This was a response to much contact with his office and multiple conversations with his staff.-
Thank you for contacting my office regarding your opposition to SB 277 (Pan) relating to vaccinations. I appreciate you taking the time to write me on issues mattering most to you. The recent outbreak of measles has caused many to believe we are now seeing the effect of California’s “exemption” clause. This has now prompted debate of our state’s policy on the issue and has materialized into SB 277 which will mandate vaccines for public school children by eliminating the personal exemption clause. Having heard both sides of the vaccine debate in my role as a member of the Senate Education Committee, I do not believe the current outbreak of measles warrants elimination of the personal exemption. While I am sensitive to the needs of immune compromised individuals, the reality is some vaccines (such as the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella vaccine) wear off after time. Some vaccines actually make the person vaccinated contagious for a while (i.e. the Chicken Pox vaccine). We also have a large immigrant and tourist population who are not vaccinated. To that end, an elimination of the personal exemption is not in and of itself helpful to those who are immune compromised. A parent having a child with a compromised immune system would be negligent to place their child in a public school or public amusement park without expecting diseases to be transmitted. With all that said, I value vaccines and the medical advances that have created a plethora of vaccines available to protect us from many horrible diseases. I have even inoculated myself and my family. However, the current rules of inoculation, in my estimation, are not broken, and are serving us well. I have not yet heard a compelling argument that would warrant my trading the personal choice of parents to an over-reach of governmental authority. Bottom line is preserving the freedom of choice is outweighing the need for this measure. I think both sides of the argument can be protected by educating people to the realities of vaccines not mandating them. Rest assured, your thoughts on this issue was logged and taken into consideration. Once again, thank you for contacting me. If I may be of further assistance on this or any other state-related matter, please do not hesitate to contact me at either of my offices. It is an honor to represent you in the State Senate. Sincerely, Bob Huff |
#1 by LisaW on May 13, 2015 - 7:30 pm
Thank you for your thoughtful comments Senator Huff.
I do have friends with immune compromised children. I have NEVER heard these parents express ANY concerns about being around unvaccinated children. They have expressed concern about exposure to the recently vaccinated, especially those vaccinated with the flu-mist.
I would also like to add some pertinent information about the pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine:
1) This link http://www.americashealthrankings.org/CA/pertussis provides the most recent information on pertussis rates in the 50 states. Louisiana, which allows religious, philosophical, and medical exemptions has the LOWEST rate of pertussis in the nation. California has the SECOND LOWEST rate of pertussis, despite being much more densely populated than either Mississippi or West Virginia (the only two states without either a religious or personal belief exemption). The reason for this apparent paradox may be explained below.
2) A FDA primate study from 2013 found that the current (aka acellular) pertussis vaccine does NOT prevent transmission of the bacteria. The vaccination of school age children will do NOTHING to protect vulnerable infants (the population most at risk for hospitalization or death from this disease). According to this study, those recently vaccinated for pertussis can still become infected, but won’t develop symptoms. This is problematic as they can carry and transmit the bacteria for over a month, unknowingly infecting others. On the other hand, an unvaccinated individual (school age child or daycare worker) with symptoms would know they were sick and would thus stay away from others in the community. Moreover, a symptomatic sick person would typically go to the doctor, and could get a course of antibiotics, which is known to shorten the contagious period.
Here is an article from the New York Times which discusses this research: ‘Using baboons, the researchers found that recently vaccinated animals continued to carry the infection in their throats. Even though those baboons did not get sick from it, they spread the infection to others that were not vaccinated. “When you’re newly vaccinated you are an asymptomatic carrier, which is good for you, but not for the population,” said Tod J. Merkel, the lead author of the study, who is a researcher in the Office of Vaccines Research and Review in the Food and Drug Administration.’ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/26/health/study-finds-vaccinated-baboons-can-still-carry-whooping-cough.html?_r=0
The FDA’s press release on this study contains this warning: “This research suggests that although individuals immunized with an acellular pertussis vaccine may be protected from disease, they may still become infected with the bacteria without always getting sick and are able to spread infection to others, including young infants who are susceptible to pertussis disease.” http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm376937.htm
3) Finally, a separate study demonstrated that the dominant natural circulating strains of pertussis in the United States are now resistant to the vaccine. Most forms of pertussis bacteria now lack the vaccine antigen called Pertactin. These mutated strains are called PRN-negative. Even more disturbing, is the revelation that those who are vaccinated are actually MORE likely to become infected with the mutated PRN-negative strains than the unvaccinated. The CDC reports these findings in the December 2013 Meeting of the Board of Scientific Counselors, discussing a 2012 study, page 6 under “Resurgence of Pertussis”. http://www.cdc.gov/maso/facm/pdfs/BSCOID/2013121112_BSCOID_Minutes.pdf
“Findings indicated that 85% of the isolates were PRN-deficient and vaccinated patients had significantly higher odds than unvaccinated patients of being infected with PRN-deficient strains. Moreover, when patients with up-to-date DTaP vaccinations were compared to unvaccinated patients, the odds of being infected with PRN-deficient strains increased, suggesting that PRN-bacteria may have a selective advantage in infecting DTaP-vaccinated persons.”
The above research presents an extremely plausible explanation for the seemingly paradoxical 2014 and 2015 reports of pertussis outbreaks in vaccinated children such as in this school in Utah, http://fox13now.com/2015/03/27/19-kids-in-summit-co-diagnosed-with-whooping-cough-despite-being-up-to-date-on-vaccinations/ and even in California. In Sacramento last year, highly vaccinated populations actually had MORE cases of pertussis than suburbs with high PBE rates. In Elk Grove, only 80 out of 4500 kindergarteners used the PBE. Yet, the Bee reports, “whooping cough ripped through Elk Grove’s classrooms and cul-de-sacs in 2014. Infection rates within the large Sacramento suburb were three to five times higher than rates elsewhere in the county, local health records show….The suburb of North Highland, on the other hand, had among the highest rates of parents opting out of vaccinating their children but reported fewer than five pertussis cases last year.” http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/article9528275.html
Finally, I would like to encourage EVERYONE to watch this video which was created by a physician in his search to understand why so many parents had concerns about vaccinations. It is both a concise and comprehensive overview of the science and controversy regarding vaccine safety. https://www.youtube.com/watch?sns=fb&v=8LB-3xkeDAE&app=desktop