Thank the HB 1638 authors

Measles is the most contagious disease known. Of all the diseases, this is the one we rely most on the people around us also being immune. Over the last few years, sporadic cases have been imported into the US, but they didn’t spread and turn into outbreaks because they landed in highly immunized communities. There was nowhere for the virus to go and it died out. But this time it found fertile ground in a community full of unimmunized children. Their parents had opted for philosophical exemptions. The gross majority had no medical reasons why they couldn’t be immunized. Their parents just chose not to. As a result, Washington and Oregon are wrestling with an outbreak, spending tremendous resources to keep it contained. Thirty percent of those kids will have complications, and it’s possible that years down the road, some will die from SSPE, an always-fatal brain complication of measles.

Vaccinating Washingtonians are the majority in Washington State. As parents and community members in Washington state, we greatly appreciate your speedy response to the measles outbreak and the bill you co-sponsor and wrote to improve public health in our state. As a member of Vaccinate Washington, I stand with the majority in favor of improving vaccination rates for children by removing the unnecessary and not scientifically sound “personal belief” exemption to school and daycare vaccine mandates.

Thank you for the work you do for our community.

Yours truly,