AB 2109 would require a note from a doctor to avoid vaccinations for public schools

by Brian Leubitz

Vaccines save lives.

That’s the truth. Real hard scientific evidence supports that statement. Before we vaccinated for measles, rubella, whooping cough, these disease killed thousands of Americans each year. A generation later and these diseases were nearly wiped out.

Then the logical fallacies took over. Those diseases aren’t dangerous anymore. It won’t matter if I don’t immunize my child, etc. But unfortunately, they are still necessary. No matter how many fear mongers or fake scientists or outright fraudsters argue that they are not safe, they are safe. They are safer than the alternative. After all, not vaccinating is not without a very high level of risk.

Yet people like Rob Schneider, who was kind of funny as an annoying copy boy, persist in fighting science with repetition of ignorance.

Pretty much every word of that has been debunked. I won’t bother here in going through it all, but AB 2109 is a good bill from a good Assemblymember, Richard Pan. Pan, who just so happens to actually have training in these matters by virtue of being a medical doctor, understands the public health crisis that unvaccinated children present. The bill would require a letter from a doctor to the school if children skip a vaccination.

This isn’t about the state controlling some godlike power. The state has the power to require car seats and seat belts; both of these are a decent analogy for the question of vaccines. This is a collective issue for all Californians. We all gain (or lose) when we have a healthy community.

AB 2109 is in the Senate awaiting final approval.