The announcement that Florida would become the first state to end vaccine mandates for public schools pushed the growing trend of vaccine resistance in the United States to a new and alarming level.
Virginia’s leaders should resist temptation to get drawn into the misguided movement against vaccines. Vaccines have worked wonders for decades, all but eliminating many diseases such as measles and polio that once severely disrupted the lives of children, sometimes causing lifelong problems or death.
Unfortunately, vaccination rates were already declining, in Florida and elsewhere. COVID is a factor: During the pandemic, many children missed vaccinations, and some parents have not gotten their children back on track.
Another, serious problem is growing skepticism about vaccines, often fueled by misinformation. It doesn’t help that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a high-profile anti-vaccine activist without medical credentials, is secretary of Health and Human Services, or that President Donald Trump appears to share his distrust of vaccines.
The result of declining vaccination rates is obvious in the resurgence of measles, declared eradicated in the U.S in 2000 by the federal Centers for Disease Control. By early September, at least 1,400 cases of measles had been reported this year across the country, mostly in Texas. Three people had died.
Cases of whooping cough (pertussis) have also risen, with the CDC documenting more than 20,000 by September, including deaths of at least two babies and a 5-year-old.
Deaths from measles, whooping cough and other diseases on the recommended vaccine list are usually preventable — if the great majority of children get vaccinated.
It’s debatable whether politicians are attacking vaccines because they sincerely — if mistakenly — believe they are dangerous, or whether they think doing so will win votes. What’s not really debatable is that over many years of research, vaccines have been judged a safe and highly effective way to stop the spread of many communicable diseases, especially among children.
The arguments being used against vaccine mandates don’t hold up to scrutiny. There’s talk about people’s rights to make health decisions for themselves and their children. Florida’s state surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Lapado, went so far as to call vaccine mandates “immoral” intrusions on individual rights.
Implicit in these arguments is the belief that parents’ decisions about vaccinating their children affect no one else. Well-established research tells us that is not the case.
When the great majority of people in a community have been vaccinated, that creates herd immunity, making it difficult for infectious diseases to spread. When fewer people have been vaccinated, the highly infectious diseases can spread rapidly.
It’s not true that unvaccinated children pose no risk to others. If the diseases spread, they can harm infants and children too young to be vaccinated as well as people who have certain allergies. They can infect people whose immune systems are compromised because of cancer and other conditions, some of whom cannot receive vaccinations. The diseases pose a threat to health care workers.
And, although they are highly effective, vaccines don’t offer 100% protection. Even someone who has been vaccinated may become ill if exposed to a disease, especially in poorly ventilated spaces.
Personal choice is not unlimited in the United States, nor should it be. One person’s right to choose a behavior runs into limits when that choice can seriously harm or even kill another person. That’s why we have laws about everything from driving vehicles to smoking in enclosed public places.
Fortunately, even if officials on the national level continue to undermine sensible, life-saving vaccination policy, states set school vaccination policies. In Virginia, the legislature passes laws that mandate vaccination for public-school attendance, and the Virginia Department of Health handles minimum requirements and documentation.
Children’s health should not be part of political battles. All Virginia’s leaders should be dedicated to ensuring that children are vaccinated. That way children can be spared the ravages of diseases that used to — and still can, if we let our guard down — cause so much harm.
