A vaccine booster / Limit exemptions

[mhatrw]

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/opinion/editorials/article_787575ec-7866-590c-8ac0-b1d2e311c312.html

With the study that sparked a virulent anti-vaccine movement now thoroughly debunked and exposed as a fraud, can we have a calmer, more rational discussion about vaccines? Assemblyman Herb Conaway - a Burlington County Democrat with a medical degree and a law degree - is trying to do exactly that. We wish him luck. You should, too. ...

Autism remains a deeply troubling and perplexing condition, and New Jersey does have an unusually high number of cases. Certainly, the families struggling with autistic children have our sympathy. Research must continue. But the incorrect belief that vaccines are the cause of the condition is now causing a serious public-health problem. And, as is probably not surprising considering the mood in the country, mandatory vaccinations are now also being cast as yet another example of the overreaching nanny-state stifling individual freedom.

But vaccines save lives. And to work properly, to create the so-called "herd immunity" that protects us all, the maximum number of people possible need to be vaccinated. That's why governments require a host of mandatory vaccinations for schoolchildren. In New Jersey, however, at the height of the vaccine scare, lawmakers liberalized the law that allows religious exemptions by allowing anyone who expresses conscientious or philosophical objections to avoid vaccinating their children. The law basically granted an exemption to anyone who asked. ...

Conaway, as a physician, knows what happens when "herd immunity" is lost. Not only are the unvaccinated children and the children they go to school with at increased risk, but so is the general population. He is sponsoring a bill to eliminate the philosophical and conscientious exemptions. His fellow legislators need to stand up to the well-meaning but misguided vaccine opponents and listen to the good doctor.

[Ian David]

1. K&R

[HelenWheels]

2. WI exemption

WI has had the religious exemption for many years. Because it is "religious" it will never be removed from the law.