BY RICHARD JAFFEE JD
So in California come July 1st, there will no vaccine exemptions based on personal belief. However, there still will be a medical exemption, such as it is.
My understanding is that pediatrics/public health recognizes some contraindications for specific vaccines, but very, very few (if any) contraindications for not giving a child any vaccine anytime. I’ve heard that at least one prominent CAM healthcare attorney is advising his California CAM physician clients not to write medical exemption letters for parents who have a fear of or personal belief against vaccination. That might be prudent advice, and certainly no lawyer will get into trouble for giving it. Obviously, this is all very bad news for anti-vaxers.
You are not going to like this, but…
I will probably weigh-in on what I think are the medically supported justifications for the exemption another time and another forum. For now, I’d like to talk to my anti-vaxer friends and colleagues, including those who for tactical/PR reasons characterize their views as in support of “informed consent” about the “dangers of vaccination”. You’re not going to like it, but to paraphrase Ziggy Martin in “Drive,” who’s gonna tell you when you’re too late and aren’t so great In terms of where we are and the constitutional arguments being tossed around, well, you’re too late, wrong, and less lyrically, the imprecise hyperbolic language is not helping you focus on what may be realistically achievable.
First, the inaccurate hyperbole: California anti-vaxers claim that their kids and child care professionals are being forced by the government to be vaccinated. Not true. I’m from Texas, and in Texas we know what forced vaccination looks like. A couple years ago, the Texas legislature tried to force all young girls to get the HPV vaccine. The measure ultimately failed because of the public outcry against forced vaccination. California is not forcing anyone to get vaccinated. Rather, it imposes consequences (albeit draconian) for the unvaccinated; for kids, no public or private school; for adults, you can’t teach kids or be a child caregiver. That’s a big difference constitutionally and legally in general. But in addition, by mis-framing the issue, you may be missing some realistic partial, medium-term solutions, as I’ll explain in a moment. Continue reading TO MY CALIFORNIA ANTI-VAXXER FRIENDS: HERE’S SOME PROBABLY UNWANTED BUT POSSIBLY USEFUL ADVICE…
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