Posted on 06/25/2015 6:42:04 PM PDT by Jan_Sobieski
California lawmakers Thursday approved one of the toughest mandatory vaccination laws in the nation, legislation that would eliminate the option for parents to keep their children from being vaccinated based on religious or other personal beliefs.
The measure, the most controversial taken up by the Legislature this year, would require all children who enter kindergarten in California to be vaccinated against diseases including measles and whooping cough unless a physician approves an exemption based on medical conditions such as allergies and immune system deficiencies.
As a mother, I understand the decisions we make about our childrens health care are deeply personal, said Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), a supporter of the bill. While I respect the fundamental right to make that decision as a family, we must balance that with the fact that none of us has the right to endanger others.
The Assembly approved the legislation Thursday morning on a bipartisan vote of 46-31. Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Glendale) opposed the bill, telling his colleagues before the vote that it violated the rights of parents to decide medical treatment for their children.
"The broadness of this bill likely also dooms it from a constitutional standpoint," Gatto said, accusing the state of "infringing on the rights of certain students to attend school." Supporters said it was necessary to protect all children.
"I'm a fierce supporter of parent choice in this decision. But I also believe with choice comes personal responsibility" said Republican Assemblywoman Catharine Baker of San Ramon. The Senate, which passed the measure earlier this month, is expected to approve minor amendments to the bill made in the Assembly and then send it to Gov. Jerry Brown's desk...
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Either that, or send them back from whence they came.
No one anywhere claims that vaccines are 100% effective.
Part of the equation includes herd immunity - enough people vaccinating so that when vaccines don’t work, there are still so few people who could get sick that the disease won’t catch hold in the community.
People who refuse to vaccinate are now in high enough numbers that those who can’t - cancer patients, premature babies, those few allergic to the vaccine - are getting sick.
MMR refusers are the worst, because measles can’t be vaccinated against until around 12 months. Babies who get measles sometimes die.
When the Disney measles outbreak happened months back, I was in the middle of weekly treatment. One of the people who caught measles brought it back to Colorado and exposed 300+ people in the hospital where I am treated.
I would rather not orphan my kids because others are carrying diseases they did not have to have.
Here is an article with that quote from Assemblywoman Catharine Baker:
http://www.courthousenews.com/2015/06/25/california-vaccination-bill-passes-assembly.htm
Another article with a related quote from her:
“This isnt just about Disneyland and this isnt just about the need to make sure we wait for a crisis, said Assemblywoman Catharine Baker, R-Dublin. Ive heard that from some of my colleagues: This isnt a problem right now, we should wait for a crisis. Colleagues, do you hear how unreasonable that argument is?
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article25494220.html
I don’t t doubt that she said it, but it was NOT in the article and so I appears to me that it was “inserted” by the poster who evidently isn’t happy with the new law! Somehow, I find that wrong. When you post an excerpt, it should be just that.
You are correct that bronze and iron-age folks did not have access to vaccines. That was also a time in which a majority of children died in infancy, women routinely died in childbirth, and the life expectancy for adults was short. People routinely died of diseases considered marginal now.
There are lots of things - not just medicine - that we have now that did not exist in antiquity. Electricity, mass-produced clothing and automobiles are a start. If you want to live the way biblical figures did, I hope you are wearing homespun clothes, growing your own food and riding donkeys to town. Just be aware that if you're refusing to vaccinate your kids, you're not just endangering their health, you're also endangering the lives of other children they may come into contact with. There are parents of kids with leukemia, for example, who are terrified that their kids will contract the measles and die because of people like you.
LA Times changed the article after it was posted. That is why the original quote is no longer there...
Not against medicine...not against technology. In fact I started a technology company and have a nice life. I am against totalitarianism in any form. Especially when it affects my family. To you, our trust in God is evil even though prior to 1950, virtually no one had vaccinations. You faux conservatives are worse than the hippies and certainly do not support a Freerepublic.
I'm a strong proponent of individual rights. But your right to swing your first ends where the next person's nose begins. If you want to refuse medical treatment for yourself, I respect your decision. The difference between medical treatment and vaccination is that when you refuse to get vaccinated you're not just making a decision about your own health but about other people's. That's why public safety - in that particular case - trumps personal preference.
To you, our trust in God is evil even though prior to 1950, virtually no one had vaccinations.
Prior to 1950 the infant mortality rate was astronomically higher. In 1934, 55.7 babies in the United States died for every 1000 born. Today it's only 6.17. If you were a farmer and refused to plant corn because you "trusted in God" to plant it for you, people would laugh and simply think you were a lunatic. However that foolish decision would rest with you. Trusting in God and refusing to vaccinate isn't just your own lunacy, however, because it endangers your neighbors.
By the way...it is very likely that churches will now be forced to conduct Sodomite weddings. Do you think Christians should be forced to do this as well?
1) then maybe they should be homeschooling their kids if they are that sick instead of forcing everyone else to risk their kids with neurotoxiins and how is it not evil to put a gun to the heads of parents to force them to give their children a neurotoxin
2.) We both agree they aren’t 100% effective and to me vaccines are cost-benifit..if we were talking about polio then that’s something else but its the measles..having said that I don’t have issue with it being required to enter government schools, but it shouldn’t be forced on private schools or home schooling. Also since California wants to go this route then all parent’s who home school or send their kids to private school should not be taxed to pay for other people’s kids to go to public schools..imo that is borderline evil since it’s is theft
Well, you can still get the irritation but you are less likely to die because your body has a prepared immune response. Because I am vaccinated, I wouldn’t mind hanging out with people vaccinated or not. Having chickenpox and after having both the measles vaccine followed by the measles sickness, I pretty much take it as a reason why I shouldn’t fear those unvaccinated from those specific diseases.
I don’t see what’s so bad if you are homeschooling, your kids aren’t even hanging around my kids, so what’s the big deal?
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