About a dozen people spoke in opposition to eliminating personal exemptions to vaccination at Wednesday’s Clark County Board of Health meeting.
The Board of Health meeting, which is usually lightly attended each month, drew an audience of about 20, some of whom strolled up to a hearing room microphone and provided public comment, and on occasion offered information packets regarding vaccination.
Clark County’s measles outbreak has held steady at 73 confirmed cases since March 18, and it’s cost the county $823,000 to fight — $80,000 of which is eligible for possible reimbursement through the state emergency response grant. Of the 73 cases, 63 are unvaccinated, seven are unverified for vaccination and three people had one MMR dose.
The meeting mostly focused on House Bill 1638, which would eliminate personal and philosophical exemptions for the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine for attendance in public and private schools and licensed day care centers. State Rep. Paul Harris, a Vancouver Republican, and state Rep. Monica Stonier, a Vancouver Democrat, are among the bill’s sponsors.
The Clark County Council has expressed its support for HB 1638.
“I think it’s something that is necessary for the health of the community,” said Clark County Councilor Temple Lentz. “Something that is often overlooked is the fact that it’s part of the responsibility of being in a democratic society — taking responsibility for the health of all.”
Vancouver resident Lana Andriyenko spoke at the meeting as a parent concerned about the bill. Andriyenko said she opposes the bill because she thinks the vaccine is risky and parents should have a choice on vaccination.
Andriyenko referenced Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics, which state for every 1,000 children who get measles, one to two will die. She referenced more CDC statistics that state that one child out of every 1,000 who get measles will develop encephalitis, which can cause convulsions and leave a child deaf or with an intellectual disability.
“This is not a huge statistic for everybody to be required to get the MMR vaccine,” Andriyenko said.
Clark County Public Health Director Dr. Alan Melnick said there’s 50 years of data that proves the MMR vaccine is safe and effective — and far safer than getting the measles.
Charvel Condon brought her 2 1/2 -year-old son to the meeting, She said she believes he experienced adverse reactions to vaccines he received. She said she believes he contracted pneumonia from a vaccine, as well as seizures. Condon said she believes legislators “are using education as a pawn to force and coerce people into vaccinating their children.”
“Where there’s a risk, there should always be a choice,” Condon said.
Melnick, on many occasions, has said vaccination is the safest way to protect against measles, and is the best way to prevent an outbreak. He has also said that any number more than zero measles cases is too many, given the vaccines that exist.
Margaret Tweet said she would like the county to have a link on its website for the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, which is a warning system that is supposed to detect possible safety problems with U.S.-licensed vaccines.
“Local and state governments have no right to require risky medical interventions like vaccines for other babies and children as a condition of education,” Tweet said.
People report thousands of adverse reactions to vaccines on VAERS each year, and hundreds of deaths, but that doesn’t mean vaccines caused any of those adverse reactions or deaths. The World Health Organization estimates that all vaccines prevent between two to three million deaths a year.
Council Chair Eileen Quiring asked Melnick if Public Health had any type of VAERS reporting system on its website.
“We don’t have that on our website,” Melnick said. “I guess the concern I have about having that on our website is that there is a difference between association and causation, and I think putting that on our website would give the impression that a report would indicate it as causing the issue, rather than being an association in time.”
Melnick said he’s learned a lot about proper messaging through the course of the outbreak, and he said he does care about helping vaccine-hesitant people, such as those who spoke during Wednesday’s meeting.
“We need to listen to them, which I think we’ve tried to do,” Melnick said. “I don’t think it works to point a finger at them and be rude to anybody. I think we need to listen to them and try to understand where they’re coming from.”
Melnick said he’s incorporating a couple of messaging approaches that he thinks are going to be effective over time. He said that if a parent comes to a medical professional saying their child had experienced an adverse reaction to a vaccine, the medical professional should try to understand and explain what was at the root of that reaction, instead of just bluntly saying vaccines wouldn’t cause that reaction.
Melnick also said he wants to have trusted religious leaders in the community help Public Health educate people.
“I don’t think Public Health can do this all by ourselves,” Melnick said.
