Legislature needs to slow down on mandating vaccines

Senate Bill 276 is an attack on doctors and their patients. Doctors will be forced to violate their Hippocratic oath, and patients will lose their rights to informed consent. While the proponents of the bill are sounding the alarms over medical exemptions, we must recognize the fact that some vulnerable children’s doctors and their families need to delay, spread out or forego certain vaccinations. Vaccination rates in California have actually gone up since Senate Bill 277 was passed, according to http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-california-vaccination-20170412-story.html.

Lawmakers must recognize that the federal government is not upholding its duty under the law to provide safety reports to Congress on mandated vaccines. They haven’t provided a single safety report in 30 years, despite the fact over $4.1 billion has been paid out to families whose children have been killed or injured by vaccines, according to http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccine-compensation/data/index.html.

We need to remind lawmakers to slow down and listen to doctors and Californians who recognize the potential consequences of passing an extreme proposal that will eliminate medically necessary exemptions.

Kirsten Hiatt