Even if vaccine's had the side effects these people claim, they're depending on everyone but their family taking that risk for them. Not only is that misguided, but it's also exactly the sort of self-centeredness the Old Testament would hand you a good smiting for.*

*If they won't appeal to reason, maybe... Bible stuff?

ignore my extra apostrophe please

It's pathetic when our politicians bow to pseudo-scientific nonsense. If vaccines had any danger remotely comparable to the diseases they protect against you would see pediatricians demanding vaccinations stop and you wouldn't have to go online to find someone injured by vaccines, you'd have multiple friends and family that experienced a "vaccine injury."
What's almost as bad is how vaccine deniers use the same techniques as climate change deniers or conspiracy theorists. No matter how many times you refute their supposed trump cards they are out there repeating them 30 seconds later.

"Today, however, almost no religions object to vaccines. Instead, the objections more often come from secular people who’ve encountered anti-vax skepticism either in pop culture (for instance, Dr. Oz) or online."

I like that this quote came without a link to some polling or any other material to show that this is supported by the data. It's not like the measles outbreak was found to have started in a church or that, yes, conservatives hate science and, therefore, medical practices that, wait for it, are mandated by the government. No, no ideological reasons for being anti-vaxx could be found there!

Tldr: She's full of shit.

"Thirty-four percent of Republicans and 33 percent of independents told pollsters that parents should be able to decide about vaccinations, versus just 22 percent of Democrats who said the same."

Now, seeing as this was back in 2015, I wonder if there are any changes since electing an anti-vaxx president...

But, in all honesty (because some of us have to be), the best way to actually measure what we're debating would be to count those that actually abstain from vaccinations due to politics rather than blanket support in either direction.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/numbers-republicans-democrats-vaccination-debate-n298606

Like I said earlier, we've gone from herd immunity to herd dumbmunity.
As long as there is a sizable portion of the populace who will swallow any conspiracy theory wholesale, this is what we get.

@4
Daniel Salmon, who is the director of the Institute of Vaccine Safety at Johns Hopkins University, said that existing research suggests that there are some common attributes that many parents who choose not to vaccinate their children share.

"They tend to be better educated. They tend to be white, and they tend to be higher income. They tend to have larger families and they tend to use complementary and alternative medicine like chiropractors and naturopaths," Salmon said.

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/parents-vaccinate-kids-tend-affluent-educated-experts/story?id=60674519

4: A 30 second search will get you vaccination rates in public schools here in Washington; yes, conservative counties like Stevens have lower rates, but counties like Douglas and Kittitas are better at vaccinations than even King. You can’t assign blame for this problem on only one side of the political isle; anti-science thinking infects across the spectrum.

@10:

So, you're okay with thousands getting needlessly sick or even dying because you believe your "right" to not have a needle stuck in your arm trumps their right to not catch a virulent disease from you?

@8 Hey! You beat me to it! He also states that there needs to be a lot more sociological research behind it. Which, I agree!

Unfortunately, they don't say how those people are more educated (hint: business majors are "educated"). I suspect the poor are too busy surviving to "research" anti-vaxx propaganda and those that are educated in the sciences know how to point out bullshit. It's whites who have too much time on their hands, enough education to get decent paying office jobs, but no understanding of the scientific process or statistic.

Just look at Clark County, it's a barely red county and is one of the main sources for this current epidemic. I think the best you can say right now is that white people are fucking stupid. But it's definitely Republicans who are more likely to err on the non-state mandated vaccination requirements.

@9 "You can’t assign blame for this problem on only one side of the political isle; anti-science thinking infects across the spectrum."

Exactly, yet our "journalist" here is the one publishing articles assigning blame without any analysis of forethought.

But, in all honesty, just look at David. The sentiment that it doesn't need to occur is the gateway to this kind of thinking. It's lazy, scientifically illiterate, and just the kind of thought process you see with a small government ideology.

It also has to be considered, when comparing different countys, to account for access to medical resources. Not everybody who doesn't vaccinate their children are anti-vaxx. For example, I like how Salmon, mentioned in #8, attempts to make the point that only 1-2% of the population could be considered anti-vaxx. I suspect some of this is just the propaganda war and parents not having it together enough to get their children into a clinic.

Where do I sign!

My body, my choice! Right?

In other news, NAMBLA opposes child porn laws.

Well, that didn't take long!! Just a few years of anti-vax nonsense and here we already have a measles outbreak. Great! Maybe that will underscore the necessity.

@10 - While I don't generally agree with you on many grounds, I credit you with having reasonably supportable viewpoints. This, however... o_O ...this is getting a little crack-potty.
You love the State! You are down with DJT, as you have expressed many times. You are happy to pay taxes to support the police to crack the heads of the "undesireables" that you don't happen to like. You couldn't have been more clear.
Now you want "the State" to not "force" a needle into someone's arm... yet ¡¡-YOU-!! would force a needle into your own kid's arm??? What are you?? some kind of hypocritical MONSTER??!??

You ARE the State, man!

Yeah, so let anti-vax people home-school. Fine. That's actually a great solution! Keep 'em away from our kids please!
Home-schoolers regularly gather their children together for play and social activities. Those voluntary groups ¡¡-may also ban un-vaccinated children from their midst-!! out of sheer self-preservation. (if they were smart, at least.)
Then the anti-vax families can just get their vulnerable children all together in one group and ... well... they just might all perish together then too. An immensely tragic consequence of believing disinformation. But at least it would be a self-generated and also contained tragedy.

You don't need the "State" to "force" needles into arms... groups will eventually exile you if you don't. Making it legal is just waaaay more efficient than each group having to struggle through the same stupid process of banning un-vaccinated children from their midst, as would eventually happen.

You can check out the school data from the Dept of Health to see what % of exemptions are on personal vs. religious grounds - the majority of exemptions are personal. Even statewide the data are 87% complete, 4.9% exemptions, 3.7% of which are personal, 0.9% of which are medical, the remainder (0.4%) religious.

There do appear to be clusters associated with religious communities, like the Orthodox Jew communities in NYC or multiple Slavic Christian communities (which is where this outbreak started in Florida and landed in Clark County). While it's not directly a tenet OF these religions (which is what qualifies one for a "religious exemption"), it appears to be spread by both leaders and followers within the community. Interesting article about the Orthodox Jew outbreaks: https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/11/9/18068036/measles-new-york-orthodox-jewish-community-vaccines

Great post, Katie!

Anti-vaxxing is just more proof that human intelligence is wasted on humans. All that brainpower and we use it for this stupid shit. The world will be better off when global warming kills us all. Who knows that evolution will come up with in the 100 million years it takes the planet to recover from us?

@18 for the laugh

@23 for the win

If you don’t believe in vaccinations, no school for your kid so you are welcome to homeschool.

Hook, line, and sinker - everyone from the socialists to the libertarians are biting on this "state of emergency" hook to take away our rights and give them to the government.

It's 30-something kids with a fever and a rash. It is not ebola. They will get better in a week with rest and Vitamins A & C. The mortality rate is between 0.2-0.08% of infected, and the U.S. hasn't had a measles death in the last 15 years.

Is everyone's reaction going to be the same when the CHICKENPOX STATE OF EMERGENCY strikes? Are you going to be begging the Governor to save you and take away your freedom of informed consent? I'm dismayed by the alarmism, hate, name-calling, and lack of education about the topic. Let's take a breath.

Seattle "Liberals," are now backing a conservative Vancouver, WA, GOP State Representative, to impose forced vaccinations, on ALL schoolchildren, save thse with a "traditional' religious objection, to immunization? WHy? I thought the GOP OPPOSED "socialized medicine," including obama's (now rescinded) "ObamaCare' health insurance "mandate." clearly, forced MEDICATION, asin a state mental "hospital," is far more objectionable, than merely having to buy insurance, to get an IRS tax refund, once a year!Furthermore, the Stranger, seattle times, and other opponents of exemptions, want to limit exceptions, only to members of "traditional' religious groups, with some Bibllical objections, to modern medicine. But, this stand, is based on a FALSE interpretation, of what a "religious objection" (to any government policy, etc.) IS; see e.g. SEEGER v. U.S. (1965) (Federal govt. CANNOT limit Selective Service "conscietiouys objector" status, to adherants of "traditional" pacifist religiou sects). see also, a more recent case 9NOT too popular among The stranger subscibers10, MASTERPIECE CAKESHOP V. COLORADO COMMISSION [Sic] AGAINST DISCRIMINATION 92017), which concluded, that Stats had better consider ANY philosophical objections, religious or otherwise, to a State-imposed rule or policy. Let's be clear: forced immunization, like force administration of physiatric drugs in State mental facilities, is a blatant initiation of force against the individual 9children, in this case). no free society, can or should tolerate this. it is a problem in a mixed economy, because we STILL have "public," govt.-run & funded schools. end state control of primary education, and, then each private school or acadewmy, can set its OWN vaccination or health policies1 if forced vaccinations, are so "effective," for pre-teen schoolchildren, then why NOT force them on adulkts, whose own childhood immuinizations, may be losing their effectiveness? In a free society, no one STOPS someone else, from obtaining vaccines or other medicines. There is no proof, that 100 % immunization, is needed to combat thse diseases! Does a, have the right to force B (or B's offspring), to endure painful and sickening immunizations, merel to reduce A's own chances of contracting the disaese in question, from perhaps 55, to maybe 2%? No one KNOWS exactly WHAT the optimal point on the societal "curve" IS, in terms of total population vaccination rates. At leastin the U.S. 9TH Circuit, forced vaccinations, in public schools, etc., are UNCONSTITUTIONAL; see e.g. WARSOLDIER V. WOODFORD, a CA prison case reversing (at least in the 9TH Circuit states), Pete Wilson's so-called "proactive" "3-inch" CA state DOC prison haircut policy! The Stranger, and the Seattle Times, et al., apparently want to combine Pete Wilson's prison "haircut" rules, with Kamala Harris' "crime-control" policies, in endorsing focded vaccinations, for ALL schoolchildren, irrespective of "personal" beliefs!

@5 German Sausage and @11 COMTE for the WIN! Bravo!

More vaxxers = less vaxxers

It's a pity vaccinations can't be reversed. Anti-vax parents should be de-vaccinated, then left to suffer the "minor" inconveniences of measles, chicken pox, whooping cough, mumps, and so forth. I am old enough to have had rubella before there was a vaccine. Most adults would probably recover, and learn a well-deserved lesson. And for the unconvinced fanatics there is polio....

@25:

Yeah, ONLY 30 kids - thus far - who wouldn't have caught the damned measles at all if their idiot anti-vaxx parents and neighbors (people like @27 no doubt) had taken proper precautions in the first place. And sure, the fatality rate may be low, but that's little consolation for any parent who DOES lose a child to an otherwise completely preventable disease.

Let the kids get sick and die, and then the lawsuits about parental neglect will kick in.
This is Darwinism at it's best. Stupidity and ignorance isn't something we should let procreate. Plus there are too many people in the world right now anyway.

btw, it really seems that at the Stranger, Katie is the only one doing real journalism.

The anti-vaxxers are out in force on articles about the outbreak copying and pasting their tired memes. Although they don't have religious objections to the vaccines per se more than a few of them seem proud to be doing god's will in ensuring that kids get character building diseases.

@33 While I'd support that if only the parents were going to get sick the children might deserve better. There are also populations who really do have medical problems with the vaccines, either genuine allergies or other conditions. And since many vaccines aren't prescribed until after children turn one the very young are also at risk.

Let's be honest, nothing is going to change until there's an outbreak large enough to kill a bunch of kids. And judging from the vaccination rates quoted in this story, it shouldn't take more than a few years for that to happen.

My eight year old son has autism. Not only does anti-vaxx messaging create fear, it creates guilt. What if I hadn't vaccinated him? Would that have made a difference? Give me some real science, please.

@25- The vaccine in question here also protects against mumps (possible complications include encephalitis) and rubella (which can cause birth defects or miscarriage if a pregnant woman catches it). These are serious things that can be prevented. Also, the anti-vax crowd is avoiding vaccinations for diptheria, among other things, which kills kids. No one here is talking about chickenpox.

Seattle= Land of the no Vaccinations freaks. Among other things. City is full of America hating bigoted racist leftwinger nutjobs.

I find it very troubling that this, Bernadette, person was even interviewed for the article.
It's often suggested, and I believe, that the outspoken anti-vaccine (so called) leaders, are driven by an unhealthy need for attention and a false sense of superiority.
When their ignorant and thoroughly disproved opinions are shown in the same spotlight as the experts, it only encourages their attention seeking behavior and reinforces their superiority complexes.
When these individuals are given a platform for their pseudoscientific views, it sends the message that their opinions are just as relevant as the factual information provided by experts. Even when anti-vaccination propagand is accurately described as false, and followed by correct information, this false balance lends a bit of legitimacy to anti-science arguments.
I, for one, would prefer not to be used as fuel for some anti-vaxxer's insatiable need for attention.

If you run the numbers based on the estimates below, this puts the total number of adverse reactions to the measles vaccine in the US at 9.2 million. Of the 326 million people in the US, at least 91% (source) have had the MMR vaccine, or 297 million. That means you have about a 3% chance of an adverse reaction (including diabetes, death, cancer, meningitis, pneumonia, and countless other illnesses) with just the MMR vaccine alone.

As of November 30, 2018, there have been more than 92,844 reports of measles vaccine reactions, hospitalizations, injuries and deaths following measles vaccinations made to the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS), including:

• 457 related deaths,
• 6,902 hospitalizations, and
• 1,736 related disabilities.
• Over 50% of those adverse events occurred in children three years old and under.

As of January 2, 2019, there had been 1,258 claims filed in the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) for injuries and deaths following measles vaccination, including:
• 82 deaths
• 1,176 serious injuries.

A U.S. Health and Human Services-funded study by Harvard Medical School tracked reporting to VAERS over a three-year period at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care involving 715,000 patients and found that “fewer than 1% of vaccine adverse events are reported.”

Observing the current number of active vaccine bills across America, it appears that many states are signaling a 2019 offensive to eliminate the legislative barriers once protecting people from Big Pharma’s ‘unavoidable unsafe’ vaccine products. This is an absolute attack on one of our fundamental freedoms in the US – the right to choose under informed consent to have a medical procedure done.
From the MMR II vaccine insert – this is the list of the potential side effects listed in my PS note below –which come from Merck directly – and again – you are told these are safe vaccines! The HHS lost a recent law suit that stated they have not done ANY safety testing in 30 years – none!