Your right to vaccine exemptions is under attack in many states, from Texas to California, with lawmakers increasingly pushing for mandatory vaccination in the name of public health.
The issue came to a head in 2015, when a measles outbreak that started at Disneyland ignited near hysteria about the number of unvaccinated children in the state of California.
The source of the initial Disney theme park exposure was never identified, yet it was assumed that the measles outbreak (which amounted to a total of only 125 cases, zero deaths and only 17 hospitalizations) was the fault of unvaccinated residents.
Yet, even the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated, “Annual attendance at Disney theme parks in California is estimated at 24 million, including many international visitors from countries where measles is endemic.”1
All but One California Vaccine Exemptions Taken Away
Theoretically, if vaccines work as intended then people who are vaccinated should have little risk of contracting measles during an outbreak.
But rather than focus on why some vaccinated individuals still ended up with measles (the vaccines do not always work for a number of reasons), the media and regulators launched efforts to take away residents’ right to vaccine choice.
In 2015, California quickly went from a state with a personal belief exemption that protected vaccine choice to one with one of the strictest vaccine policies in the U.S. California is only one of three states in the U.S. that has eliminated the personal belief exemption for conscientious, philosophical or religious beliefs and now only allows a medical vaccine exemption that must be written by a medical doctor or other state-designated medical worker.
However, the vast majority of children do not qualify for a medical exemption under strict federal guidelines issued by the CDC, and many doctors won’t write a medical exemption unless it conforms to CDC guidelines.
Unless you can find a medical doctor to write your child a medical exemption, your child cannot go to day care or attend public or private schools in California without getting multiple doses of nine or 10 state-mandated vaccines (polio, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, haemophilus influenza B [or day care], hepatitis B, measles, mumps, rubella and varicella zoster [chickenpox]).
If you refuse even one federally recommended dose of those vaccines, you are forced to homeschool your child. Further, not only Californians’ rights were affected by the Disneyland measles outbreak reported in 2015. Barbara Loe Fisher, president and co-founder of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), said:
One hundred vaccine-related bills were introduced in this country in January and February of 2015 as a result of this mass hysteria about measles’ cases associated with Disneyland.
In Texas, 20 bills were introduced. In 11 states, the personal belief exemption was attacked for removal.
Vaccine Exemptions Threatened in Texas
Texas is one of 16 states that provides a vaccine exemptions for conscientious, philosophical and/or religious beliefs, but that may soon change.
Seven bills have already been introduced in Texas and one of them proposes to eliminate language about “conscientious” and “religious” belief from the vaccine law and change it to “non-medical” to focus on the authority of medical doctors and to minimize the importance of the human right to exercise freedom of conscience and religious belief when making medical decisions for minor children that involve risk-taking, including vaccine risk taking.
Other bills would require parents filing a conscientious belief exemption to complete an “education module” or receive counseling from a health care practitioner, while others make it harder for Texans to avoid having their vaccination status be electronically monitored by public health officials without express informed consent.
The number of students in kindergarten through 12th grade in Texas who filed a conscientious belief exemption for at least one state mandated vaccination during the last school year, reportedly has increased 19-fold since 2003.2
This still only amounts to less than one percent of enrolled students, but Texas lawmakers have filed bills aimed at lowering the number of children who are exempted from vaccinations for non-medical reasons. As reported by American-Statesman:3
[State Rep. Donna] Howard has filed bills to be considered next year that would require students to opt-out of the state’s immunization registry called ImmTrac rather than opt-in and physicians to counsel parents on vaccinations before they obtain an exemption.
A similar bill filed last year did not move forward, and some, including the Home School Legal Defense Association, expressed concerns that such bills could harm parental rights.
It remains to be seen whether the bills will move forward next year. What is clear is that, one by one, more vaccine exemptions are being removed from state public health laws, while society moves in favor of mandatory vaccinations using a flawed, and sometimes fatal, one-size-fits-all schedule.
Why Vaccine Exemptions Must Be Protected
It’s incredibly important that people retain the right to choose what is, or is not, injected into their bodies. The fact is, vaccines are tolerated by some people and devastating to others and doctors cannot predict who will be harmed.
Most would agree that in the case of medical care, one size does not fit all. But in the case of vaccinations, public health officials prescribe the exact same number and timing of vaccinations for every child without taking into account biological differences between children.
The Institute of Medicine again acknowledged in a 2013 published report that there is individual susceptibility to vaccine reactions. Today we know that some children, like those with chronic diseases or mitochondrial disorders, are at increased risk.
Unfortunately, efforts aren’t being made to identify these susceptible children to prevent them from serious vaccine reactions that can lead to brain or immune system damage or even death.
An individual’s response to a vaccine is actually influenced by many factors. For instance, an individual’s gut microbes may help determine their immune response to vaccines.
Infants that responded to the rotavirus vaccine had a higher diversity of microbes in their gut, as well as more microbes from the Proteobacteria group, than infants who did not mount the expected immune response.4
Epigenetic science, which now tells us that our genes are NOT our destiny, is another variable in vaccine safety, because no one knows how vaccines affect your genes (and it’s likely different in every person).
Part of the problem is that once you start to epigenetically tinker with the infant immune system, you are basically depositing what Dr. Suzanne Humphries, author of “Dissolving Illusions: Disease, Vaccines, and the Forgotten History,” refers to as “little cluster bombs” that will eventually “explode into a big problem.”
As an example, she cited a study by Nikolaj Orntoft, in which African girls were injected with a tetanus vaccine to see which genes might be upregulated or downregulated (basically “turned on” or “turned off”). What they found is that there’s really no way to predict which genes will be affected.
So not only will each individual have a unique response to any given vaccine based on their age, current health status and microbial makeup, but we’re also epigenetically predisposed to respond differently in terms of the side effects we might develop.
You can see, then, how vaccine mandates may turn out to be health disasters for some people.
What About Herd Immunity?
In the debate over vaccine exemptions, one of the arguments commonly used in favor of increased vaccination is that of herd immunity. It’s necessary for the vast majority of a population to become vaccinated, officials say, for the betterment of the group, but there are flaws with this assumption.
Many people believe that once you receive a vaccine, you’re protected from that disease. This is a misconception. Vaccines do not confer the same kind of long-lasting immunity that is obtained from experiencing and recovering from the natural disease.
This is why booster shots are necessary, as vaccine-induced immunity eventually wanes. The vaccine simply cannot provide longer lasting immunity like that provided by a naturally acquired infection. So, what many people don’t realize is that there is such a thing as natural herd immunity. However, vaccines cannot provide this.
As an example, most Americans born before 1957 experienced measles and have stronger, more complete and longer lasting naturally acquired immunity, which allowed women to pass antibodies on to their babies to protect them from measles during the first year of life.
Things have definitely changed in the past 60 years. Because vaccine antibodies are different from naturally acquired measles antibodies, young vaccinated moms today cannot give longer-lasting naturally acquired measles antibodies to their newborns.5
There Are More Questions Than Answers When It Comes to Vaccinations
From my point of view, there can be little doubt that we need to review the safety and effectiveness of the current vaccination program in the U.S. This review needs to include methodologically sound investigative studies that are not compromised by conflicts of interest within industry and government.
There are simply more questions than answers regarding vaccination, and scientists have only scratched the surface of the complex changes that occur when you artificially manipulate the human immune system. Consider, for instance, the fact that vaccines cannot provide 100 percent protection from any given disease. Vaccines are imperfect, and imperfect vaccines may actually trigger the evolution of more severe disease.6
“Vaccines rarely provide full protection from disease,” Andrew Read, PhD, evolutionary biologist at Penn State University, and colleagues wrote in one study, and those that are imperfect or “leaky” may protect the host from succumbing to the disease while still allowing them to shed the virus into the community.
Ordinarily, a particularly lethal or “hot” virus is self-limiting because it will kill those it infects relatively quickly, before they have a chance to spread the virus to those around them. With leaky vaccines, this is no longer the case, as infected hosts may spread the lethal virus for weeksor more.
In 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) discovered that while the whooping cough (pertussis) vaccine may reduce symptoms in those who are vaccinated, the pertussis vaccine does not prevent infection and transmission of the disease. In fact, you can get a series of pertussis shots and still become an asymptomatic carrier who is contagious and can spread the disease to others without even knowing it. That study effectively shattered the long-held illusion of vaccine-induced herd immunity.
Is Eliminating Vaccine Exemptions Akin to Blackmail?
Fisher compared the removal of non-medical vaccine exemptions to blackmail. Even the medical vaccine exemption is useless for many because, as Fisher stated, “almost no medical condition qualifies.” She continued:7
Now public health and medical trade groups are pressuring legislators to pass laws that would not only eliminate non-medical religious and conscientious belief vaccine exemptions for children to attend school, but also would require children to get every one of the 69 doses of 16 federally recommended vaccines—unless a parent can get a medical vaccine exemption from a doctor.
This vaccine dragnet, which is already being applied to health care workers, is also pulling in childcare workers and teachers as proposed new vaccine laws threaten them with loss of employment if they cannot find a doctor to write a medical vaccine exemption.
Zealously pursuing a 99.99 percent vaccination rate and using very small groups of immune compromised individuals as an excuse to eliminate all non-medical vaccine exemptions, liability-free doctors want permission from lawmakers to blackmail virtually every American into playing vaccine roulette. And they want to do this in the absence of sound vaccine safety science, even for those potentially at higher risk for suffering vaccine harm.
The Difference Between Vaccine Requirements and Federal Vaccine Recommendations
In case you’re wondering why every state has its own vaccine requirements, it’s because the CDC makes vaccine policy recommendations on a national level, but state health departments are the ones that make and enforce vaccine mandates. It’s important to be aware of the vaccine requirements and exemptions in your particular state, as not all require every federally recommended vaccine as a condition for work and school. NVIC further explained:8
By the early 1980s, the CDC recommended and most states mandated that children get 23 doses of seven vaccines (polio, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, measles, mumps [and] rubella) to attend kindergarten.
By 2014, the CDC recommended that children get 69 doses of 16 vaccines between day of birth and age 18. Most states mandate that children get 29 doses of nine vaccines to attend kindergarten and children enrolled in daycare in many states are required to get multiple doses of 13 vaccines.
While vaccine policymakers in the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) make vaccine recommendations for children and adults, the bottom line is that your state may not require all federally recommended vaccines as a condition of employment, and school or daycare attendance.
As is currently ongoing in Texas, increased attacks on vaccine choice and vaccine exemptions are occurring, which is why taking action to protect your right to personal liberty and informed consent.
Note: This article was reprinted with the author’s permission. It was originally published on Dr. Mercola’s website at www.mercola.com.
References:1 U.S. CDC MMWR February 20, 2015
2 Charlotte Observer December 7, 2016
3 My Statesman December 7, 2016
4 Scientific American May 19, 2015
5 J Infect Dis. (2013) doi: 10.1093/infdis/jit143
6 Nature 414, 751-756 (13 December 2001)
7 NVIC May 18, 2015
8 NVIC, Vaccine Requirements vs. Federal Vaccine Recommendations
27 Responses
Thank you, Dr. Mercola, and NVIC.
Texans, PLEASE support vaccine choice here: http://www.texansforvaccinechoice.com/
We Need a easy to fill out Petition Against these lastest attack’s for immunizations!! NOT in TEXAS!!! & Needs to stay that way! We need to be the leader against this (like we r in other areas regarding our God given freedom) so other states feel they too, also have a chance to fight against this!! Thank you!
It is good to see that, at least, one person in Texas is awake. I would expect that NVIC can help you defeat these new laws. I would suggest waking up your neighbors. The more Texans that are riled up about this – the better. Don’t just defeat these new measures; make anyone that supported them unemployed. Look forward to the day when you can tell these villains to be out of town by sundown. Don’t mess with Texas. SDSerf
I twitched when you wrote “immunizations”…as vaccinations do not make you immune to a disease; since they do fail for some people…as well as wane over time.
I implore you not to use that terminology. It brings up connotations of brainwashing – big Pharma came up with that term intentionally I’m sure.
Rather have Measles than be mutilated by a Vaccine , like my son, And myself Drug companys immune from Prosecution, Doctors in New York City incompetent insurance thieves and Con artists SOME KIND OF JOKE immune from Investigation. There is no Health CARE it’s MURDER HEALTH CARE . TRILLION DOLLARS EMPIRE OF MEDICAL Thieves , Modern day cannibalism
One other thing that I believe would be helpful is a package of statistics that parents could arm themselves with when visiting the pediatrician.
I had put together my mathematical facts prior to a “wellness exam” for my son when he was 9 moths old. They tell you the chances of reaction are ‘rare’, so I simply did the math and explained his chances were actually better at catching the mumps and being fine, than having an allergic reaction and not being fine.
They told us if we didn’t capitulate to the vaccine schedule, we couldn’t bring him there. So we chose another doctor.
Since then, he has been to the doc exactly 2 times in 9 years. He’s healthy and I’m happy about our decision.
Good for you. And good for your kid
Same with my son who is now 19 and has Never had anything more than a cold in Winter. The only hospital stays he had, was for surgeries due to his cleft lip and palate. ; )
Most Parents know what’s best for their children!!!
Keep Government out of my parenting!!!
You can easily understand why Texas politicians are trying to get this through. Money and control. Instead of PREVENTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANST who ARE KNOWN carriers of dozens of diseases from entering the country and spreading disease, the politician’s pockets are full of drug money from vaccine and drug companies. What is desperately needed is a citizens watchdog group who can document where the money comes from and expose these bastar^s. It is all out war for me. There can be no middle ground anymore when politicians have blood on their hands from vaccine-induced diseased and dead children.
Mark you just called for a powerful watchdog group… How about Infowars, which boasts an activist viewing audience of approximately 200 million people on a hot week. I never miss an episode, that’s why I’m so well informed. It’s a fact vs fiction argument with our chosen news sources. Knowledge is power.
https://www.google.com/#q=infowars+vaccine&*
You can understand why politicians are trying to get these draconian laws through. Instead of PREVENTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANST who ARE KNOWN carriers of dozens of diseases from entering the country and spreading disease, the politician’s pockets are full of drug money from vaccine and drug companies. What is desperately needed is a citizens watchdog group who can document where the money comes from and expose these bastar^s. It is all out war for me. There can be no middle ground anymore when politicians have blood on their hands from vaccine-induced diseased and dead children.
Well said.
It’s a war!
There will be casualties on both sides
I agree 100%
Lakhana, in more organized argument format; The pharmaseutical companies are tied to every major media publication and syndicated network in this country and beyond. They have total content control which is why sheeple tied to the boob tube remain clueless about these issues. It should be illegal to advertise medicines on television like they do. Imagine if they advertised vaccines with the same required disclosures as their ever expanding designer drug lists. Initial 10 seconds of drug’s supposed benefit, followed by a 10 minute disclaimer of all the side effects. If you truly want to make a difference, you must seek alternative media and untie yourself from companies whom are controlled by big pharma (which is just about every major brand.) Redefine your consumer influence and remember your vote is in your wallet, you cast it daily, vote wisely. No more kraft, pepsi, coke, etc. Yes to all gmo free & organic foods. Show no brand loyalty and starve the companies out whom take control of our liberties for their corporate profits. Liberty is not for sale!
I agree with this in principle, but I do not believe consumer choices alone will ever be enough. These businesses have accrued so much market share that it is unlikely any organic company will ever be able to compete; I believe this happened in other industries with other products – the existing cartel can simply drop their prices and starve competitors out of their market by appealing to the masses’ desire for cheap products; or, as some pretend to do, they will come out with their own “organic” products, and later people will discover they are not organic at all. But even if this did not happen and it were possible to effect a change by consumer choice alone, the indoctrination already out there is incredibly deep. The parents I described of the 50 day old infant in the other post lost friends over the issue; people would take time to openly attack them as irresponsible on their Facebooks over not vaccinating, or to make an uncomfortable “exception” to their pro-vaccine war for the parents – “because we were friends before.” Others would attack the parents while CPS was investigating them openly conjecturing to them that “maybe you really do have Manchausen by proxy” or “maybe the doctor is telling the truth here” and other offensive undermining statements – anything to support their belief that the “system” does not victimize “good” people. Overnight these parents went from being viewed as “good” citizens to questionable at best. I deeply feel sorry for the children subjected to these parental decisions, and in no way would I want to join them; but at the same time, when you see how comfortable others are in aggressively remaining ignorant, it’s difficult not to feel resentment yourself. In my darker moments, I think, perhaps they get what they deserve, and simply want to flee to Sweden where people take some interest in their welfare but, most days I simply feel sorry for them and for everyone being yoked to their ignorance – even if that ignorance is the result of being fed wrong messages. At some point individuals have to be held accountable…a person can’t continually say “well there was a profitable industry out there that duped me”; I think everyone knows McDonald’s isn’t exactly the best place to eat and yet its consumer market is vast. I used to blame McDonald’s exclusively for existing but, quite rightly they could say “if not us, then someone else” would fill this niche market. I don’t know, it’s a complex issue but, I don’t see any resolution in sight.
Listen..rowe vs wade the judge said nobody should be able to make a decision regarding anothers health…everybody has the right to do and decide what is right for there own body…isn’t this the same? Not to mention if government like Cali is going to disalliw schooling for these kids then hey same as segregation..they need to build schools for nonvaccinated children…I think they are opening a can of worms that are going to cause them issues. The children andctaxpayers have a right to an education. Get those segregated nonvaxxed schools ready folks..
Right on!
Yeah, it’s called homeschooling.
Barbara lo fisher is an angel.Donate $75 and you can get a book by her and the dvd vaxxed which will open your mind.All live vaccines ike flue,shingles,whooping cough shed for 2 weeks and infect others around you.According to CDC vaccine immunity only lasts 4 years.Lifelong immunity immunity only occurs when you aquire measles,mumps,etc.and never causes harm at a young age.Thats why there were measle parties in 1940-1950.Vaccinations only cause many problems later in life,peanut allergies,IBS,Chrones,Lupos,ADD,ADHD,etc because the aquired immune system never learns how to fight anything.It has been babied for so long by vaccines and has no clue how to fight a simple peanut allergy.Anyone with the IQ of a squirell and 2 hours on the internet could figure this out but there is no profit in common sense,and Big Pharma pays many professionals for disinformation posted on many websites.Doctor Andrew Wakefield was great on the film that was banned in the USA but he never went far enough All vaccines are harmfull and the best video I have ever seen besides vaxxed is We dont vaccinate on Amazon free for prime members
I live in CA and wanted to add, if you have a child on an IEP; you are NOT required to vaccinate in order to attend public school.
As Federal Law overrides State Law and the Children with Disabilities Act protects them.
What are numbers of bills in Texas so I can check them out? Anyone know?
If you sign up for the vaccine alerts on NVIC.org they will send you the names of the bills that are being considered, then you can look up your senator or representative and contact them.
If nobody does anything, they’ll ramrod all this child-damaging legislation through. Like kids haven’t been assaulted enough with wrong information from the government, like eating ‘low fat vegetarian based diets’. The SAD diet is what is making these poor kids sick, that and all the other things that kids are exposed to, like EMF’s, toxins in their food, water, air, even ‘flame-resistant’ bedding and clothes, toxic ‘scents’ from laundry detergents, plastics, vaccines, mercury fillings, x-rays, toothpaste with fluoride, toxic water, etc etc etc. Sure makes the “Georgia Guidestones” look pretty real.
You can find all up-to-date state vaccine information at http://www.nvic.org/Vaccine-Laws/state-vaccine-requirements.aspx
Kathy, and concerned Americans; Bookmark this link below. VaccineReaction newsletter is a subsidiary of the NVIC organization. Please join the NVIC and participate in the legislative action alerts. NVIC is a very professional and astute organization that keeps track of these legal actions for all of us. Take a look at the emerging medical tyranny from big pharmaceutical companies and how they use the power of the state to strip away human rights for their own corporate profits.
https://nvicadvocacy.org/members/Home.aspx
You people are insane. All you bring up is anecdotal evidence. My sisters cousin … Look at actual data. Millions of dollars have been wasted on international large population studies to appease people like you. Vaccines save millions of lives every year.