Dear Legislators,
How well does high-vaccination compliance ensure herd immunity and protect a community from an outbreak? How can we have herd immunity when even the Centers for Disease Control states, "Adult vaccination coverage remains low for most routinely recommended vaccines"?
If the goal is herd immunity, then must we not have forced vaccinations for all? In looking at nations who have forced vaccinations, we see that China has a 99% vaccination rate, but yet they had over 700 outbreaks of measles from 2009 to 2012!
Outbreaks within a 99% vaccinated population have occurred in the United States,as well. One of many examples occurred in 1985 in Corpus Christ, Texas. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/3821823/
We have been led to believe that the Disneyland outbreak was the result of exempted, unvaccinated children, but according to the CDC, it likely started from a traveler who became infected overseas with measles, then visited the amusement park while infectious. Analysis by CDC scientists showed that the measles virus type in this outbreak (B3) was identical to the virus type that caused the large measles outbreak in the Philippines in 2014.
The original concept of herd immunity was coined by Dr. A.W. Hedrich in the 1930’s based upon his epidemiological studies of measles. His theory applied to the protection that occurs when a population contracts and recovers naturally from infections. Natural immunity lasts a lifetime; vaccine induced immunity does not. Dr. Russell Blaylock, M.D., neurosurgeon, providessome historical perspective in his article, The Deadly Impossibility of Herd Immunity: “When I was in medical school, we were taught that all of the childhood vaccines lasted a lifetime. This thinking existed for over 70 years. It was not until relatively recently that it was discovered that most of these vaccines lost their effectiveness 2 to 10 years after being given. What this means is that at least half the population, that is the baby boomers, have had no vaccine-induced immunity against any of these diseases for which they had been vaccinated very early in life. In essence, at least 50% or more of the population was unprotected for decades.”
Instead of looking at herd immunity, we should be looking at vaccine efficacy and other factors that have assisted in disease reduction. Please oppose SB1478 as it would eliminate the personal exemption from current state law.
Thank you for your time,
