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The New York Times reports that Mississippi — which ranks as one of the worst states for smoking, obesity and physical inactivity — seldom is viewed as a leader on health issues. But it is one of two states that permit neither religious nor philosophical exemptions to its vaccination program. Only children with medical conditions that would be exacerbated by vaccines may enroll in Mississippi schools without completing the immunization schedule, which calls for five vaccines. With a vaccination rate of greater than 99.7%, Mississippi leads the national median by five percentage points and has the country’s highest immunization rate among kindergarten students.
However, in recent weeks, the nearly unbending nature of Mississippi’s law requiring students to be vaccinated has been in jeopardy, with two dozen lawmakers publicly supporting an exemption for “conscientious beliefs” turning Mississippi into one more battleground between medical experts who champion vaccinations and parents who fear the government’s role in medical decision-making. “We have been a victim of our success, and people don’t realize how bad these diseases are,” said Mississippi state epidemiologist, Dr. Thomas E. Dobbs III, before lawmakers met to consider a bill that would have expanded exceptions to the vaccine requirement. Members of the education committee for the House of Representatives, in effect, endorsed the state’s current approach. By a voice vote, they advanced a heavily amended version of the bill that now calls for only technical changes to Mississippi’s law, which has been largely untouched since the late 1970s. The amended version of House Bill 130 puts into law the state's existing practice of granting medical waivers to children whose physicians request them, and in doing so, removes the Mississippi Department of Health's ability to deny such requests. "If a medical professional thinks it's wise not to vaccinate, then that will be the gospel," said House Education Committee Chairman John Moore, R-Brandon.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday February 05 2015, @11:57AM
Hrm, Table 1 linked from TFA doesn't show to a casual glance that political leanings play much of a role in vaccination rates. I wonder if proper number crunching would.
I mean I know the MSM are trying to paint it as a Red thing but until they started that it was always my understanding that it was "natural good, man-made bad," damned fool hippies, who are generally solidly in the Blue camp. Myself, I'd be interested in finding out if there were any political-leanings correlation at all.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by schad on Thursday February 05 2015, @01:03PM
Well, probably the most common reason that people don't vaccinate their kids properly is that the parents have been relentlessly hammered with the idea that vaccines cause autism. Fear, in other words, and fear knows no political boundaries.
On the left you've got the modern-day hippies, who describe themselves as "crunchy moms." It's a little perverse that they're on the left, because they're basically reactionary conservatives: they want to do things the way they've been done for hundreds or thousands of years. Sort of like Luddites for health. Anyway, when you read a saw about how you can find high concentrations of anti-vaxxers just by looking for Whole Foods locations, this is the group being referenced.
On the right are libertarians because they reflexively oppose everything that the government wants them to do. My experience is that libertarians almost always vaccinate their kids, but they oppose making it a requirement. They believe that it should be up to the parents.
I'm sympathetic to all three groups, but they're all wrong. On this subject, at least.
(Score: 1) by Arik on Thursday February 05 2015, @05:03PM
Both Red and Blue groups contain significant numbers of people who see a problem with the state asserting ownership of our bodies.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 05 2015, @07:24PM
The reason for that might be that the only national elected officials who have come out as "vaccine skeptics" (in other words, anti-vaxxers) have been Republicans. Ron and Rand Paul, Chris Christie, etc.
Hell, we've got a Republican senator who has come out against regulations requiring restaurant employees to wash their hands after going to the bathroom, so it's little wonder that whenever there are publicly held positions that seem to go against sound science, it's the Republicans that get blamed.
You get that, right?
Here's the story about the anti-handwashing Republican Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC): http://www.salon.com/2015/02/03/gop_senator_dont_make_employees_wash_their_hands_after_going_to_the_bathroom_because_freedom/ [salon.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday February 05 2015, @09:04PM
No argument from me that politicians are freaking morons. Kinda surprising that it wasn't someone on the Blue side though given that most of the strong anti-vaxers are Blue.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.