly into the bloodstream. EVER.
Second of all, your “scientific” research is a blunder by CONJECTURING without proof your idiotic failure of a conclusion.
Jim says: Hi Teri:
1. I am not medically trained, but I was vaccinated against influenza two weeks ago and that was intramuscular not intravenous; I cannot see how your oxygen theory would be valid.
2. In over 40 years working in disability and having met and worked professionally in some capacity with over 2000 autistic people as well as many others with general developmental delay I have met only one client who had an allergic reaction to the MMR. He suffered an acquired brain injury leading to mild Cerebral Palsy – spastic quadriplaegia and moderate intellectual impairment. His was a sad case, but the odds of such reactions happening are tiny and the good for the population in general far outweighs the risk.
3. I am autistic as is my brother. Autism in our family and many others is genetic. It runs down the male line of our father’s family. There are other ways to ‘become’ autistic, e.g. there used to be a high rate of autism in children born totally blind as a result of the cascading effects of total loss of sight on certain aspects of development.
MMR does not cause autism in my professional and personal opinion and experience.
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