PD Editorial: Science-based booster for vaccination bill

An effective vaccine, widely trusted and widely used, all but eliminated measles in the United States by the end of the 20th century.

It’s no longer news that measles is making a 21st century comeback because too many parents, ignoring scientific and empirical evidence, are forgoing vaccinations. But did you know that the measles vaccine prevents other infections, too?

As use of the measles vaccine became widespread in the United States in the early 1960s, physicians observed a sharp decline in pneumonia and other infectious diseases. The same held true in Europe and the developing world as vaccinations became more common.

“So it’s really been a mystery - why do children stop dying at such high rates from all these different infections following introduction of the measles vaccine?” Michael Mina, a postdoctoral biology student at Princeton University and a medical student at Emory University, told NPR.

Mina and some fellow researchers believe they solved the mystery.

A case of measles suppresses the immune system, as other infections can, but its effects are magnified, compromising immunity for as much as three years, according to findings published in Science magazine. You won’t get measles again, but you’re at greater risk of contracting other diseases until your immune system recovers.

“This demonstrates at a new level why measles is not a benign infection,” Mina said while making his media rounds last week. “It puts children at risk for years. More than anything else, it demonstrates the importance of getting rid of measles through vaccinations.”

But myths die hard, and parents convinced that inoculations are more dangerous than the diseases they prevent are battling legislation that would eliminate “personal belief exemptions” from California’s law requiring vaccinations for schoolchildren.

In some schools, as many as 40 percent of parents are citing personal belief exemptions and refusing at least some vaccinations for their children.

With the declining vaccination rate, preventable diseases such as measles and whooping cough are resurgent.

The vaccination bill, SB 277, cleared two committee hurdles and is awaiting a floor vote in the state Senate, which could come today. But opposition persists and the co-authors, state Sens. Richard Pan and Ben Allen, amended the bill to improve its prospects for approval as it advances to the Assembly.

The amendments clarify that the state’s practice of checking vaccination records for kindergartners, seventh-graders and new transfers will be unchanged. In effect, that exempts unvaccinated children already attending public and private schools for four years and, in some cases, six years.

It means that about 13,000 primary school students, who would be off the hook until middle school, and about 10,000 students already in seventh grade and beyond might avoid vaccinations entirely.

The amendments dilute the measure, but given the vociferous, if irrational, opposition, it’s a strategic retreat.

Besides, as supporters note, a 100 percent vaccination rate isn’t necessary to prevent future outbreaks of measles, whooping cough, mumps and other diseases that have reappeared as vaccination rates declined. Even with the amendments, SB 277 should reverse the trend, making these preventable diseases a thing of the past. Again.