The "A Call To The End Of Philosophical Reasons" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading a story about a local pediatrician who was telling about a 4-month-old infant whom she was caring for while working in New Hampshire.  The sick infant was brought to her with what they thought was a cold.  The parents were "highly educated", but had been told by a good friend that they should wait until she was older to get her immunized.  The infant developed whooping cough and a pneumococcal disease.  The poor child suffered a seizure and died.  And the saddest part of the story was that this all could have been prevented.  I realize that this took place in New Hampshire, but it could have been in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, since state records show that parents opting not to have their children vaccinated because of philosophical reasons has risen 15% from last year.  15% from last year ..... you read that right!  

Most of those not vaccinated are in private schools, including schools with high Amish attendance.  Pennsyl- vania is in the top five states with the most children un-vaccinated for measles, mumps, and rubella.  Many parents give the reason that the vaccinations they are getting can give them the disease, but scientific facts prove that false.  By law, all Pennsylvania students in kindergarten through 12th grade must have a state-mandated set of immunizations before they come to school.  But, if the parent has a philosophical reason why they don't want to have those immunizations, all they have to do is write a one-line reason and sign it and their child can sit in a desk next to any child.  Pennsylvania is one of 20 states that still allows the exemption, but there are two bills right now in the state legislature that would nix that.  Only problem is the bills have not made it out of committee.  Same thing happened in California, but they did change their law and make no exemptions for philosophical reasons.  The vaccination rates have increased with no negative results and incidents of preventable diseases has decreased.  Parents who fail to, or refuse to, have their children immunized are putting their children at great risk as well as putting children who can't be immunized because of medical reasons, and school employees with weak immune systems, at risk.  The one vaccination that there are no philosophical exemptions for at the time is the tuberculosis treatment, since that has public health implications.  If a parent cares to put their own child at risk for a preventable disease, I guess that is their choice, but then they should be required to home-school them.  A state bill in Pennsylvania must be passed to help protect my grandchildren as well as your children and grandchildren.  And, it needs to be done soon!  It was another extraordinary day in the life if an ordinary guy.