Opponents vow to keep fighting medical mandate co-authored by Santa Monica’s Ben Allen
By Gary Walker
State Sen. Ben Allen introduced his vaccine legislation after the Disneyland measles outbreak
Following a series of hotly contested votes in Sacramento, legislation co-authored by state Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) to end parent personal belief exemptions from required public school vaccinations became law on Tuesday with a stroke of Gov. Jerry Brown’s pen.
Allen, formerly president of the Santa Monica-Malibu school board, introduced Senate Bill 277 with state Sen. Richard Pan (D- Sacramento) in the wake of last winter’s measles outbreak traced to Disneyland.
Concerns ran especially high at the time in Santa Monica, where a high school baseball coach was diagnosed with measles and a child care center was temporarily shuttered after an infant tested positive for the disease. SMMUSD reported in February that 11.5% of students had received personal belief exemption waivers, though state Dept. of Health records showed much lower kindergarten vaccination rates at several schools.
“This is a victory for public health. This is a message to moms and dads everywhere that they can take their kid to the market and the park and not be in fear of their child contracting a dangerous communicable disease,” Allen said during remarks at the capitol.
While eliminating personal belief exemptions, the new state law — among the toughest in the nation — still allows doctors to grant medical exemptions due to allergies, immune system deficiencies and family history.
Under SB 277, however, unvaccinated children without medical exemptions must be home-schooled, participate in a multi-family private homeschool or attend public school independent study programs administered by school districts — prompting outcry by detractors that the law limits a child’s federal right to a free appropriate public education.
Opponents of the vaccine mandate have vowed to fight the law in court and in the court of public opinion, with a “Health Freedom Rally” planned for
3 p.m. Friday at the corner of Colorado and Ocean avenues in Santa Monica.
Parent groups opposed to SB 277 rallied last week in Sacramento before it passed the Assembly on a 46-31 vote. The state Senate voted 21-14 on Monday to accept last-minute amendments crafted in the Assembly.
Venice parent Safika Erselcuk was among those who traveled to Sacramento last week to rally against SB 277. She also met with other parents to pressure lawmakers to modify the bill before Brown signed it.
“It’s not over. There are a lot of people who are willing to continue to fight SB 277,” Erselcuk said.
Santa Monica pediatrician Jay Gordon testified against the bill in Sacramento, calling it “poorly written and poorly thought-out.” Gordon also thinks opponents of SB 277 will not go away gently.
“The fight will continue. This bill removes a parent’s right to have input into their children’s education,” he said.
Assemblywoman Autumn Burke (D- Marina del Rey) voted against SB 277. Most Assembly Democrats voted for the bill and most Assembly Republicans voted against it. Burke could not be reached to explain her position.
Venice parent Regan Kibbee said the prevailing sentiment among many fellow parents seemed to be against vaccinating their children, but she and her husband chose to immunize their 10-year-old daughter.
“We were glad, however, to have the support of a pediatric office willing to work with us to delay and space out the vaccinations more than the standard recommended schedule,” Kibbee said. “Now it seems the widespread suspicion of a connection to autism was ungrounded. Although I support the rights of families to make their own health decisions, it is problematic that those who are not vaccinating their kids are negatively impacting the health of other families.”
Lolly Ward, whose son and daughter attend Broadway Elementary School in Venice, opposed SB 277 based on discussions with parents whose children had suffered bad reactions to flu vaccines.
“I think parents should research and discuss [it] with medical professionals and then make informed decisions for their own family,” Ward said.
Erselcuk said she will continue to fight the vaccination mandate because the new law is unclear about how children with special needs will be affected. The memory of her son’s adverse reaction to a vaccine when he was three years old has made her cautious.
“My son has autism, and I would like to have more clarification about special needs exemptions,” she said.
Gordon rejects the contention that a percentage of unvaccinated students could set the stage for more measles outbreaks.
“During the Disneyland outbreak there were no reported cases of any disease being spread in schools. If vaccines work, there is no great risk because we have a very high vaccination rate in California,” he said.
Allen said the new law will safeguard against future outbreaks but also acknowledged the strong feelings on both sides.
“This has been a very difficult debate for everyone,” he said.
gary@argonautnews.com
To vaccinate or not is not the issue, the issue is preserving Parental Rights. I vaccinated my kids on an extremely spread out schedule to minimize possible dangerous side effects associated with vaccinations. SB277 will no longer allow a parent or doctor to spread out the vaccinations. If you don’t follow the schedule you can’t go to school. Ben Allen did NOT listen to his constituents. Really, what was he thinking? Just look at the area he represents. He messed with the wrong group. We are NOT going away, we have banded together and will vote every single official who voted yes on this issue out of office. BTW if you vaccinate your kids then they should be protected, period. If 100% of the population has to be vaccinated for them to work, then common sense says maybe just maybe we have a problem with the vaccines.
Keep fighting! You make perfect sense and I can tell you are intelligent. I’m tired of hearing all about the lies that vaccines save lives and are safe. They must not have read or heard about countless deaths and injuries of vaccinated children or don’t have to hear it. I’m joining the fight with you!
So glad this passed, we spent the last year worried that an unvaccinated child would pass the measles or another vaccinated for disease on to my grandchild who was not old enough to be vaccinated. Her parents ended up having a nanny for a lot longer then they planned to keep her out of day care where children may or may not be from a home that doesn’t vaccinate. If you feel so strongly about not vaccinating your children then you should home school them as well for the public good.
No, you’re both morons that are completely ignoring all scientific evidence to contrary of your so-called “beliefs”. You’re no different than climate change deniers, flat-earthers and assorted other fools. Especially you karaokecg, suck down a glass of wheat grass, get in your favorite yoga pose and start studying up on the scientific method. You have a very long way to go.
Cathey, you’re a little trickier (read: disingenuous). Since you nuts have all been shamed into silence on the science, you have shifted to ‘other’ problems on the law and the issue itself. But we all know what you are all so clumsily trying to do. You give you self away with your last sentence: “If 100% of the population has to be vaccinated for them to work, then common sense says maybe just maybe we have a problem with the vaccines.” It shows you’ve done exactly zero real research on the subject.
The law should go a step further. Any parent breaking it and that action results in any child becoming infected by theirs, they should be charged with injury to a child and imprisoned. Whereupon they can received mental help and education. You anti-vaxxer idiots will never win for a very simple reason. The other parents won’t let you endanger their own children.
Autism from a vaccine is speculation. Blindness is real. Measles can infect the outer layer of the eye and eat into it. There is no good antiviral medicine to treat this. If it isn’t lost, the eye can be scarred, giving it an ugly, dull, flat, bluish look. The blindness that results can be partially fixed with a difficult and uncomfortable corneal transplant, but even these can fail. This is just one of the many horrors of measles that are prevented by vaccinations. Their benefit is so much greater than their problems.
John Maher MD
Torrance
A coincidence!
Yesterday a 72 year old gentleman presented to my office with his wife for an evaluation of a cataract in his right eye. This is a normal occurrence in his age group. His left eye was blind and scarred over. “How did this happen?” I asked. “Measles with a high fever and an eye infection in childhood” he replied.
Admittedly this is a rare problem in my practice. However it does happen. HIPPA rules will not prevent me from getting consent for his name, a photo, and his story if you wish.
My heart goes out to parents having to make sense of contradictory medical information on this problem. However spare a thought for my patient; and spare a thought for me in three weeks when I have to operate on the patient’s one remaining good eye. No wonder my hair is falling out.
John Maher MD
Torrance