California&#8217;s governor signed a first-of-its-kind bill late last week, dramatically limiting — if not completely erasing — exemptions to the state&#8217;s mandatory vaccination law for children.
Some California residents, however, who say that the bill represents a shocking governmental overreach that threatens their personal autonomy, are pushing to have the law included on the November ballot.
<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-governor-signs-bills-crack-down-fraudulent-vaccine-exemptions-n1051756">NBC News reports</a> that California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a package of bills designed to &#8220;crack down on doctors who write fraudulent medical exemptions for school children&#8217;s vaccinations,&#8221; in order to re-establish California&#8217;s falling childhood vaccination rate, which has given rise to a number of outbreaks of preventable diseases — including the measles — over the last several years.
&#8220;This legislation provides new tools to better protect public health, and does so in a way that ensures parents, doctors, public health officials and school administrators all know the rules of the road moving forward,&#8221; Newsom wrote in a statement to press accompanying the bill.
California already outlaws non-medical exemptions for vaccinations but lawmakers say parents who claim to be skeptical about the number and necessity of childhood vaccinations are obtaining fraudulent doctors&#8217; notes, allowing their children to attend school without being fully vaccinated, even though they aren&#8217;t actually medically fragile.
CNN reports that California&#8217;s vaccination rates have fallen dramatically over the course of the last decade, particularly in largely white, upper-middle-class enclaves where an anti-vaccination movement has taken root. The decision to require children to be immunized against specific diseases in order to attend school in the state has slowed the trend somewhat, but lawmakers feel making doctors who collude with patients who want to avoid vaccination, but aren&#8217;t actually medically fragile, responsible will stem the tide further.
&#8220;Under the new laws,&#8221; CNN reports, &#8220;the state will issue a standardized medical exemption certification form for doctors to complete and send to a child&#8217;s school. The form would outline the details of the exemption and include information about the medical basis for the exemption.&#8221;
Doctors who &#8220;grant five or more exemptions in a year&#8221; could find themselves subject to a state investigation, as could school districts where vaccination rates fall below 95% — the lowest rate necessary to preserve herd immunity and protect medically fragile children who legitimately cannot be vaccinated.
The bills are likely to go into effect January 1, 2020, but some anti-vaccination activists say they&#8217;re going to push for the measure to be included on the November ballot, because they believe punishing doctors who give false cover to anti-vaccine parents is a huge government overreach. Opposition to the bill has been strong, and anti-vaccine parents have hosted large protests at the California state capital building, calling in reinforcements from across the country in order to help preserve their ability to leave their children unvaccinated.
In one particularly disturbing incident, protesters <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/09/anti-vaccine-protester-menstrual-cup-blood-california-senate.html">threw what appeared to be menstrual blood</a> on legislators headed to a vote.
Three protesters, who all consider themselves members of an anti-vaccine movement, have submitted a request to put the issue to a referendum, which would force the state to defend the measure at the ballot box, <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article234989047.html">according to the Sacramento Bee</a>, which has followed the controversy surrounding the vaccine bill closely.
&#8220;Documents released by the Attorney General’s Office say the petition was submitted by Denise Aguilar, Heidi Munoz Gleisner and Tara Thornton. It was sent from a postal office near the Capitol,&#8221; the Sac Bee reports. &#8220;Aguilar, Munoz Gleisner and Thornton protested the vaccine bill throughout August and September. They temporarily shut down an Aug. 30 Assembly Appropriations Committee hearing where they stood on chairs and chanted after lawmakers advanced the bill.&#8221;
The legislator who drafted the bill says he&#8217;ll oppose the referendum measure.

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California Passes Stringent New Vaccine Requirements But Voters May Get Final Decision

California

Science

Vaccines

On Thursday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, signed a bill into law that will immediately end religious exemptions for vaccine mandates.
Cuomo said he signed the bill in order to protect the public in the midst of one of the worst measles outbreak in decades, which he categorized as a &#8220;public health crisis,&#8221; <a href="https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2019/06/14/new-york-ends-religious-exemptions-for-measles-vaccinations/">reported</a> CBS New York.
The outbreak first sparked in October, the outlet noted, and spread in parts of New York City, particularly among Orthodox Jewish communities.
&#8220;Rockland County declared a countywide State of Emergency relating to the ongoing measles outbreak,&#8221; <a href="https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Rockland-County-State-Emergency-Measles-507672921.html?ff">reported</a> NBC in March. &#8220;Effective at the stroke of midnight, Wednesday, anyone who is under 18 years of age and unvaccinated against the measles will be barred from public places until this declaration expires in 30 days or until they receive the MMR vaccination.&#8221;
With the passing of the law, parents will be forced to vaccinate their children before they can attend school in the state, and religious exemptions won&#8217;t get them out of it. Parents and teens have <a href="http://objection%20to%20its%20apparent%20ties%20to%20abortion">morally objected</a> to certain vaccines based upon ties to abortion. Now, the only acceptable exemptions from the mandate will be for medical reasons, such as a child&#8217;s weakened immune system.
While opponents of the legislation protested in Assembly chambers on Thursday, sponsors of the bill praised its passing as a measure of protection for children.
&#8220;If your kid is immunocompromised and going to school or a day care center, you want to know that they&#8217;re going to be safe,&#8221; said State Sen. Brad Hoylman, a sponsor of the legislation, according to CBS New York.
&#8220;It&#8217;s our obligation to act,&#8221; State Sen. David Carlucci said. &#8220;We have to do everything we can to get the number of people vaccinated up.&#8221;
&#8220;The government does not have the right to interfere with my personal religious beliefs,&#8221; said one woman protesting the law. &#8220;We will not vaccinate. What&#8217;s going to happen is we&#8217;re going to either home school or we&#8217;re going to move out of state.&#8221;
Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein, a Democrat, noted that he is pro-vaccine but could not vote for the bill out of &#8220;constitutional duty.&#8221;
&#8220;Despite my pro-vaccination stance and despite my beliefs that there are no religious restrictions, it is my constitutional duty to vote in the negative,&#8221; he said.
California is headed the way of New York when it comes to vaccines via SB 276. Actress Jessica Biel <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48355/jessica-biel-branded-anti-vaxxer-after-meeting-ca-amanda-prestigiacomo">sparked</a> debate over vaccines earlier this week when she met with some 15 California legislators to discuss her concerns about the bill and advocate for parental rights.
Biel said she is &#8220;not against vaccinations&#8221; but supports &#8220;families having the right to make educated medical decisions for their children alongside their physicians.&#8221;
&#8220;This week I went to Sacramento to talk to legislators in California about a proposed bill,&#8221; she wrote in an Instagram post on Thursday. &#8220;I am not against vaccinations &#8212; I support children getting vaccinations and I also support families having the right to make educated medical decisions for their children alongside their physicians.&#8221;
&#8220;My concern with #SB277 is solely regarding medical exemptions. My dearest friends have a child with a medical condition that warrants an exemption from vaccinations, and should this bill pass, it would greatly affect their family&#8217;s ability to care for their child in this state,&#8221; the post continued. &#8220;That&#8217;s why I spoke to legislators and argued against this bill. Not because I don&#8217;t believe in vaccinations, but because I believe in giving doctors and the families they treat the ability to decide what&#8217;s best for their patients and the ability to provide that treatment.&#8221;
Proponents of vaccination mandates claim SB 276 &#8220;will have minimal impact on those with valid reasons for exemption, citing medical authorities like the bill&#8217;s prominent co-sponsors: the California Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, California,&#8221; The Daily Beast <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/jessica-biel-comes-out-as-anti-vaxx-activist-joins-robert-f-kennedy-jr-to-lobby-against-ca-vaccination-bill?via=twitter_page">reported</a>.
As reported by The Daily Wire in April, a judge told a Catholic teenager from Kentucky, Jerome Kunkel, that he is not allowed back in school after morally objecting to receiving a vaccination for the chicken pox due to its apparent ties to abortion.
&#8221;It&#8217;s my understanding that the vaccine is derived from aborted fetal cells,&#8221; said Kunkel, <a href="https://lawandcrime.com/lawsuit/judge-denies-unvaccinated-teens-demand-to-return-to-school/">according</a> to WLWT. &#8220;And it is against my religion. Abortion is against my religion.&#8221;
As <a href="https://khn.org/morning-breakout/catholic-church-has-given-green-light-to-using-vaccines-derived-from-aborted-fetal-cells-but-one-family-is-still-suing-over-beliefs/">noted</a> by KHN Morning Briefing, &#8220;The Varicella vaccine, specifically, is derived from the cell lines of two fetuses that were electively aborted in the 1960s.&#8221;

New York Ends Religious Exemptions For Vaccine Mandates

Andrew Cuomo

New York

Actress Jessica Biel recently met with some 15 California legislators to discuss concerns about a vaccination bill and advocate for &#8220;parental rights.&#8221; Some of the legislators the actress met with have publicly supported the bill in question, SB 276, while others have voiced opposition to the legislation due to its lack of acceptable medical vaccination exemptions. Notably, Biel was photographed in the California State Assembly alongside Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an activist &#8220;skeptical&#8221; of vaccinations.
The news of Biel&#8217;s apparent activism landed her the &#8220;anti-vaxxer&#8221; label from the media, starting with The Daily Beast.
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EXCLUSIVE: Jessica Biel comes out as an anti-vax activist, joining RFK Jr. to lobby against the California vaccination bill <a href="https://t.co/kqbpZuncKX">https://t.co/kqbpZuncKX</a>
&#8212; The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) <a href="https://twitter.com/thedailybeast/status/1138937351336615936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 12, 2019</a></blockquote>
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According to The Daily Beast, Kennedy would not confirm to the outlet that Biel, wife of superstar Justin Timberlake, was a so-called &#8220;anti-vaxxer.&#8221;
&#8220;I would say that she was for safe vaccines and for medical freedom,&#8221; he said. &#8220;My body, my choice.&#8221;
&#8220;Please say thank you to the courageous [Jessica Biel] for a busy and productive day at the California State House,&#8221; Kennedy captioned a photo of the duo posted to Instagram.
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Byl1y56lLOO/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Please say thank you to the courageous @jessicabiel for a busy and productive day at the California State House.</a>
A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/robertfkennedyjr/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Robert F. Kennedy Jr.</a> (@robertfkennedyjr) on Jun 11, 2019 at 6:27pm PDT
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&#8220;Biel and Kennedy&#8217;s primary concern with the bill stems from what they deem bureaucratic &#8216;red tape,&#8217; which they believe would force kids to receive vaccinations,&#8221; reported The Daily Beast.
&#8220;The biggest problem with the bill, which is something I think Jessica is concerned with, is that a doctor who has made a determination&#8212;if he has found children in this state whose doctors have determined that they&#8217;re too fragile to receive vaccinations&#8212;this bill would overrule the doctors and force them to be vaccinated anyways,&#8221; said Kennedy.
&#8220;She was a very effective advocate,&#8221; he praised Biel. &#8220;She was very strong and very knowledgeable. Extremely well-informed. An extremely effective advocate. She knows what she&#8217;s talking about&#8230; She&#8217;s upset about this issue because of its particular cruelty. She has friends who have been vaccine-injured who would be forced to leave the state.&#8221;
Though he rejects the term &#8220;anti-vaxxer&#8221; as &#8220;propaganda,&#8221; Kennedy is known for his activism against vaccines. &#8220;Kennedy has stirred controversy by writing articles and publishing books on the claim that vaccinations cause autism, a claim refuted by scientists,&#8221; Variety <a href="https://variety.com/2019/politics/news/jessica-biel-anti-vaxx-robert-f-kennedy-jr-california-vaccine-bill-1203241577/">reported</a>. &#8220;In May, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Joseph P. Kennedy and Maeve Kennedy McKean publicly stated that their relative &#8216;has helped to spread dangerous misinformation over social media and is complicit in sowing distrust of the science behind vaccines.&#8217;&#8221;
Biel also posed alongside a string of politicians, including Assemblyman Tom Lackey, a Republican representing California&#8217;s 36th District. &#8220;[Jessica Biel] came by the State Capitol yesterday to chat about parental rights,&#8221; he said, posting a photo of the two on Twitter. &#8220;I was impressed by her sincerity.&#8221;
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. <a href="https://twitter.com/JessicaBiel?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JessicaBiel</a> came by the State Capitol yesterday to chat about parental rights. I was impressed by her sincerity. <a href="https://t.co/hWHbEhsAzb">pic.twitter.com/hWHbEhsAzb</a>
&#8212; Assemblyman Lackey (@TomLackey36) <a href="https://twitter.com/TomLackey36/status/1138808481949949954?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 12, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Biel has since responded to the reports directly, noting that she is &#8220;not against vaccinations&#8221; but also supports &#8220;families having the right to make educated medical decisions for their children alongside their physicians.&#8221;
&#8220;This week I went to Sacramento to talk to legislators in California about a proposed bill. I am not against vaccinations &#8212; I support children getting vaccinations and I also support families having the right to make educated medical decisions for their children alongside their physicians,&#8221; she wrote in an Instagram post. &#8220;My concern with #SB277 is solely regarding medical exemptions. My dearest friends have a child with a medical condition that warrants an exemption from vaccinations, and should this bill pass, it would greatly affect their family&#8217;s ability to care for their child in this state. That&#8217;s why I spoke to legislators and argued against this bill. Not because I don&#8217;t believe in vaccinations, but because I believe in giving doctors and the families they treat the ability to decide what&#8217;s best for their patients and the ability to provide that treatment. I encourage everyone to read more on this issue and to learn about the intricacies of #SB277. Thank you to everyone who met with me this week to engage in this important discussion!&#8221;
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BypmonrBzwS/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">This week I went to Sacramento to talk to legislators in California about a proposed bill. I am not against vaccinations &#8212; I support children getting vaccinations and I also support families having the right to make educated medical decisions for their children alongside their physicians. My concern with #SB277 is solely regarding medical exemptions. My dearest friends have a child with a medical condition that warrants an exemption from vaccinations, and should this bill pass, it would greatly affect their family&#8217;s ability to care for their child in this state. That&#8217;s why I spoke to legislators and argued against this bill. Not because I don&#8217;t believe in vaccinations, but because I believe in giving doctors and the families they treat the ability to decide what&#8217;s best for their patients and the ability to provide that treatment. I encourage everyone to read more on this issue and to learn about the intricacies of #SB277. Thank you to everyone who met with me this week to engage in this important discussion!</a>
A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/jessicabiel/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Jessica Biel</a> (@jessicabiel) on Jun 13, 2019 at 5:32am PDT
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In 2015, reports claimed Biel and Timberlake planned to bypass vaccinations for their son, though the stars have never confirmed the reports. &#8220;She feels that vaccination could cause complications,&#8221; a Touch Weekly source claimed at the time.
As noted by The Daily Beast, vaccination advocates claim SB 276 &#8220;will have minimal impact on those with valid reasons for exemption, citing medical authorities like the bill&#8217;s prominent co-sponsors: the California Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, California.&#8221;

Media Brand Jessica Biel &#8216;Anti-Vaxxer&#8217; After Meeting CA Legislators. Here&#8217;s Her Response.

Children

Health

Hollywood

<a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/05/08/robert-kennedy-jr-measles-vaccines-226798">Writing in Politico</a>, the extended family of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. begged the public to ignore his anti-vaccination stance and instead vaccinate their children.
Kennedy&#8217;s sister Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the former lieutenant governor of Maryland, his brother Joseph P. Kennedy III, a former member of Congress from Massachusetts,and his niece, Maeve Kennedy McKean, the executive director of Georgetown University&#8217;s Global Health Initiatives, joined to issue a plea to the public, starting by writing, &#8220;We love Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but he is part of a misinformation campaign that&#8217;s having heartbreaking&#8212;and deadly&#8212;consequences.&#8221;
The trio continue: &#8220;Americans have every right to be alarmed about the outbreak of measles in pockets of our country with unusually high rates of unvaccinated citizens, especially children. Right now, officials in 22 states are grappling with a resurgence of the disease, which was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000. With over 700 cases already reported and indications that more outbreaks will occur, 2019 will likely see the most recorded cases of measles in decades.&#8221;
The authors note that measles is not the only disease that is spreading as a result of non-vaccinations, pointing out that Maine health officials acknowledged in March there were 41 new cases of whooping cough, double the number from the same time period in 2018.
After quoting the World Health Organization reporting a 300% increase in measles cases over last year, with over 110,000 people dying annually, they write bluntly, &#8220;Most cases of preventable diseases occur among unvaccinated children, because parents have chosen not to vaccinate, have delayed vaccination, have difficulty accessing vaccines, or the children were too young to receive the vaccines.&#8221;
The authors say of RFK Jr., &#8220;He has helped to spread dangerous misinformation over social media and is complicit in sowing distrust of the science behind vaccines &#8230; his and others&#8217; work against vaccines is having heartbreaking consequences.&#8221;
They continue: &#8220;The fact is that immunizations prevent some 2 million to 3 million deaths a year, and have the potential to save another 1.5 million lives every year with broader vaccine coverage, according to the WHO. Smallpox, which plagued mankind for thousands of years, has been eradicated through vaccines. Because of immunizations, no cases of polio have been reported in the United States since 1979. &#8220;
After citing their family&#8217;s efforts on behalf of vaccinations, the authors conclude:
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Those who delay or refuse vaccinations, or encourage others to do so, put themselves and others, especially children, at risk. It is in all our interests to make sure that immunizations reach every child on the globe through safe, effective and affordable vaccines. Everyone must communicate the benefits and safety of vaccines, and advocate for the respect and confidence of the institutions which make them possible. To do otherwise risks even further erosion of one of public health&#8217;s greatest achievements.
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Kennedy Family Asks Public To Disregard RFK Jr. On Vaccines

A cruise ship, used as a floating command center, recreational facility, and training ground for the Church of Scientology, has reportedly been quarantined in St. Lucia over concerns that a passenger on board has the measles.
<a href="https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/441738-cruise-ship-appearing-to-be-owned-by-church-of-scientology-quarantined-due?fbclid=IwAR1VPLxP_rmCfih2C8LpfqOGzeT7cLyUiW8cYX5OiWLj446u6m7bWX3RqFA">The Hill reports</a> that authorities in St. Lucia have the ship, the &#8220;Freewinds,&#8221; in port there and have prohibited anyone from disembarking &#8212; possibly for three weeks &#8212; for fear they may put island residents in danger.
&#8220;Because of the risk of potential infection, not just from the confirmed measles case but from other persons who may be on the boat at this time, we made the decision to not allow anyone to disembark,&#8221; St. Lucia&#8217;s chief medical officer told media in a videoed statement.
The Church of Scientology has refused to confirm to media outlets that their 440-foot, 300-person &#8220;floating religious retreat,&#8221; the Freewinds is, indeed, the same ship stuck in dock in St. Lucia, but <a href="https://tonyortega.org/2019/05/02/what-its-like-on-the-scientology-measles-ship-right-now-according-to-former-crew/">Scientology-focused reporter Tony Ortega</a> says he&#8217;s been able to confirm from a handful of social media posts from the Church&#8217;s clergy &#8212; members of the so-called &#8220;Sea Organization&#8221; (or &#8220;Sea Org&#8221;) &#8212; that it is the same Freewinds, and that the outbreak started with a passenger.
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Update: Freewinds passenger claims measles was brought aboard by UK passenger, not a crew member. Caution, the source is a Scientologist and this may be a &#8220;shore story.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/BOQflBRPkI">https://t.co/BOQflBRPkI</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Scientology?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Scientology</a> <a href="https://t.co/Xc8OcZnqBd">pic.twitter.com/Xc8OcZnqBd</a>
&#8212; Tony Ortega (@TonyOrtega94) <a href="https://twitter.com/TonyOrtega94/status/1123970188473503745?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 2, 2019</a></blockquote>
That Sea Org member says that only one person was infected and that the &#8220;outbreak&#8221; was contained. NBC News says authorities believe that the infection has spread to others onboard.
Scientology&#8217;s Freewinds is a former cruise ship, purchased in the mid-1980s and rechristened as a floating training facility where high level Scientologists &#8212; those who have achieved the level of OT7 (or, &#8220;operating thetan seven&#8221;) &#8212; could study to achieve OT8, the highest level of the religion. The cost to reach such a level is reportedly between $800,000 and $2 million, according to former Sea Org members.
The Freewinds also serves as a recreational destination for Scientology bigwigs, including leader David Miscavige, and celebrity mega-Scientologist, Tom Cruise.
The United States is current experiencing once of the worst measles outbreaks in years, since the disease was reported as &#8220;eliminated&#8221; in the year 2000, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/24/health/measles-outbreak-record-us-bn/index.html">according to CNN</a>.
&#8220;Overall,&#8221; the outlet reports, &#8220;there have been 681 measles cases across 22 states this year, according to CNN&#8217;s analysis of data from state and local health departments.&#8221;
Many of the outbreaks are happening in unvaccinated or under-vaccinated communities. In New York, the governor has even declared a state of emergency and imposed a series of restrictions on several communities outside New York City where vaccinations rates are low and measles outbreaks have been reported. Often, the outbreak starts with someone from that community who brings the disease back from an under-vaccinated location outside the United States, spreading it to unvaccinated individuals here.
The World Health Organization <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/04/30/717473521/u-s-measles-outbreak-is-linked-to-global-surge-in-the-virus">also says that measles is on the rise globally</a>, and that 2019 has seen a 300% rise in the number of reported cases compared to this time in 2018.
The disease is highly contagious and someone suffering from measles can spread the disease not just by coughing or sneezing, but by touching surfaces. The disease can also &#8220;hang around&#8221; after an infected person has left a location, leaving anyone who passes through an area exposed if they aren&#8217;t up to date on their vaccinations.
There is little concrete data available on the passenger who caused the Freewinds outbreak. Scientologists are not necessarily anti-vaccine, but as Ortega reports, many are skeptical of western medicine, and that may have led to under-vaccination within Scientology&#8217;s ranks.

REPORT: Scientology Command Ship, The &#8216;Freewinds,&#8217; Quarantined Over Measles Outbreak

Scientology

What&#8217;s decades worth of progress and science compared to some dedicated kooks on the internet?
Well, thanks to those kooks, the U.S. has had outbreaks of diseases that are completely preventable by vaccines, including measles. The Associated Press reported:
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 695 cases had been reported in 22 states this year as of Wednesday afternoon. That was up from 626 reported Monday and makes this the nation&#8217;s worst year for measles since 1994, with eight months still to go in 2019. There were 963 cases in 1994.
Roughly three-quarters of this year&#8217;s illnesses in the U.S. have been in New York state, mainly in two ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn and suburban Rockland County. Most of those cases have been in unvaccinated people.
</blockquote>
While the AP tried to blame the outbreak on Orthodox Jewish communities, Brooklyn officials place the blame mostly on voluntarily unvaccinated children, mostly from upper-class white residents of Brooklyn, The Daily Wire&#8217;s Emily Zanotti <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46284/new-york-courts-mandatory-measles-vaccination-not-emily-zanotti">previously reported</a>.
The AP reported the number of cases could climb even higher thanks to misinformation and fearmongering about vaccines causing autism. The measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine has been around since the 1960s, and measles had been essentially wiped out by 2000. But then the claims about the vaccine causing autism started and the disease has come back.
The Associated Press mentions New York State as being the major offender, but there is also an outbreak in Washington State. Back in February, hundreds &#8212; hundreds &#8212; of people gathered in the state capitol <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43272/theres-measles-outbreak-washington-state-these-ashe-schow">to protest a bill</a> that would have required parents to get their children the MMR vaccination.
&#8220;Measles is so contagious that an unvaccinated person has a 90 percent chance of catching the disease if they&#8217;re near someone who has it. The virus can survive for up to two hours in a room where an infected person sneezed,&#8221; CBS <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/measles-outbreak-2019-northwest-measles-outbreak-prompts-look-at-vaccine-exemptions-2019-02-01/">reported</a> at the time.
New York residents have also attempted to protest a requirement for the vaccine, by way of a legal complaint. On Monday, a New York City judge dismissed the complaint, which was filed on behalf of parents who didn&#8217;t want to vaccinate their children, Zanotti reported.
New York had issued an emergency order for children in multiple zip codes to get vaccinated to try and stop the spread of the disease. Parents who objected to the order claimed it violated their Constitutional rights but a judge dismissed that argument.
&#8220;A fireman need not obtain the informed consent of the owner before extinguishing a house fire. Vaccination is known to extinguish the fire of contagion,&#8221; the New York City judge wrote.
Constitutional experts <a href="https://www.newsday.com/news/region-state/cuomo-measles-vaccination-schools-1.29957224">told Newsday</a> that sometimes serious health concerns can outweigh certain Constitutional rights.
&#8220;There has never been a state [mandatory vaccination] law struck down because of the freedom of religion aspect of the First Amendment,&#8221; a law professor told Newsday. &#8220;A century of jurisprudence continues to support mandatory vaccines in a variety of contexts.&#8221;

Cases Of Measles In The U.S. Climbs To Highest Level In 25 Years

A New York City judge has dismissed a complaint from parents who objected to the city&#8217;s emergency vaccine order meant to immediately curb a dangerous measles epidemic threatening the city&#8217;s vulnerable.
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/measles-nyc.pdf">issued the order in early April</a>, commanding that unvaccinated children living in several zip codes in the Brooklyn are be immediately vaccinated, in response to a sudden and alarming rise in the number of measles cases reported in the hipster-occupied borough of Manhattan.
NBC News reports that, as of Sunday, Brooklyn doctors have counted an astounding 626 cases of measles, more than the number of cases reported in the entire year 2014, when the city suffered a measles outbreak. Brooklyn officials blame the current outbreak on a rash of voluntarily unvaccinated children, kids of upper-class white residents of Brooklyn, and of a handful of Orthodox Jewish enclaves in the area.
City officials said the order, which explicitly mandates that all individuals who can receive the vaccine receive it immediately, was absolutely necessary to controlling the outbreak and rebuilding &#8220;herd immunity&#8221; in Brooklyn neighborhoods.
<blockquote>
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that any person who lives, works or resides within the 11205, 11206, 11221 and/or 11249 zip codes and who has not received the MMR vaccine within forty eight (48) hours of this Order being signed by me shall be vaccinated against measles unless such person can demonstrate immunity to the disease or document to the satisfaction of the Department that he or she should be medically exempt from this requirement.
</blockquote>
City officials in Rockland, New York, one of the areas hardest hit, have also issued a 30-day ban on unvaccinated children going out into public.
Parents of voluntarily unvaccinated children immediately sued the state, claiming that the mandatory vaccination order was not the &#8220;least restrictive means&#8221; of controlling the outbreak, <a href="https://www.jurist.org/news/2019/04/new-york-judge-dismisses-parents-lawsuit-against-measles-vaccine-order/">according to Jurist.org</a>, but a Brooklyn judge issued a <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/brooklyn-measles.pdf">ruling late last Thursday</a> confirming that Constitutional rights are not violated by orders mandating vaccines in emergency situations.
The judge also took the parents to task for claiming that the MMR vaccine is somehow ineffective, that receiving the vaccine puts a child at greater risk than contracting the measles, and that the MMR vaccine itself is responsible for the outbreak, noting that none of these assertions is supported by any scientific study or piece of medical literature. Instead, the judge noted that the current measles outbreak represents the &#8220;most significant spike in incidences of measles in the United States in many years and that the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn is at its epicenter,&#8221; and that, uncontrolled, the disease will begin to spread to &#8220;remote locations.&#8221;
Quick, decisive action on the part of the state to prevent unnecessary deaths, in this case, is warranted.
&#8220;A fireman need not obtain the informed consent of the owner before extinguishing a house fire. Vaccination is known to extinguish the fire of contagion,&#8221; the judge wrote.
<a href="https://www.newsday.com/news/region-state/cuomo-measles-vaccination-schools-1.29957224">Newsday confirms that Constitutional experts agree</a>: temporary, exigent public health concerns generally outweigh some Constitutional rights, at least where the need is immediate and the order is temporary and explicitly date restricted.
&#8220;There has never been a state [mandatory vaccination] law struck down because of the freedom of religion aspect of the First Amendment,&#8221; one law professor told the outlet. &#8220;A century of jurisprudence continues to support mandatory vaccines in a variety of contexts.&#8221;
Decisions on the issue, she says, date back more than 100 years.
The Constitutionality of another measure &#8212; a bill in the New York leigslature that eliminates conscience and other non-medical exemptions to vaccination requirements &#8212; may not be as clear cut. Three states &#8212; California, West Virginia, and Mississippi have eliminated all non-medical vaccination exemptions &#8212; but those laws have yet to be challenged in any meaningful way.

New York Courts: Mandatory Measles Vaccination Is Not A Violation Of The Constitution

Religion

A Catholic teenager who has never received a vaccination for the chicken pox out of moral objection to its apparent ties to abortion is not allowed to go back to school, a judge <a href="https://lawandcrime.com/lawsuit/judge-denies-unvaccinated-teens-demand-to-return-to-school/">ruled</a> Tuesday.
&#8220;It&#8217;s my understanding that the vaccine is derived from aborted fetal cells,&#8221; said plaintiff Jerome Kunkel, <a href="https://lawandcrime.com/lawsuit/judge-denies-unvaccinated-teens-demand-to-return-to-school/">according</a> to WLWT. &#8220;And it is against my religion. Abortion is against my religion.&#8221;
Christopher Wiest, Jerome&#8217;s lawyer, said his client was &#8220;devastated&#8221; by Tuesday&#8217;s ruling, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/04/02/judge-ruling-due-kentucky-youths-suit-against-chickenpox-vaccine-boone-county-catholic-abortion/3348359002/">according</a> to USA Today.
The teenager was banned from attending classes and extracurricular functions, such as athletic events, after a chicken pox outbreak occurred at his high school Assumption Academy in Walton, Kentucky.
The Kunkel family did not vaccinate Jerome due to moral objections after finding out about a link between aborted fetal matter and the chicken pox vaccine. As <a href="https://khn.org/morning-breakout/catholic-church-has-given-green-light-to-using-vaccines-derived-from-aborted-fetal-cells-but-one-family-is-still-suing-over-beliefs/">noted</a> by KHN Morning Briefing, &#8220;The Varicella vaccine, specifically, is derived from the cell lines of two fetuses that were electively aborted in the 1960s.&#8221;
The Northern Kentucky Health Department intervened on March 14 to ban unvaccinated students, such as Jerome, from such school functions.
&#8220;Chickenpox is raging through Assumption Academy in the Boone County city of Walton. Since early February, more than 30 students, or 13 percent of the student body, have developed the highly contagious illness,&#8221; <a href="https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2019/03/19/chickenpox-vaccine-and-abortion-link-1960-s-brings-lawsuit-religious-objection-catholic/3213271002/">reported</a> the Cincinnati Enquirer in mid-March. &#8220;Officials with Northern Kentucky Health Department ordered school events canceled until the outbreak is brought under control.&#8221;
Though Jerome was still handing in his school assignments, he was losing out on the full learning experience by being barred from the classroom, he said. And as the varsity basketball team&#8217;s starting center, he missed a season-ending playoff loss by one point, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/03/19/god-country-chickenpox-how-an-outbreak-entangled-one-school-vaccine-showdown/?utm_term=.2ea4f1c92d33">according</a> to The Washington Post.
The family filed suit, arguing their son&#8217;s First Amendment rights were infringed, and, as noted by the Post, the suit alleges that the health department &#8220;violated due process when officials enacted the extracurricular and school attendance bans without declaring an official emergency.&#8221;
Wiest noted that the department&#8217;s rationale for banning unvaccinated students was ineffective. &#8220;The chickenpox order makes no sense,&#8221; he argued. &#8220;They all go to daily and weekly mass. The parish receives communion on the tongue. Communion-age kids are going to spread chickenpox. That testimony was unequivocal.&#8221;
&#8220;This is tyranny against our religion, our faith, our country,&#8221; Bill Kunkel, Jerome&#8217;s father, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/03/19/god-country-chickenpox-how-an-outbreak-entangled-one-school-vaccine-showdown/?utm_term=.2ea4f1c92d33">told</a> the outlet.
<a href="https://lawandcrime.com/lawsuit/judge-denies-unvaccinated-teens-demand-to-return-to-school/">According</a> to Law &amp; Crime, parents in the state are permitted to opt out of such vaccines for religious reasons, but with the disclaimer that their child &#8220;may be subject to exclusion from school, group facilities or other programs, if the local and/or state public health authority advises exclusion as a disease control measure.&#8221;
Fifteen years ago, the Catholic Church permitted Catholics to use the vaccine if there&#8217;s a threat to public health. &#8220;That doesn&#8217;t mean nothing to me. I follow the laws of the Church, and I know what&#8217;s right and wrong,&#8221; the boy&#8217;s father said of the Church&#8217;s stance, before adding that abortion is a &#8220;moral absolute,&#8221; according to the Post.

Judge Issues Ruling In Case Of Catholic Teen Who Refused Vaccination Over Abortion Concerns

Education

Kentucky

A Midwest mother of three young boys faced the ultimate nightmare: A child&#8217;s death.
Her 4-year-old son contracted the flu and died. She cared for her two younger sons to make sure they remained safe and healthy. On Facebook, she hoped to find support during her tragedy, but instead found comments from anti-vaxxers telling her she caused her child&#8217;s death or that he deserved to die or that she was lying about even having a son.
CNN spoke to this mom and others <a href="https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/03/19/health/anti-vax-harassment-eprise/index.html">who have experienced similar treatment</a> by online anti-vaxxers. The media outlet reports that members of anti-vax groups &#8220;encourage each other&#8221; to go to the Facebook pages of parents who have just lost children and accuse them of making up a non-existent child, blaming the parent for the child&#8217;s death, claiming vaccines were to blame, &#8220;or some combination of all of those.&#8221;
&#8220;Nothing is considered too cruel. Just days after their children died, mothers say anti-vaxers on social media called them whores, the c-word and baby killers,&#8221; CNN reported.
The outlet also reached out to Larry Cook, who founded the group Stop Mandatory Vaccination. He said harassment of parents happens but is rare.
&#8220;Any discussions about parents who lose their children after those children are vaccinated would be minor in number, and even smaller would be the number of members reaching out to parents in private message to share their concerns that vaccines may have played a role in a death,&#8221; Cook told the outlet in an email.
He added that he does &#8220;not condone violent behavior or tone and encourage decorum during discussion,&#8221; but said that those who advocate for vaccines &#8220;can expect push back and resistance.&#8221;
He also said his own members have been targeted for harassment and threats on social media.
Another anti-vaxxer, Del Bigtree of the Informed Consent Action Network said he tells his members to &#8220;look at the person you&#8217;re talking to and those on the other side of this discussion and recognize that they care about children, too.&#8221;
Studies repeatedly show that vaccines don&#8217;t cause autism, despite anti-vaxxers claiming otherwise. The World Health Organization has labeled &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/42393/world-health-organization-anti-vaxxers-threat-paul-bois">vaccine hesitancy</a>&#8221; as a <a href="https://www.who.int/emergencies/ten-threats-to-global-health-in-2019">global threat</a>:
<blockquote>
Vaccine hesitancy &#8211; the reluctance or refusal to vaccinate despite the availability of vaccines &#8211; threatens to reverse progress made in tackling vaccine-preventable diseases. Vaccination is one of the most cost-effective ways of avoiding disease &#8211; it currently prevents 2-3 million deaths a year, and a further 1.5 million could be avoided if global coverage of vaccinations improved.
Measles, for example, has seen a 30% increase in cases globally. The reasons for this rise are complex, and not all of these cases are due to vaccine hesitancy. However, some countries that were close to eliminating the disease have seen a resurgence.
</blockquote>
Washington State is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43272/theres-measles-outbreak-washington-state-these-ashe-schow">currently experiencing a measles epidemic</a> due to a lack of vaccinations. More than 50 cases were being treated in early February, as anti-vaxxers protested state lawmakers who were trying to remove parents&#8217; ability to decline vaccination over philosophical concerns.
New York is also experiencing a measles outbreak, as are California, Illinois, and Texas, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/measles/cases-outbreaks.html">according to the Center for Disease Control</a>.

Anti-Vaxxers Are Harassing Parents Who Just Lost Their Children: Report

According to a newly released <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/68/wr/mm6809a3.htm?s_cid=mm6809a3_w">report</a> from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2017, a six-year-old Oregon boy was hospitalized for 57 days following a diagnosis of tetanus.
The boy, who allegedly never received a tetanus vaccination, reportedly cut his head &#8220;while playing outdoors on a farm.&#8221; He was not taken to any medical facility, and his would was cleaned and sewn up at home.
Less than a week later (approximately 6 days), the boy began exhibiting symptoms of tetanus, including &#8220;jaw clenching, and involuntary upper extremity muscle spasms, followed by arching of the neck and back,&#8221; according to the report.
When he began to have trouble breathing, the boy was taken to a hospital, where he received care.
His wound was cleaned, damaged tissue was removed, and he was given a DTaP vaccine (diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis), as well as &#8220;tetanus immune globulin.&#8221; The boy reportedly suffered high blood pressure and his temperature reached 104.9 degrees. Five days into the boy&#8217;s hospital stay, doctors resorted to using a tracheostomy.
The report continues:
<blockquote>
Starting on hospital day 35, the patient tolerated a 5-day wean from neuromuscular blockade. On day 44, his ventilator support was discontinued, and he tolerated sips of clear liquids. On day 47, he was transferred to the intermediate care unit. Three days later, he walked 20 feet with assistance. On day 54, his tracheostomy was removed, and 3 days later, he was transferred to a rehabilitation center for 17 days.
</blockquote>
In total, the &#8220;inpatient charges&#8221; alone cost more than $800,000. Following the boy&#8217;s recovery, the family allegedly refused further DTaP.
The report notes that &#8220;this is the first pediatric tetanus case in [over 30] years in Oregon.&#8221;
According to the <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/tetanus/symptoms-causes/syc-20351625">Mayo Clinic</a>, &#8220;tetanus is caused by a toxin made by spores of bacteria, Clostridium tetani, found in soil, dust and animal feces. When the spores enter a deep flesh wound, they grow into bacteria that can produce a powerful toxin, tetanospasmin.&#8221;
While a tetanus vaccine was in development as early as the 1920s, it wasn&#8217;t given to children regularly until the late-1940s. From the late-1940s to today, tetanus cases have <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/tetanus.html#toxoid">dropped</a> from between 500 and 600 annually to an approximate annual rate of 29, reports the CDC.
Of the 197 reported cases of tetanus in the years 2009 &#8211; 2015, 16 people <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/surv-manual/chpt16-tetanus.html#f2">died</a>. That&#8217;s an 8.1% mortality rate.
According to the CDC, 2016 <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/imz-managers/coverage/adultvaxview/pubs-resources/NHIS-2016.html#tetanus">data</a> show that 62.2% of adults were up-to-date on their tetanus vaccination. A great majority of young children and babies are sufficiently vaccinated.
The modern anti-vaccination movement appears to have been sparked by a 1998 <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3136032/">paper</a> by Andrew Wakefield and a dozen colleagues which claimed that the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine might be linked to autism in children. The findings were later and repeatedly debunked, but the myth has persisted.
As it turns out, Wakefield &#8220;had been funded by lawyers who had been engaged by parents in lawsuits against vaccine-producing companies,&#8221; according to a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3136032/">paper</a> published in the Indian Journal of Psychiatry in 2011. Additionally, the paper reports that Wakefield and others &#8220;were guilty of deliberate fraud (they picked and chose data that suited their case; they falsified facts).&#8221;

Unvaccinated Boy Spends 57 Days In The Hospital After Reported Tetanus Infection

Watch out. Capitol Hill and Silicon Valley have locked their sights on the next targets of a frightening free speech-squelching purge: independent citizens who dare to raise questions online about the safety and efficacy of vaccines.
I&#8217;m vaccinated. My children are up to date. There&#8217;s no dispute that vaccines have saved untold lives. But over the years, I&#8217;ve voiced my concerns about vaccine claims and government coercion in my newspaper columns and blog posts. These concerns include my objections to Gardasil mandates for schoolchildren in Texas and California; schools&#8217; threatening parents with jail time for refusing chickenpox shots for their kids; ineffectiveness of the flu vaccine; contamination issues at vaccine plants abroad; lack of data on vaccines&#8217; long-term and synergistic effects on children; and pharma-funded politicians&#8217; financial conflicts of interest.
In 2004, I recounted my family&#8217;s firsthand experience with bully doctors who balked at even the mildest questioning of the wisdom of the newborn hepatitis B immunization. When my husband and I asked if we could simply delay this particular shot, as the vaccine is for a virus that is contracted mostly through intravenous drug use and sexual contact, my son&#8217;s pediatrician angrily kicked us out of her practice.
Does this informed skepticism make me and other like-minded parents public health menaces, as the World Health Organization has proclaimed? Are we &#8220;sociopaths,&#8221; as a journalist at The Atlantic once sneered? Apparently so.
At a Senate hearing on Tuesday, Washington state&#8217;s public health secretary, John Wiesman, demanded that the feds launch a national campaign to counter &#8220;anti-vaccine&#8221; groups that are spreading what he condemned as &#8220;false information.&#8221; Weisman called for increased funding from the Centers for Disease Control to combat opponents of the state&#8217;s push to prevent parents from opting their children out of immunizations for personal or philosophical reasons. Health officials have blamed vaccine critics&#8217; social media influence for recent measles outbreaks. So Wiesman further urged Twitter, Facebook and Google to &#8220;use whatever mechanism they have available to stop promoting pseudoscience.&#8221;
Let&#8217;s be clear: Misinformation of all kinds abounds on the internet. The world&#8217;s most influential &#8220;mainstream&#8221; media websites and celebrity social media accounts, for example, recklessly fanned the flames of the recent Covington Catholic High School and Jussie Smollett hate crime hoaxes. No one in Washington has called for the boycott of The Washington Post or TMZ over their false and misleading stories. But for some reason (hint: pharmaceutical big business), politicians and government bureaucrats are now hell-bent on deplatforming any and all dissenters who challenge mandatory vaccine regimens.
Under pressure from Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Amazon pulled the documentaries &#8220;Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe,&#8221; &#8220;Man Made Epidemic&#8221; and &#8220;Shoot &#8217;em Up: The Truth About Vaccines&#8221; from its Prime Video streaming service. Last week, Google-owned YouTube moved to demonetize &#8220;anti-vaccine&#8221; channels, tweak algorithms to suppress vaccine &#8220;conspiracy&#8221; videos and combat &#8220;vaccine hesitancy.&#8221; Pinterest blocks users from using the search terms &#8220;vaccine,&#8221; &#8220;vaccinations&#8221; and &#8220;anti-vax,&#8221; no matter the quality of the results. Facebook plans to downgrade vaccine skeptics&#8217; content on newsfeeds, recommended user groups and ads.
Is there junk science on the &#8220;anti-vaccine&#8221; side? Sure. But you can&#8217;t address this issue without also addressing the problem with physicians and public health flacks who are unwilling to discuss the full risks of vaccines as well as their benefits; pro-vaccination groups that provide incorrect information about vaccines&#8217; duration of protection; physicians who refuse to care for children who are not &#8220;fully&#8221; vaccinated; and the comparative risk-benefit ratios of different vaccines.
As for efficacy, consider this new data: A recent whooping cough outbreak at the private Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles last week resulted in 30 students contracting the illness, all of whom were vaccinated. Of 18 unvaccinated students, none caught the disease. Will pointing this out on my Facebook and Twitter accounts bring down the Silicon Valley ban hammer?
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who happens to be a physician and parent himself, was the lone voice of dissent at the Senate hearing this week. While acknowledging that the benefits of vaccines generally outweigh their risks, he noted the plain truth that &#8220;it is wrong to say there are no risks to vaccines.&#8221; He added that over $4 billion has been paid by the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program for adults and children who have been injured or died as a result of receiving federally recommended childhood vaccines.
Is it unacceptable fearmongering to raise that point? How about to share information on vaccine manufacturers&#8217; astonishing exemption from product liability? Or to point parents to new research findings on brain injuries caused by vaccines, which can be found at VaccinePapers.org? Or to link them to a recent statement by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, which &#8220;strongly opposes federal interference in medical decisions, including mandated vaccines.&#8221;
When it comes to protecting our children, skepticism is always the best medicine. We need more free speech, not less. Those who seek to suppress debate and discussion in the name of the &#8220;public good&#8221; are the true health threats.
Michelle Malkin&#8217;s email address is writemalkin@gmail.com. To find out more about Michelle Malkin and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

MALKIN: Vaccine Skeptics Under Siege

A major new study out of Denmark demonstrates, yet again, that the measles, mumps, and rubella (or, MMR) vaccine, is not associated with an increased risk of developing autism, even &#8220;among kids who are at high risk because they have a sibling with the disorder.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/another-study-finds-no-link-between-autism-measles-mumps-rubella-n979176?fbclid=IwAR3RTSHXQgMybU1PpcYSsqns7oXJ61IIw5_EPeDcOswFn373tH6lha68fW0">NBC News reports</a> that the study followed an incredible 657,461 children born between 1999 and 2010, 95% of whom received the MMR vaccine through August of 2013. The researchers documented a host of characteristics alongside diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder, including proven autism risk factors like the &#8220;age of the parents, diagnosis of autism in a sibling, preterm birth and low weight at birth,&#8221; <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/04/health/mmr-vaccine-autism-study/index.html">according to CNN</a>.
Of the children studied, 6,517 kids developed some form of autism, but, the study found, &#8220;the MMR vaccine did not increase the risk of autism in children who were not considered at risk for the disorder and did not trigger it in those who were.&#8221;
In fact, the research did uncover some interesting &#8212; but yet unstudied &#8212; conclusions and correlations pertaining to autism diagnoses. Children with autistic siblings were seven times more likely to receive their own autism diagnosis, boys were more likely to be diagnosed than girls, and &#8212; perhaps most shocking of all &#8212; &#8220;children who had no childhood vaccinations were 17 percent more likely to be diagnosed with autism than kids who did get recommended vaccinations.&#8221;
Correlation, of course, is not causation.
&#8220;Parents should not skip the vaccine out of fear for autism,&#8221; the study&#8217;s lead author told media. &#8220;The dangers of not vaccinating includes a resurgence in measles which we are seeing signs of today in the form of outbreaks.&#8221;
Measels is a &#8220;highly contagious&#8221; disease that can prove to be fatal, and people who contract the measels can be contagious for several days before and after they show symptoms, making the disease easy to spread to others, particularly in places where people share close quarters, like airports and theme parks.
The <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/measles/cases-outbreaks.html">Centers for Disease Control</a> and the World Health Organization have noticed a significant uptick in measels cases in the last several years. There have, for example, been 206 reported cases of measles in the United States in the three short months of 2019. That&#8217;s up from 372 reported cases in all of 2018. Worldwide, incidents of measels increased 48.4% between 2017 and 2018, according to the WHO.
The uptick is so disturbing that the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/20/health/who-10-threats-to-global-health/index.html">WHO made &#8220;vaccine heistancy</a>&#8221; &#8212; which they believe is directly responsible for the increase &#8212; one of the world&#8217;s top ten threats to global health in 2019.
The myth that vaccines cause autism has its gensis in a fraudulent study submitted to The Lancet in 1998. According to CNN, &#8220;Wakefield had been compensated by a law firm intending to sue manufacturers of the MMR vaccine, and in 2010, he lost his medical license. In 2011, The Lancet retracted the study after an investigation found that Wakefield altered or misrepresented information on the 12 children who were the basis for the conclusion of his study.&#8221;
The myth has only propagated thanks to social media misinformation campaigns.
Since the Lancet study was first published in 1998, doctors and researchers have conducted at least 17 studies &#8220;involving hundreds of thousands of children,&#8221; each proving that there is no link between autism and the MMR vaccine.

Yet ANOTHER Massive Study Shows There Is No Link Between The MMR Vaccine And Autism

On Wednesday, the wife of White House Communications Director Bill Shine sent out a tweet in which she decried CNN for mentioning a measles outbreak:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Here we go LOL <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/measlesoutbreak?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#measlesoutbreak</a> on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CNN?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CNN</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Fake?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Fake</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Hysteria?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Hysteria</a>
The entire Baby Boom population alive today had the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Measles?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Measles</a> as kids 
Bring back our <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ChildhoodDiseases?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ChildhoodDiseases</a> they keep you healthy &amp; fight cancer
&#8212; Darla Shine (@DarlaShine) <a href="https://twitter.com/DarlaShine/status/1095679791154581506?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 13, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<blockquote>
Here we go LOL #measlesoutbreak on #CNN #Fake #Hysteria. The entire Baby Boom population alive today had the #Measles as kids. Bring back our #ChildhoodDiseases they keep you healthy &amp; fight cancer.
</blockquote>
While Darla Shine&#8217;s tweet has 462 &#8220;likes&#8221; and 154 retweets as of publication, there are more than 5,400 comments below, many of which are negative:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
My friend&#8217;s daughter is deaf because of LOL measles. LOL childhood diseases contracted during pregnancy cause serious birth defects. Does this LOL at preventable misery reflect the WH press office position <a href="https://twitter.com/PressSec?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PressSec</a>?
&#8212; Michele Manion (@Mickee7) <a href="https://twitter.com/Mickee7/status/1095700388790054912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 13, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<blockquote>
My friend&#8217;s daughter is deaf because of LOL measles. LOL childhood diseases contracted during pregnancy cause serious birth defects. Does this LOL at preventable misery reflect the WH press office position @PressSec?
</blockquote>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I agree Darla!!! When my children were babies I gave them <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/scarletfever?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#scarletfever</a> just to make them stronger! The one that survived is now in Human Resources!!!!
&#8212; Emlyn Crenshaw (@emlyncrenshaw) <a href="https://twitter.com/emlyncrenshaw/status/1095732082603483136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 13, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote>
I agree Darla!!! When my children were babies I gave them #scarletfever just to make them stronger! The one that survived is now in Human Resources!!!!
</blockquote>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Keywords &#8220;alive today&#8221;. Because the ones not alive today died from measles when they were 6.
&#8212; Go Go Gogol (@JenDifatta) <a href="https://twitter.com/JenDifatta/status/1095737398829432833?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 13, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<blockquote>
Keywords &#8220;alive today.&#8221; Because the ones not alive today died from measles when they were 6.
</blockquote>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Here&#8217;s some helpful <a href="https://twitter.com/CDCgov?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CDCgov</a> information <a href="https://t.co/c0SzA7unyp">https://t.co/c0SzA7unyp</a>
&#8212; Sam Vinograd (@sam_vinograd) <a href="https://twitter.com/sam_vinograd/status/1095722136235360258?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 13, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<blockquote>
Here&#8217;s some helpful @CDCgov information.
</blockquote>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
In my day, we got polio and we LOVED IT
&#8212; Mark Gongloff (@markgongloff) <a href="https://twitter.com/markgongloff/status/1095720646686969861?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 13, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<blockquote>
In my day, we got polio and we LOVED IT.
</blockquote>
According to the <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/measles">World Health Organization</a> (WHO), prior to the development of the measles vaccine in 1963, approximately 2.6 million people died from the virus annually. In 2017 alone, roughly &#8220;110,000 people died from measles&#8221; around the world.
According to the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/measles/downloads/measlesdataandstatsslideset.pdf">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention</a> (CDC): &#8220;Modeling estimated that, among children born during 1994 &#8211; 2013, vaccination will prevent an estimated 322 million illnesses, 21 million hospitalizations, and 732,000 deaths over the course of their lifetimes, at a net savings of $295 billion in direct costs and $1.38 trillion in total societal costs.&#8221;
Another theory Shine has <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/11/politics/kfile-darla-shine-radio-show/index.html">promoted</a> is that the preservatives in vaccines might be linked to autism. However, all available evidence suggests that there is no link between the two.
While thimerosal, a preservative containing ethylmercury, used to be present in many vaccines, the Immunization Safety Review Committee <a href="http://nationalacademies.org/HMD/Reports/2004/Immunization-Safety-Review-Vaccines-and-Autism.aspx">noted</a> in 2004 that &#8220;the body of epidemiological evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between the MMR vaccine and autism,&#8221; and &#8220;that the body of epidemiological evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism.&#8221;
According to the <a href="https://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/SafetyAvailability/VaccineSafety/UCM096228">Food and Drug Administration</a> (FDA), ethylmercury shouldn&#8217;t be confused with methylmercury, which &#8220;is the type of mercury found in certain kinds of fish,&#8221; and can be toxic in high doses.
A 2015 <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2275444">study</a> published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which examined data from &#8220;95,727 children with older siblings,&#8221; found that &#8220;receipt of the MMR vaccine was not associated with increased risk of ASD [Autism Spectrum Disorder], regardless of whether older siblings had ASD.&#8221;
Perhaps more importantly, the FDA <a href="https://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/SafetyAvailability/VaccineSafety/UCM096228">notes</a> that &#8220;vaccines routinely recommended for children 6 years of age and younger in the U.S. are available in formulations that do not contain thimerosal.&#8221;
This isn&#8217;t the first time Darla Shine&#8217;s opinions have sparked controversy. CNN has <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/11/politics/kfile-darla-shine-radio-show/index.html">documented</a> multiple dubious quotes from Shine&#8217;s past.
In 2008, she condemned the use of sunscreen, saying: &#8220;I really do not believe in this whole sunscreen hoax.&#8221;
In 2009, she suggested that a flu &#8220;pandemic&#8221; could be a setup by a pharmaceutical company.
Also in 2009, she implied women in the military shouldn&#8217;t be surprised by sexual harassment, saying: &#8220;You know there was just a story with these girls, these women who are upset that they are sexually harassed in the military. What do you think is going to happen when you go on a submarine for 12 months with 4,000 horny soldiers? I hate to say it, but it&#8217;s true.&#8221;

Wife Of White House Comms Director Comes Out Against Vaccines: ‘Bring Back Our Childhood Diseases’

Trump Administration

One Ohio teenager whose mother never had him vaccinated decided to investigate the facts regarding vaccinations, then <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6690963/Teenager-18-finally-gets-vaccinations-attacks-anti-vaxxer-parents.html">defy her and get himself vaccinated</a> once he turned 18 in order to protect against six diseases, including mumps and hepatitis.
Ethan Lindenberger, 18, from Norwalk, Ohio, was reportedly never vaccinated before because his mother, Jill Wheeler, who owns a children&#8217;s theater company, believed the now-discredited claims that vaccines routinely cause autism and brain damage. Ethan had no idea that he was an outlier among his friends until he spoke to them and discovered that he was the only one who hadn&#8217;t been vaccinated. The vaccination he finally got guards against measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR), chickenpox and polio; polio can cause paralysis and in some cases lead to death.
After he discovered that most people get vaccines, Ethan researched the issue, later offering his mother evidence he hoped would change her mind, including a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He told NPR that his mother remained defiant, saying, &#8220;That&#8217;s what they want you to think.&#8221; He continued, &#8220;I was just blown away that you know, the largest health organization in the entire world would be written off with a kind of conspiracy theory-like statement like that,&#8221; adding that his mother &#8216;kind of fell into this echo chamber, and got more and more misinformation.&#8221;
Ethan said, &#8220;I&#8217;m a very obedient child. I don&#8217;t really try and go against my mom. Even though I&#8217;m 18, I don&#8217;t pull that card.&#8221; But his mother had an <a href="https://undark.org/article/vaccine-exemptions-children/">incendiary response</a> to Ethan getting vaccinated, saying it was &#8220;a slap in the face &#8230; It was like him spitting on me, saying &#8216;You don&#8217;t know anything, I don&#8217;t trust you with anything. You don&#8217;t know what you&#8217;re talking about. You did make a bad decision and I&#8217;m gonna go fix it.&#8217;&#8221;
Wheeler, who said that records showing Ethan getting two shots in 2002 are mistaken, that he only got a shot for tetanus after he cut himself, has some strange ideas of her own, asserting, &#8220;Polio, if you really research polio, it was almost completely eradicated, almost gone, there was almost no cases of polio when they introduced the oral vaccine. The oral vaccine started giving people polio. And it went from almost completely eradicated, to the numbers were shooting, sky-rocketing back up, from immunizations.&#8221;
Yet before the push for eradicating polio worldwide began in 1988, 350,000 children <a href="http://polioeradication.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/EconomicCase.pdf">were paralyzed</a> by polio each year, while <a href="http://polioeradication.org/polio-today/polio-now/">according to</a> the World Health Organization, in 2018, there were barely 100 cases of vaccine-derived polio in the entire world.
Ethan has discussed the importance of vaccinations with his siblings; his 16-year-old brother is sympathetic but his 14-year-old sister is siding with their mother. In Ohio, the age of consent to vaccinations is 18.
According to The Daily Mail, Wakefield published a study in 1995 in The Lancet that claimed children vaccinated against MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) were more likely to have autism. Then in 2004, the editor of The Lancet termed Wakefield&#8217;s research as &#8220;fundamentally flawed&#8221; and noted that Wakefield had been paid by attorneys who wanted to sue vaccine manufacturers. In 2010 The Lancet formally retracted Wakefield&#8217;s research paper; only months afterward, the General Medical Council banned Wakefield from practicing medicine in Britain. Further research showed none of the children in Wakefield&#8217;s study had autism within days of receiving the MMR vaccine.
Meanwhile, children across the United States are at increased risk of contracting diseases because of parents refusing to get their children vaccinated. At the end of January, Washington state <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2019/01/30/measles-outbreak-washington-anti-vaccine-what-know/2719315002/">declared a public emergency</a> after a measles outbreak that has <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2019/02/11/measles-spread-anti-vaccination-communities-new-york-clar-county-washington/2812667002/">infected at least 53 people</a>, primarily children. According to the Washington Department of Health, nearly one in four Clark County kindergarten students during the 2017-18 school year did not get all their immunizations; at three different elementary schools, over 40% of kindergarteners did not get vaccinated before they started kindergarten.
In 2015, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-measles-outbreak-20150128-story.html">at least 95 cases of measles</a> were reported nationwide by the end of January.
As <a href="https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/herd-immunity-and-measles-why-we-should-aim-100-vaccination-coverage/">IFL Science</a> explains regarding measles vaccinations, the concept of herd immunity, meaning getting enough people vaccinated in population so that no sustained chains of transmission can be established, requires that vaccination coverage needs to be higher than 95% of the population, IFL Science writes:
<blockquote>
Herd immunity against measles requires that 90-95% of the entire population are immune, whereas vaccination coverage is measured as the percentage vaccinated of the target population &#8211; which only includes people who are eligible for vaccination. This means that to achieve 95% immunity in the population for measles, vaccination coverage needs to be higher than 95%. This is the scientific argument for a public health policy that aims at 100% vaccination coverage.
</blockquote>
The <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/measles/vaccination.html">CDC notes</a>:
<blockquote>
Before the measles vaccination program started in 1963, an estimated 3 to 4 million people got measles each year in the United States. Of these, approximately 500,000 cases were reported each year to CDC; of these, 400 to 500 died, 48,000 were hospitalized, and 1,000 developed encephalitis (brain swelling) from measles. Since then, widespread use of measles vaccine has led to a greater than 99% reduction in measles cases compared with the pre-vaccine era.
</blockquote>

Ohio Teenager Defies Anti-Vaccination Mom, Gets Himself Vaccinated As He Turns 18

Hundreds of people gathered in Olympia, Washington to protest a bill that would require them to vaccinate their children against measles.
In other words, these people demanded their &#8220;right&#8221; to decide whether to protect their own children from a highly contagious disease. There is currently a measles outbreak in Washington State, with <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/measles-outbreak-2019-northwest-measles-outbreak-prompts-look-at-vaccine-exemptions-2019-02-01/">more than 50 cases</a> currently being treated, according to CBS news. State lawmakers proposed a bill that would remove the ability for parents to decide not to vaccinate their children due to philosophical concerns. CBS reports that 32 other states <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/washington-measles-outbreak-hundreds-rally-to-presesrve-not-to-vaccinate-children-2019-02-08/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&amp;linkId=63395701">already have such laws</a>.
But in Washington, hundreds actually rallied against the bill, believing the vaccine could cause more damage than the disease itself. Remember, there are anti-vaxxers out there who believe vaccines cause autism, despite massive amounts of research and data disproving such claims.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/measles/vaccination.html">calls the vaccine for measles</a> &#8212; known as the MMR vaccine because it protects against measles, mumps, and rubella &#8212; &#8220;about 97% effective at preventing measles; one dose is about 93% effective.&#8221;
&#8220;Measles is so contagious that an unvaccinated person has a 90 percent chance of catching the disease if they&#8217;re near someone who has it. The virus can survive for up to two hours in a room where an infected person sneezed,&#8221; CBS reported.
Before the vaccine for measles became available in 1963, according to the CDC, 3 million to 4 million Americans got the disease.
&#8220;Of these, approximately 500,000 cases were reported each year to CDC; of these, 400 to 500 died, 48,000 were hospitalized, and 1,000 developed encephalitis (brain swelling) from measles,&#8221; the CDC stated.
Monique Murray, a mother who doesn&#8217;t want to vaccinate her child, doesn&#8217;t think she&#8217;s doing any harm.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t feel I&#8217;m putting my child at risk. There&#8217;s nothing that&#8217;s going to change my mind on this on that specific vaccination,&#8221; Murray told CBS.
Washington is not the only state experiencing a measles outbreak. The New York State Department of Health currently <a href="https://www.health.ny.gov/publications/2170/">reports an outbreak</a> in parts of the state, &#8220;including the lower Hudson Valley and parts of New York City.&#8221;
Unvaccinated people traveling to other parts of the world are the most likely to bring the disease back to the U.S.
There is a chance of a severe allergic reaction to the vaccine, but the CDC insists this is extremely rare. There is also a small risk of febrile seizures, though this does not cause any long-term effects. Still, the CDC explains that getting the vaccine <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/vaccines/mmr-vaccine.html">is safer than getting any of the diseases it prevents</a>, despite what the protesters in Washington think.
The idea that vaccines cause autism comes from the fact that signs of autism start to show around the same time children get vaccinated. Parents wanting to blame someone assume the vaccine caused the autism, even though autism is not a side effect, but a condition all its own.
CBS reports Washington lawmakers hope to pass the law requiring the measles vaccine by April.

There’s A Measles Outbreak In Washington State. These People Just Protested A Bill That Would Require Them To Vaccinate.

Washington

The already vilified anti-vaxxer community received another round of vilification this week when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the movement a global threat, reports <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2019/01/17/not-vaccinating-children-global-health-threat-says-who/2601140002/">USA Today</a>.
In a report released on Tuesday, the WHO described &#8220;vaccine hesitancy&#8221; as &#8220;the reluctance or refusal to vaccinate despite the availability of vaccines.&#8221; The anti-vaxxer phenomenon is now <a data-track-label="inline|intext|n/a" href="https://www.who.int/emergencies/ten-threats-to-global-health-in-2019">among the organization&#8217;s top global threats for the year</a>.
<blockquote>
Vaccine hesitancy &#8211; the reluctance or refusal to vaccinate despite the availability of vaccines &#8211; threatens to reverse progress made in tackling vaccine-preventable diseases. <a href="https://www.who.int/features/factfiles/immunization/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Vaccination</a> is one of the most cost-effective ways of avoiding disease &#8211; it currently prevents 2-3 million deaths a year, and a further 1.5 million could be avoided if global coverage of vaccinations improved.
Measles, for example, has seen a 30% increase in cases globally. The reasons for this rise are complex, and not all of these cases are due to vaccine hesitancy. However, some countries that were close to eliminating the disease have seen a resurgence.
</blockquote>
The report goes on to say that anti-vaxxers reject vaccinations for a variety of complex reasons, including complacency, inconvenience in accessing vaccines, and lack of confidence.
&#8220;Health workers, especially those in communities, remain the most trusted advisor and influencer of vaccination decisions, and they must be supported to provide trusted, credible information on vaccines,&#8221; reads the report.
The WHO concludes its report by declaring it will seek to &#8220;eliminate <a href="https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/human-papillomavirus-(hpv)-and-cervical-cancer" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cervical cancer </a>worldwide by increasing coverage of the HPV vaccine&#8221; along with stopping the &#8220;transmission of wild poliovirus&#8221; in <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/pakistan-and-afghanistan-the-final-wild-poliovirus-bastion?sf-lc-status=Temp&amp;sf-content-action=preview&amp;sf-auth=066ZAgbI%2bzXpJ1EdYUAoVBxkkuWWsoSAby4FKkaf0ayPV31z2DDIp5j%2b4qBivyNdynpNwkQg%2bxXX5O47EX7OI58Eyc3rIh5%2fiv99BacHVaq5fMfoVqqK%2bDSR%2fri5mOq1mGDUAUXpGd3ZCDxJb%2bdoJWTvRgu%2bzHhWABcfmB1vWKwtoTyqTXKAnkIoiTAVCN%2fb4vjWQal0736xLSvY%2fQn78zK7roQwAJ6h%2ftZaIMMAy8LYynOz%2f4kzjFBudP3MDu%2bGC6quGLQfxTYt8RmXCFp1HHk83HN8iuNv0UZ31ksW1tCLmJbsZs4lqcfXsNaeqW3kVDVboG5dLll%2fkml0FMCaoCA5s7TaB8h6DOmBHrFLaTlS2kBH6gYITVEetWn9mf1JjRWRNjqX5bs%2f0WR2Ix4PiO07UfE12Bxm6u2kCqnPB%2bhiQ4MVnuKXOnDQQZmoy3F5ihdyJ0%2fXHyNMAQAA" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Afghanistan and Pakistan</a>.
&#8220;Last year, less than 30 cases were reported in both countries,&#8221; the report concludes. &#8220;WHO and partners are committed to supporting these countries to vaccinate every last child to eradicate this crippling disease for good.&#8221;
USA Today reports that the number of unvaccinated young children in the U.S. has steadily increased since 2001, with multiple parents claiming that vaccines are linked to autism. The CDC, however, <a data-track-label="inline|intext|n/a" href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/concerns/autism.html">claims</a> that vaccines have no link to autism whatsoever. Amanda Cohn, a senior adviser for vaccines for the CDC&#8217;s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said last year that children without health insurance make up the bulk of unvaccinated youth.
&#8220;While we know parental choice clearly plays a role, we also see in this report that access does seem to be an issue,&#8221; Cohn said in a statement.
Aside from anti-vaxxers, the World Health Organization also declared Air Pollution and Climate Change a threat to global health in 2019.
&#8220;This year, the <a href="http://www.un.org/en/climatechange/un-climate-summit-2019.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">United Nations Climate Summit</a> in September will aim to strengthen climate action and ambition worldwide,&#8221; reads the report. &#8220;Even if all the commitments made by countries for the Paris Agreement are achieved, the world is still on a course to warm by more than 3°C this century.&#8221;
Noncommunicable diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, were also deemed a threat to global health the WHO.
&#8220;The rise of these diseases has been driven by five major risk factors: tobacco use, physical inactivity, the harmful use of alcohol, unhealthy diets and air pollution,&#8221; the report says. &#8220;These risk factors also exacerbate mental health issues, that may originate from an early age.&#8221;

World Health Organization: Anti-Vaxxers A Threat To Global Health

World Health Organization

According to recent data, the anti-vaccination movement has gained such steam in the wealthy west side of Los Angeles that vaccination rates are lower than some of the poorest areas on earth, such as Chad or South Sudan in Africa.
That&#8217;s a frightening prospect, since the only way a community is safe from the diseases vaccines guard against is if 92% or more of the population has been immunized.
As <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/los-angeles-vaccination-rates/">The Hollywood Reporter</a> reported, in wealthy areas such as Santa Monica and Beverly Hills, while the vaccinations have plunged, the number of cases of whooping cough has soared. THR noted:
<blockquote>
Nearly 8,000 pertussis cases have been reported in 2014 to the state&#8217;s Department of Public Health as of Sept. 2, and 267 of those patients have been hospitalized, including 58 requiring intensive care &#8230; The region stretching from Malibu south to Marina del Rey and inland as far as La Cienega Boulevard (and including Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, West Hollywood and Beverly Hills) averaged a 9.1 percent PBE level among preschoolers for the 2013-14 school year &#8212; a 26 percent jump from two years earlier.&#8221;
</blockquote>
Parents against vaccines have the option of filing a &#8220;personal belief exemption,&#8221; which argues against vaccination because of &#8220;a diffuse constellation of unproven anxieties, from allergies and asthma to eczema and seizures,&#8221; as THR notes. <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/09/wealthy-la-schools-vaccination-rates-are-as-low-as-south-sudans/380252/">The Atlantic</a> notes, &#8220;In some schools, up to 60 to 70 percent of parents have filed these PBEs, indicating a vaccination rate <a href="http://www.irinnews.org/fr/report/98578/immunization-challenges-in-south-sudan-despite-polio-success">as low as that of Chad or South Sudan</a> &#8230; Measles cases <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-school-vaccines-20140903-story.html#page=2">have also</a> hit a high in California this year.&#8221;
The <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-school-vaccines-20140903-story.html#page=1">Los Angeles Times</a> reported in 2014 that the percentage of kindergartens where at least 8% of students had not been vaccinated because of their parents&#8217; objections had more than doubled since 2007.
Infectious disease specialist Dr. Jeffrey Bender of Children&#8217;s Hospital Los Angeles commented on the whooping cough epidemic: &#8220;A number of them have been in the ICU and very, very sick. They cough so hard, it turns into vomiting and broken ribs; they end up intubated, to ventilate their lungs.&#8221;
THR writes, &#8220;Although whooping cough was once a national scourge, killing more than 1,100 in 1950, decades of immunizations &#8212; the DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis) vaccine and its forerunners &#8212; almost eliminated the disease.&#8221;
Actress Amanda Peet, who has two daughters and is expecting her third child, stated:
<blockquote>
I know a lot of parents who stagger their kids&#8217; vaccines. Their position is, &#8220;Hey, why are you so gung ho on tanking your kids with all those vaccines?&#8221; They act almost concerned for me, and I want to say, &#8220;Wait a minute, your children are actually benefiting from the barrier I&#8217;m putting in place for them, and now you&#8217;re questioning my soundness of mind for doing that?&#8221;
</blockquote>
She added, &#8220;Parents don&#8217;t want to talk about the fact that when they don&#8217;t vaccinate, their school-age kids can easily expose newborns and people who are immune-compromised to disease. If fewer vaccinate, there will be a tipping point and we&#8217;ll start to see infant mortality rates go up &#8212; they already have. Is that what it&#8217;s going to take?&#8221;
Dr. Paul Offit, chief of infectious diseases at Children&#8217;s Hospital of Philadelphia and the author of Autism&#8217;s False Prophets, stated, &#8220;When a child does die of a vaccine-preventable disease, the parent always says the same thing: &#8216;I can&#8217;t believe it happened to me.&#8217;&#8221;
For a look at all the reasons non-vaccinating is wrong, see <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/12303/trump-embraces-rfk-jrs-anti-vaccination-garbage-ben-shapiro">here</a>.

DANGEROUS: Rich Areas In Los Angeles Have Lower Vaccination Rates Than The Poorest Places On Earth

A new study reveals that Russian trolls are trying to <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-6091909/Twitter-bots-Russian-trolls-fueling-vaccine-debate-study-reveals.html">increase anti-vaccination conversations online</a>.
The <a href="https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2018.304567">study from George Washington University</a> found anonymous spam bots and Russian trolls have been pushing hard against vaccination.
Dr. Peter Hotez, director of the Texas Children&#8217;s Hospital Center for Vaccine development, who has an autistic child, stated, &#8220;Social media has had a very important amplifying effect. Both Twitter and Facebook put on a lot of misinformation about these implausible scenarios in which vaccines cause autism.&#8221;
Dr. David Broniatowski, lead author of the new study, added, &#8220;If you look at social media you see a lot of anti-vaxxers, and that means that either the survey researchers aren&#8217;t doing their jobs very well, or the other possibility is that the discourse on social media is being amplified.&#8221; Broniatowski and his team examined tweets from July 2014 through September 2017, and discovered that bots, content polluters, and Russian trolls were tweeting about vaccination with far greater frequency than the average Twitter account-holder.
Broniatowski continued, &#8220;So there is a large number of accounts out there that are not representative of real people &#8230; Bots and trolls mean that a small number of people can operate a large number of accounts and make it look like fringe opinions are actually mainstream.&#8221;
Hotez and Broniatowski believe the primary goal of the Russian trolls is simply to manufacture discord. Broniatowski concluded, &#8220;We have solid research that when you expose people to the vaccine debate, even though they may not necessarily agree, it does promote uncertainty and less trust in healthcare providers.&#8221; He added that when people started hearing the false information, they &#8220;say they intend to get vaccinated, but they may delay, and once you have delays, it&#8217;s in that period that the population is still susceptible to disease, and that could lead to epidemics. And those epidemics don&#8217;t necessarily respect national boundaries.&#8221;

INSIDIOUS: Study Says Russian Bots Are Stirring Up Anti-Vaccination Online

Russia

A new cancer vaccine that activates T cells in tumors was found to be incredibly effective in mice, completely eliminating tumors in 97% of the mice tested, Stanford University School of Medicine researchers found.
When researchers injected tiny amounts of two immune-stimulating agents into physical tumors, all traces of cancer, &#8220;including distant, untreated metastases,&#8221; were totally eliminated in 87 of the 90 mice tested, <a href="https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2018/01/cancer-vaccine-eliminates-tumors-in-mice.html">notes</a> Stanford Medicine News Center.
&#8220;Our approach uses a one-time application of very small amounts of two agents to stimulate the immune cells only within the tumor itself. In the mice, we saw amazing, bodywide effects, including the elimination of tumors all over the animal,&#8221; said professor of oncology and senior author of the study Ronald Levy, MD.
&#8220;When we use these two agents together, we see the elimination of tumors all over the body,&#8221; Levy added. &#8220;This approach bypasses the need to identify tumor-specific immune targets and doesn&#8217;t require wholesale activation of the immune system or customization of a patient&#8217;s immune cells.&#8221;
Those involved with the study, which was <a href="http://stm.sciencemag.org/">published</a> in Science Translational Medicine on January 31, are hopeful the two agents could be used as a future cancer therapy, one with far less destructive side effects than something like chemotherapy.
One of the used agents is already approved for use in humans and the other agent has been tested &#8220;in several unrelated clinical trials,&#8221; explains Stanford Medicine.
Moreover, lymphoma patients are already being recruited for a clinical trial to test the two-agent vaccine. Per the news release:
<blockquote>
The current clinical trial is expected to recruit about 15 patients with low-grade lymphoma. If successful, Levy believes the treatment could be useful for many tumor types. He envisions a future in which clinicians inject the two agents into solid tumors in humans prior to surgical removal of the cancer as a way to prevent recurrence due to unidentified metastases or lingering cancer cells, or even to head off the development of future tumors that arise due to genetic mutations like BRCA1 and 2.
</blockquote>
&#8220;I don&#8217;t think there&#8217;s a limit to the type of tumor we could potentially treat, as long as it has been infiltrated by the immune system,&#8221; stated Levy.
Levy is highly respected in the field of cancer immunotherapy. &#8220;Research in his laboratory led to the development of rituximab, one of the first monoclonal antibodies approved for use as an anticancer treatment in humans,&#8221; says the news release. The lead author of the study is instructor of medicine <a href="https://profiles.stanford.edu/idit-sagiv-barfi">Idit Sagiv-Barfi, PhD</a>, a 2012 Kaye innovation award recipient.

STUDY: New Cancer Vaccine Totally Eliminates 97% Of Mice Tumors

Cancer

This week the Texas Department of State Health Services warned the public about multiple mumps outbreaks throughout the state. This year alone, authorities have documented 221 cases. The state of Texas hasn&#8217;t suffered from an outbreak this bad in 22 years.
&#8220;What we&#8217;ve seen &#8212; as in other parts of the country, (it&#8217;s) really just the same thing &#8212; a pretty big resurgence in mumps cases over the last six or eight months,&#8221; Chris Van Deusen, spokesman for the state&#8217;s health services department, <a href="http://wtvr.com/2017/04/16/texas-mumps-outbreak-biggest-in-22-years/">said</a>, adding:
<blockquote>
&#8220;We have largely seen outbreaks in North Texas, so the Dallas-Fort Worth area and some of the surrounding counties&#8230;
We&#8217;ve had quite a large one with, counting last year and this year, more than 150 cases in Johnson County, which is just south of Fort Worth. We&#8217;ve certainly seen cases in other areas of the state, but those have been where the largest outbreaks have been centered.&#8221;
</blockquote>
Last year, Texas experienced 192 cases of mumps.
Mumps is a highly contagious virus that spreads via saliva and mucus. Antibiotics are wholly ineffective against the virus.
Those infected with the virus begin experiencing headaches, muscle aches, lethargy, and fevers followed by swelling of the salivary glands. The swelling causes puffy cheeks and sore jaws. The symptoms usually last a couple of days.
There&#8217;s no cure for the virus so physicians recommend ample rest and OTC pain relievers to reduce symptoms.

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