As of April 17, 2015, California’s Department of Public Health has declared the outbreak of measles that began in Disneyland last December officially over. But that isn’t stopping Democrat California legislators from pressing on with the vaccine legislation that broke out along with the measles.
The required 42 days has passed since the end of the infectious period for the last known case of measles in the state. The outbreak spread among at least seven states, Canada, and Mexico, rising to greater than 150 cases.
Senate Bill 277 has not yet passed but was stalled in a hearing Wednesday that drew scores of parents with their children. Among grievances against the new bill was the elimination of the “personal belief” exemption. The waiver currently allows California parents the choice to exempt their children from one or more doses of vaccines required for a child to be enrolled in a public or private school.
Only 2.54% of California Kindergarteners had personal belief waivers on file at the beginning of the 2014-15 school year, a non-mandated reduction from the prior year. Most personal belief waivers are documented as based on counseling from a “health care practitioner.”
A much greater 6.9% of under-vaccinated California Kindergarteners were enrolled in school with a “conditional entrant” status.
Of the California measles cases for which vaccination records were available in the Disneyland outbreak, 25 had one or more doses of the MMR vaccine and another 57 had not received the vaccine. Fifteen of those were too young to receive the vaccine, less than one year of age.
A study released earlier this year revealed the highest levels of un- or under-vaccination among regions of graduate level-educated individuals and those in low income communities. The study considered residents of the Bay area Sonoma County.
Public health officials declared measles eliminated from the United States in 2000 and in Canada in 1998.
Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.