Capitol on alert over anti-vaccine threats

[KamaAina]

http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article18533915.html

The impassioned debate surrounding California legislation to remove the personal-belief exemption for vaccinations has bubbled over into threats against lawmakers and heightened security measures for at least one state senator.

Sen. Richard Pan, a Sacramento Democrat who introduced SB 277, said the in-house law enforcement unit has provided him with extra security in recent weeks, after his office began receiving alarming phone calls, e-mails and Facebook comments from opponents of the bill.

“They’re basically trying to silence us,” Pan said. “It’s disturbing.”

The messages range from images depicting Pan as a Nazi to posts on his Facebook page calling for him to be “eradicated” or hung by a noose. Pan said his staff has forwarded all of the threats to the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms office, as is procedure, which has assessed them and responded as needed. Additional guards attended a community forum last month, for example, after bill opponents discussed throwing things at Pan.

I wonder if he has a brother named Peter.

[Jesus Malverde]

1. I read they pulled the bill because opponents

Successfully argued that all children have a constitutional right to go to school.

[KamaAina]

2. Yup, the terrorists won.

That was only part of it:

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Bill-to-force-parents-to-vaccinate-school-6202345.php

A one-week delay will give Pan, a pediatrician, time to amend SB277 so that he can get support from committee lawmakers, some of whom echoed the concerns raised by parents. Adding a religious exemption, which 46 other states currently allow, was urged by committee member Sen. Connie M. Leyva, D-Chino (San Bernardino County), but it was unclear whether Pan would incorporate the suggestion.

“Not having a religious exemption is problematic,” Leyva said.

[daredtowork]

3. While I hate how autism is used in this argument

I think the State should be minimalist when it comes to obliging anything medical.

Just this morning on NPR there was a piece about Tylenol influencing mood, and a doctor casually talked about how established medicines could have effects that were still being "discovered" decades later. There are elements of the "resistance" that are not so loony.

If we are going to mandate vaccines, we need to be prepared to show that we're stopping an imminent deadly plague, and this is a delimited public health measure - not an open-ended incursion on freedom of choice.

Regarding measles: deaths from measles vs. deaths from vaccine reactions wasn't clear to me. Perhaps that was because of all the smoke being blown from the anti-vaccination contingent (I was at a local City Hall meeting where many presentations were given - there were doctors on both sides).

Also I think the education threat should be taken seriously. The home schooling movement was a *tool* for the John Birchers in the midwest. This could be the key to redmapping California.

Until we are in a "we've got to do this to head off the plague" situation, isn't it more wise to educate people and create a culture where they will choose vaccination for the sake of the community? If they aren't choosing that, we should examine what's wrong with the community, not jab needles in people's arms.

[LeftyMom]

4. There is no different vaccine exemption for homeschooling in CA.

For that matter, there isn't a separate law for homeschooling in CA: you can register as a private school, use a public or private home-based program, or use a credentialed tutor, and these are all covered at different points under the law. There's no separate legal framework for homeschooling.

All of those options require the same vaccinations and related paperwork as public or private schools.

[daredtowork]

5. So that's why the concern was these students would drop out of school all together?

At least that's how I heard it on NPR this morning. And that's a difficult spot to be in if Federal law mandates the child receive an education.

Before I end up being berated as an anti-vaxxer:
-I have my vaccines
-I have a degree in History of Science
-I don't even have children
-I happen to live in the sort of place where this sort of issue is considered debatable. The city council meeting I caught went past midnight with testimony just over whether the city would send letter supporting passage of the law. In the end the Mayor urged everyone to take their concerns to Sacramento.

Personally the idea of "unintended consequences" of medical interventions makes me queasy. So I'd want this law debated as thoroughly as possible, and I'm angry about how much "anti-vaxxers" have been bullied. I wish those on the "pro" side might pull in the attack dogs long enough to consider that they might be a tad arrogant.

Also the "baby wars" are unwinnable: for every baby with measles that gets held up with tears and drama, the other side will throw up a baby with a vaccine reaction with tears and drama. (Some might try to throw up some babies with autism, too, but that's been so debunked that it didn't even come up at the Council Meeting that I attended, and it's regarded as massively offensive to the entire autistic community).

[LeftyMom]

6. Quite possibly because a significant share of people are too lazy to google.

I happen to know what the law is because I'm a homeschooling parent. There's a binder where I keep all of our required paperwork, and the same form that public schools use for shot records/medical exemptions/philosophical or religious exemptions (it's all on the same form) is prominently near the front because we have to keep it available for review.

Two states already have no religious exemption, several others have very narrowly written exemptions that are difficult to obtain, and the laws regarding vaccine mandates were litigated when god was a child. Public health and infectious disease control trump a lot of personal freedom concerns, and legally that was all settled around the time Typhoid Mary was forcibly quarantined.

[daredtowork]

7. One reason this fascinates me is it does make me sad

Folks are gathering their forces and going at it around here like Clash of the Titans. But when it comes to issues of homelessness and poverty, you're lucky to get 3 people to show up. It's funny what people will go to the mattresses for.