Parents may have the right to choose not to vaccinate their children, but they don’t have the right to put other children at risk of contracting diseases that are preventable by vaccination.
If it is the government’s job to protect the safety of its citizens, thinking public fire and safety departments, then they must enact education policy that prohibits children from attending public school without updated vaccinations.
I realize the outbreak has been attributed to a Jewish community with their own school, if I am not mistaken about having their own school, but, either way, because the outbreak has spread beyond their community, my belief that students should not be admitted into public schools (pre-K through college) without updated vaccinations stands.
If we don’t pass legislation mandating vaccinations, at this point I’m not sure we can or should, we can at least keep the unvaccinated from risking contact in that public arena.
I also don’t know whether it is only the unvaccinated that are contracting measles. If it is, the responsibility is on the parents and they must be held accountable for any deaths due to their choice not to vaccinate their children. If even the vaccinated are contracting measles from the unvaccinated, or from other vaccinated due to the unvaccinated, the government must step in to preclude an epidemic. We may already be at the epidemic level.
At the very least, we need to quarantine families in their homes. Quarantine is doable and should be mandated. It is too difficult to determine whether a person in a public place is an infected person and fine them, but once a person is identified as having measles, they must be quarantined.
I think we may see some cases in court. If you drink, drive, and injure someone while doing it, you are held accountable in and by a criminal court of law. A parent of an unvaccinated child who injures (causes another to contract measles) can, probably should, be held accountable in and by a civil court of law.
I don’t recommend suing anyone on a whim, but this is serious. Anti-vaxers are unnecessarily putting others at severe risk. If it’s just to take a stand against Big Brother, this may not be the best stand to take.
-vahd61
Trudy Berry for Delegate, Democratic Candidate for VA House District 61
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