Gov. Jerry Brown signs California's new vaccine bill

[Starry Messenger]

Source: San Jose Mercury News

SACRAMENTO -- Ending months of speculation, Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday signed into law Senate Bill 277, which requires almost all California schoolchildren to be fully vaccinated in order to attend public or private school, regardless of their parents' personal or religious beliefs.

California now joins only two other states -- Mississippi and West Virginia -- that permit only medical exemptions as legitimate reasons to sidestep vaccinations.

The clamor around the elimination of the "personal belief exemption" heated up in California after a measles outbreak started last December at Disneyland.

<snip>

Brown's decision also aligns with the opinions of two-thirds of Californians, who believe children should not be allowed to attend public school unless they are vaccinated, according to a recent Public Policy Institute of California poll.

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/health/ci_28407108/gov-jerry-brown-signs-californias-new-vaccine-bill

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Yay!!

[randys1]

1. good

[Arkana]

2. That's...odd company to keep.

Mississippi and West Virginia? Two of the reddest states in the Union?

[geek tragedy]

10. poor areas are particularly susceptible to communicable diseases.

they generally have a poorer infrastructure, so the first line of defense is often the last one

[Hekate]

3. Gov Brown always has gone with the science. Good for him for standing up to ignorance.

Just one thing bugs me: the media keep showing kids getting stuck with a needle. I think they should be showing kids who are sick with preventable diseases.

[Starry Messenger]

6. Good idea.

That other kind of imagery just plays into the anti-vax hysteria. Did you see this? (Warning, lots of bad language and triggering threats: http://jezebel.com/meet-the-new-dangerous-fringe-of-the-anti-vaccination-1713438567 )

[PeaceNikki]

9. "...suck babies into sinks"? Wut?

[geek tragedy]

11. serial troll, MIRT will zap soon nt

[PeaceNikki]

12. Yeah, I was on the jury for that one.

Preserving the whole post in its nuttbaggery:

vaxxesarepurefilth (2 posts)
8. How DARE you!

Not only do vaccines impair the immune system, but they can SHED live viruses for up to a month! They contain aborted fetal tissue, which is foreign DNA. I don't want someone else's DNA in my system! What the fuck?! They contain heavy metals--not just mercury, but also ALUMINUM, which is implicated in Alzheimer's. Who knows how many seniors got dementia early thanks to the filth in vaccines. They also contain formaldehyde, which speaks for itself, MSG and other goodies.

The fact that they have to force it on people shows the dismal failure of Big pHARMa and the medical mafia to get their way. In other countries they have sterilized women and culled the herd. A definite agenda is present with vaccine progroms.

No one has the RIGHT to force any human being to get a medical procedure. The same folks who like to suck babies into sinks want to force this medical tyranny on others. May God have mercy on their twisted, lost souls.

[Starry Messenger]

16. Thanks!

I was the alerter. Gosh, I see it got up to 2 posts. I wonder what the second one was! The first one was a humdinger.

[cosmicone]

19. Thanks for posting.. I usually miss all the fun coming after MIRT n/t

[jeff47]

24. MSG?

Monosodium glutimate is added to food to make it taste more "meaty".

Rather entertaining that it has been added to the list of "evil" in vaccines.

[Hekate]

25. Many thanks for preserving that, else I would have completely missed it.....

Who the holy hell WAS that gloriously insane troll? So much crazy in one post is hard to achieve.

How dare I indeed. I mean it about using pictures of sick kids. One of the things wrong with young moms is blissful ignorance. They've never experienced what preventable diseases can do, so they get all hung up on their baby getting an owie from a needle ( which the media obligingly shows every time it comes up) and a sore spot, instead of thanking God their baby won't end up in the hospital and possibly be maimed or die.

[hlthe2b]

13. It appears we have a visitor from the library....

cough, cough...

















MIRT?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. What great news! I am very pleased to read this!

[Dr Hobbitstein]

5. Excellent news!

I hope my state (FL) jumps on this bandwagon.

[Starry Messenger]

7. Fingers crossed for you!

I'm thrilled.

[villager]

14. But *which* vaccines are now forcibly required? That's what I can't find anywhere.

And how is a "required" vaccine added to the slate?

Is there a procedure for determining which new vaccines are still optional, and which become "required?"

Just MMR? Every new flu shot? Hepatitis vaccines? STD vaccines? Which ones?

[Starry Messenger]

15. No one is forced to go to public school

If parents wish to withhold live-saving medical procedures from their children, they can place them in private school.

The requirements for CA school immunizations are on this public website that came up for me on the first try:

http://www.nvic.org/Vaccine-Laws/state-vaccine-requirements/california.aspx

[villager]

17. No, it's much more "forcible" than before. Some of these might make sense, but for example

...there are questions about requiring a Hepatitis vaccine. Nor did a chicken pox vaccine used to be required.

Which gets me back to my question: What is the mechanism for expanding this schedule, which has expanded since my sons' were in school. Who has the say?

[Starry Messenger]

18. No idea.

I'm just thrilled I won't be the situation I was in in 2010--an uninsured adjunct working in a K-12 school who was exposed twice to whooping cough cases in my classroom because I didn't know there was a personal belief exemption.

Now anyone with strong concerns won't put my students in danger.

They can go to private schools, which shouldn't be a problem since anti-vaxxers tend to be clustered in wealthy neighborhoods. http://consumer.healthday.com/kids-health-information-23/measles-news-464/personal-belief-waivers-for-vaccines-cluster-in-rich-white-areas-study-699976.html

[cosmicone]

20. The schedule is set by American Academy of Pediatrics and reviewed periodically. n/t

[villager]

21. But since California is now requiring all of them, even some for "lesser threats"

...than measles, Polio, or whooping cough, one wonders if that schedule will be the de facto schedule here, or if there is some other mechanism, since these are all now much more stringently required.

What is the mechanism, in the law, for review of California requirements, as they change. That's the question.

[cosmicone]

22. The bill has the following language

"....Any other disease deemed appropriate by the department,
taking into consideration the recommendations of the Advisory
Committee on Immunization Practices of the United States Department
of Health and Human Services, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and
the American Academy of Family Physicians."

[villager]

23. All right. Thanks. So California's own Health Dept. has the final say

Which, at least, is something.

[Hekate]

27. Did you ever google it yourself? It's not a secret, you know, but public information. Let us know...

....what you learn.

[villager]

29. Yes, I tried, and didn't find anything

...but am glad others here felt genuinely helpful.

[Hekate]

31. I'm often helpful, but others found info readily and you kept asking, so I wondered.

Glad you got what you wanted.

[villager]

32. Thanks!

Though I won't have any kids starting California public schools now, until/unless grandkids come along some day (if they even "come along" in California at all!) I was just wondering what kind of decision-making process this bill put in place for the "schedule" of what was deemed "necessary."

[get the red out]

26. That is great

We have more sacred rules in our idiot home owners association than there are rules to protect public health.

[tymorial]

28. This is so totally wicked awesome.

We have a huge problem here in the Boston area when it comes to kids not being vaccinated. It is worse in the more affluent areas. One of my friends told me that as many as 30% of his pediatric patients are either behind in their schedule or have parents who refuse immunization entirely. I blame the prevalence of websites and blogs (including some well known news providers) who are dedicated to peddling junk and pseudoscience as health and medical breakthroughs.

[Starry Messenger]

41. Yes, it's the same here.

The affluent are the ones objecting.

[Cleita]

30. Good. The anti-vac parents often change their minds once they are

obligated to care for a sick child. I went through all the childhood diseases and frankly the risks from the diseases is far higher than the risks of the vaccine. I remember high fevers, which were very hard to break even with aspirin, severe dehydration from vomiting and diarrhea. There was the risk of blindness from measles and being sterile from mumps and much more.

I know if vaccines had been available then my mother would have been first in line and so would I have been if I would have had children. Also if there are old people around like grandparents, not getting immunized from viruses going around could give them a disease that could kill them.

Please vaccinate your kids and yourself. I get flu every year and pneumonia every five years.

[Hekate]

33. Spot on, Cleita. I don't let my vaxxes lapse, and after whooping cough made a comeback...

.... I made sure to ask my doc about a booster for that as well because my daughter runs a preschool. I read about a pediatrician who got it from one of her little patients, and for many months after she recovered she still had episodes of convulsive coughing because of toxins remaining in the bottom of her lungs. I decided I'd just as soon give that a miss.

We used to think some of those vaccines conferred lifetime immunity, but I think that was just because the herd immunity was so strong. We've always known we needed boosters for lockjaw, so wth is the big deal with booster shots for some of the other diseases.

[Cleita]

35. Whooping cough is a vile disease. I was five when I got it and I still remember how

awful it was. I had a little friend on the block who died from it. I think she was probably the person who gave it to me. I also lost friends to polio who were crippled or died because the Salk vaccine hadn't been invented yet.

[Hekate]

38. I was in elementary school when polio vaccine was made available. Clinic was held at our school....

....and the line of parents bringing their children extended across the playground and out to the sidewalk. Every school in the country had its share of children in heavy braces and crutches who had been crippled for life by polio, for whom the vaccine came too late. I have a friend whose mother died of polio when my friend was only two years old.

My mother's little brother got whooping cough when he was still an infant, and it almost killed him. To say my mother was in favor of vaccination would be a tremendous understatement.

Units on public health should be required in middle school and high school in two classes: science and history. If I were writing a coordinated program, I'd add certain novels in the English classes as well, because of the way stories stick in the memory. Young mothers today are blissfully ignorant, but their ignorance will not keep their children from harm.

[Le Taz Hot]

40. My husband got a case of the whooping cough

last year. It was terrible. After coughing for so long and so hard he lost his voice for 2 weeks. We were beginning to wonder if it would ever come back.

[Hekate]

42. People have literally dislocated ribs from it; I can well imagine bleeding/damaged vocal cords

I'm glad he's recovered now

[KamaAina]

34. Two of my FB friends are anti-vax whackjobs

The amazing thing is, I know one from the autism world (most Autistic people revile anti-vax nuttery because it basically states that autism is a fate worse than death ) and the other one from Yale! I mean, OK, she was a humanities major, but still...

[Cleita]

36. I have sometimes found some of the most educated people to be the

dumbest when it comes to common sense or just being aware of what's going on around them.

[tymorial]

43. That isn't surprising. The middle to uppper class demographic are the biggest offenders.

Massachusetts has a huge problem when it comes to this issue. There are some pockets where the vaccination rate is so low that it is effecting herd immunity. It is only a matter of time until someone who is unable to be vaccinated due to age or disease becomes sick and dies. I posted that my friend is a pediatrician and close to 30% of his patients are behind in the schedule or have no vaccinations at all.

[RandySF]

37. Sanity

[SunSeeker]

39. K & R

[CanadaexPat]

44. remember when Perry mandated HPV vaccines?

[Starry Messenger]

45. Yes, he had to back down when Teabaggers got up in arms.

They are notorious anti-vaxxers too.

[CanadaexPat]

46. He said it was a mistake to implement, but it had been implemented

He did it as a favor to a supporter who was a lobbyist for the pharmaceutical company that manufactured the vaccine.

[Starry Messenger]

47. Too bad. I'd be in favor of it.

At any rate, this new law in CA has 3/4's of our state's population's support. It was time.

[geek tragedy]

49. Yes, and that fanatical nutjob Michelle Bachmann attacked him for it by

pimping a conspiracy theory involving pharmaceutical manufacturers

[restorefreedom]

48. i am not antivax ...however,

there is ZERO reason to vaccinate an infant for hep b. hep b is not a risk for children. The only reason they vaccinate them as babies is because they figure people will not come in for hepatitis B vaccines as adults. And frankly, that is not their decision to make. Same thing with chickenpox even though it's fairly common most of us had it as children and survived just fine. Just because the vaccine is available commercially, doesn't mean every one of them has to be mandated. I do agree with Jim Carrey on one thing, a lot of this is based on greed.

[geek tragedy]

50. "with chickenpox even though it's fairly common most of us had it as children and survived just fine

[restorefreedom]

51. it doesn.t rise to the level of severity

for a mandated vaccine

are we seriously going to compare chicken pox to polio?

[geek tragedy]

52. Know anyone who has shingles? nt

[restorefreedom]

53. yes

but mandated vaccines should be for childhood diseases that pose a serious threat to the population via unvaccinated children. as horrible as shingles is, there is a shingles vaccine that people can choose to get as an adult. what about hpv....should that be mandated as well?

[geek tragedy]

54. Chicken pox is highly contagious

Absolutely it should be mandatory.

[restorefreedom]

55. agree to disagree

i also think hep b for babies is insane and appalling.

[Starry Messenger]

56. Oh well.

[SwankyXomb]

57. Heh "I am not antivax"

Yes you are.

[restorefreedom]

58. no, i am anti "vaccinate against every disease for which there is a vaccine"

there is a difference

[SwankyXomb]

59. So which of the diseases currently being vaccinated against

did you want to become a pandemic? Be specific.

[restorefreedom]

60. i generally come to du

to avoid discussions that turn into this.

have a nice day,