By LINDA THOMAS
KIRO Radio
Most parents in our state have been through the tears of watching their kids get poked with a needle for measles, hepatitis and other shots.
But some parents choose not to have their children vaccinated and the state is proposing a change that would make it more difficult for parents to object.
The legislation is widely supported in the house and the senate.
"It's going to require that a parent gets the signature of a doctor in order for the exemption to become valid," says Todd Fast, one parent who doesn't like the idea.
Washington is one of several states in the country that allows parents the freedom to decide whether their kids will be vaccinated.
Right now, all a parent needs to do is check a box that says they have a religious or philosophical exemption and their child does not need to have to be vaccinated in order to attend school.
Fast worries that having to get a doctor's approval for an exemption will take away his rights, and make it more difficult for parents to opt out of vaccinations.
"This doctor has the right to say, "I'm not going to sign this exemption, go to somebody else.' So this leaves this parent in a pretty bad spot," says Fast. "Most doctors can be pretty adamantly opposed to folks that don't want to vaccinate."
Fast has two children, a 4-year-old and an 8-month-old. His children are not vaccinated, because he doesn't believe the shots are safe.
"It's about weighing the risk versus the benefits," says Fast. "Do the risks of the vaccine, as far as side effects, of my child being vaccinated? And there are all kinds of studies, showing that, I would say, that vaccines are questionable at best. Do they even work?"
More than 100 other parents showed up at a hearing in Olympia on this issue. Their thoughts are very similar to what Fast believes.
But the Centers for Disease Control says the value of vaccination is clear. Diseases like polio have been wiped out in this country, due to vaccines, measles is rare, and no one talks about mumps anymore. These are all diseases that killed children years ago.
Source: http://www.mynorthwest.com/?nid=189&sid=449574
No comments:
Post a Comment