The CT Senate now needs to act to remove the exemption from non-medical vaccines.

Last week, the Connecticut House of Representatives passed legislation to eliminate non-medical exemptions. Admission vaccinationA timely and important step in protecting children and families from vaccine-preventable illnesses. The Senate should move decisively to do the same.

Our professional society, American Society of Internal Medicine (ACP), a national policy established in 2015, recommends that medical exemptions for vaccines are the only type permitted under state law. High immunization rates are needed to protect babies and children whose vaccines may not be really safe, such as allergies to vaccine components and primary or acquired immune disorders associated with cancer treatment. These children did not choose their illness or condition. At school with unvaccinated students is at risk of exposure to life-threatening vaccine-preventable illnesses.

Children with cancer or immune disorders are not the only ones at risk when healthy children refrain from vaccination. In 2019, the city of New York developed measles, one of the most infectious diseases that can be prevented with a vaccine. Many families affected by the outbreak claimed a religious exemption from vaccination. Of 649 infected children, teens, and adults 1 in 8 was previously vaccinated against measles.. These are primarily from completely unvaccinated infants (including 34 children under the age of 5) and the elderly who have lost some of the protective effects of previous vaccinations (from fatal infectious diseases). Was a group that relied on herd immunity to maintain their safety).

Public health and security measures are based on the old idea of ​​social contracts to sacrifice some freedoms for the greater benefit of society. Examples of this are around us, from banning drunk driving to compulsory security screening at the airport. These measures were not designed to limit our freedom, but were a reaction to tragedy. Lower school enrollment leaves the door open for the tragic outbreak of vaccine-preventable illnesses in our state.

Connecticut granted religious exemptions for immunization to 2.3% of new kindergartens and 1.5% of new 7th grade students in the 2019-2020 academic year. This is equivalent to 1.9% of so-called “new school enrollees”. This is a 6x increase Students claiming religious exemptions since the state began distinguishing between types of exemptions in 2003. In contrast, in the same time frame, the medical exemption was flat at 0.2%. The consequences of this increase are predictable and worrisome. Overall measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) immunization rates fell below 95% in more than 130 Connecticut schools. This is a threshold that is recognized as important for prevention. In the last 10 years.

To some extent, vaccines are victims of their own success. When people no longer see vaccine-preventable illnesses, they question the need for widespread vaccination. Older Americans remember the polio damage and mass oral poliovirus vaccine campaign that began in 1963. This has finally eradicated the disease in this country. The measles mortality rate, which the CDC estimates killed 2.6 million people worldwide annually in the 1980s, has fallen by more than 95% by 2017 due to improved global immunization. However, in 2019, 1,282 cases of measles were identified in 31 states. This is the largest number of cases reported in the United States since 1992. The fear of vaccine-preventable disease for many in the country has been superseded by unfounded fear as a vaccine. As a cause of autism or an important source of toxic compounds.

In reality, the persistent adverse effects of vaccines (so-called “vaccine injuries”) are extremely rare. 37 More than 100 million vaccines were administered Between 2006 and 2018, less than 1,600 people were injured by the identified vaccines in the United States. Approximately 1 per 2.4 million vaccines.. False information about vaccine safety and misattribution of post-vaccination medical problems (good faith, bad faith) shows that vaccines are safe and effective in decades of research. Despite being consistently proven, it is widespread throughout social media and the Internet.

In 2019, New York and its main neighbors enacted legislation to remove the exemption from non-medical vaccines after observing the significant protective effects of such policies in other states. In Mississippi, where 99.6% of all children enrolled in kindergarten in 2018 needed vaccination No recorded cases of measles since 1992.. Mississippi’s religious exemption, even for vaccinated children, unfairly puts fewer beliefs in the “risk of schooling” with students claiming religious exemption than in the general public welfare. It was withdrawn by the Supreme Court in 1979 after discovering that it was. West Virginia, who has never granted non-medical exemptions No measles outbreak for more than 25 years..

As doctors, it is our duty to uphold and protect the health, human rights and well-being of more and more people, not just our individual patients. Our voice, and confidence in the established science that supports the safety and efficacy of vaccines, reassures parents who dislike vaccines and gives State Senators the confidence they need to take bold actions. I hope to plant it. Focus on prioritizing the needs of infants, the elderly, and people with immune disorders over the opposition of a few voices. The exemption for non-medical vaccines will be abolished in 2021.

Benjamin Cherry, MD and FACP practice and chair internal medicine at West Haven VA. Connecticut ACP Branch Health and Public Policy Committee. Dr. Robert McLean of MACP is a practicing rheumatologist in New Haven, a former governor of the Connecticut ACP branch and a former president of ACP.

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