Don’t Wait Another Year on Vaccines

I know how hard it is for legislators to get excited about doing something that will get a fierce negative reaction from a vocal minority and little positive attention from the silent majority.

However, I’m urging all of you in the Vermont House to take action now and remove the philosophical exemption from Vermont’s vaccination laws. We enjoy living in communities that have the luxury of being without the fear of measles and other vaccine-preventable illnesses. Let’s not allow well-intentioned people who choose to ignore science to put any of our children at further risk.

Vaccines work, but only if our population has very high rates of compliance with doctors’ recommendations. The science is clear, the debate is nearing its end and it is time to get rid of the philosophical exemption. Let’s not wait until there is a measles outbreak in Vermont to take action. Getting rid of the philosophical exemption is the right thing to do for the health and safety of Vermont.

About Mike McCarthy

I'm a guitar-playing Democrat living in Saint Albans, VT with my wife Steph and my daughter Molly. I represented Saint Albans in the VT House in 2013-2014. I care about good government, and a safe, healthier world for all of us. I work for an awesome solar company and love helping Vermonters re-power our communities.

4 thoughts on “Don’t Wait Another Year on Vaccines

  1. …that there is no liability for vaccine damage born by the manufacturers of those vaccines.  Yet there have been many millions of dollars in damages paid out to those children and adults who have been damaged by them – paid by the government, you and I.  

    Pitting mother against mother as is currently being orchestrated across the U.S. is another sign of our social morass, mirroring our failing congress and other institutions.  One mother, an MD yet, brought her immunocompromised child to the statehouse this week to testify in favor of removal of philosophical exemption – as she doesn’t want her exposed to unvaccinated children.  Of course there were unvaccinated people in the room so how valid is that complaint?  

    Mothers would vaccinate more if they were able to have separate (rather than multiple) vaccine combos and if they could spread them out a bit.  I am appalled at how little many of the people commenting on this know about today’s schedule and the ingredients that are being injected. Those who wish to have some options are better read on this topic than many of those who are voting to remove it!  (Of course the prevailing stereotype on this is incorrect).

    One consequence of removal is the financial burden placed on parents who opt out of even one(!) dose.   Their kids would not be able to go to school, or daycare.  Are you considering these ramifications? But these are not the children being worried over by every Tom, Dick and Harry who is piping up with their opinion on this subject, are they?

  2. I would really like someone that wants to force vaccines on the unwilling to address these points:

    1: When the Philosophical Exemption was enacted, immunization rates were in the 40th percentile, today they are over 90%. So even when immunization was less than 50%, our legislators agreed that parents should be allowed to decide. Why the rush now to inflict tyranny on a small minority?

    2: Those that are immunized don’t get the disease. That is how immunization is supposed to work. So this law is not intended to ‘protect’ the vast majority of Vermonters, as it’s supporters claim. In the case of an outbreak, only those that didn’t get vaccinated will get the disease.

    3: There are people that can die if exposed to the disease. Yes. But those that have just been given the immunization injection are exuding the virus as their immune system starts making the anti-bodies. If this was really about protecting the people that will die if they get ill, then everyone that does get the vaccine must be quarantined for weeks – until they stop emitting the viral load caused by the immunization process. Since we do not do that, that particular reason given to end the philosophical exemption is hypocrisy.

    4: Vaccines save lives? To pick just one, there are no (admittedly recent) recorded cases of death by measles, yet numerous cases of death from complications from just that one vaccine.

    Finally, the VICP is paid for by taxing the product, not directly from the funds of the vaccine makers, they are free and clear from all liability of their products.  They can make pure poison, or put out a bad batch that kills everyone, and the vaccine makers are scott-free – just like the Nuclear Power industry.

  3. Thanks for the reality check and bringing some sanity to the provax claque who fail to employ critical thinking and yes esp what we have learned from the profiting of companies and the socializing of the risks which should be a huge red flag.

    Apparently seeing the connection to the same worn arguments the nuke industry employs under the guise of the vaunted rubberstamp known as “science” is lost amongst the vaxxers as well as the tarring of the antinukes as nutty & ignorant.

    Pro and con run across party lines as well as socioeconomic status. Love of money is the root of all evil which seems to be forgotten all too often. Caveat emptor is the rule of all marketplaces and includes all exchanges of moneys as well as goods and services.

    What starts out as a public good and solid science does not always stay that way but shapeshifts to benefit the profiteers and to the detriment of the partakers. Vaccine industry has been caught many times acting to cause harm to the public and whistleblowers are starting to come out more frequently.

    But pay no mind to those flatearth neanderthal critical thinkers.  

Comments are closed.