OLYMPIA – Two North Olympic Peninsula legislators have said they’re supporting bills that would do away with one of three reasons now allowed for exemption from the requirement to have children vaccinated.
Sen. Kevin Van De Wege is a co-sponsor of Senate Bill 5841, which would retain the exemptions for religious and medical reasons but eliminate personal belief.
Van De Wege issued a statement Thursday strongly urging parents to make sure their children have been vaccinated in the face of a growing outbreak of measles in southwest Washington.
“Just because the outbreak is primarily in Clark County doesn’t mean it isn’t a concern for other areas of the state,” said the Sequim Democrat.
“Measles is a highly contagious disease, and immunization rates have been dropping. We’re more at risk to this disease than we have been for generations.”
State Rep. Steve Tharinger, D-Port Townsend, said Thursday he is backing a House bill that would target immunization exemptions for students.
House Bill 1638 would no longer allow families to use a philosophical or personal objection to exempt their children from the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, according to the bill digest.
The bill was sponsored by state Rep. Paul Harris, a Republican from Vancouver, Wash., which is in Clark County, where 53 cases of measles had been confirmed by Thursday.
Officials say 47 of the 53 confirmed cases are people who were not immunized against the highly contagious virus, according to The Associated Press. Fifty-one of the 53 cases are of children, 18 and younger.
In addition to the 53 cases, one has been confirmed in the Seattle area and four in Portland, Ore., just south of Clark County.
None have been discovered on the Peninsula, but in 2015, Clallam County suffered an outbreak that ended in five people sickened who recovered and one who died of complications of the disease.
“I think we’ll probably vote on that bill [HB 1638] in the Health and Wellness Committee next week, and I will be voting for it,” Tharinger said.
“Measles is incredibly contagious. If someone walks into a room with measles, that contagion will stay in the room for two hours.”
Proponents of the legislation have testified to the costs of the measles outbreak and the effect it has had on children, Tharinger said.
“It’s just crazy,” Tharinger added. “People should get vaccinated.”
State Rep. Mike Chapman, D-Port Angeles, serves on four other committee, and was not familiar with the bills.
However, he said: “Generally I have supported parents’ rights to determine what is in the best interests for their children.”
Van De Wege, Tharinger and Chapman represent the 24th District which includes Clallam and Jefferson counties and part of Grays Harbor County.
Jefferson County has the fourth highest rate of unvaccinated children in the state with only 67.3 percent of kindergartners vaccinated, according to Van De Wege. In the district’s other counties, Clallam County’s rate is 86 percent and Grays Harbor’s rate is 81.6 percent.
“Vaccinations don’t just protect the kids who are vaccinated, they protect others in the community who are at risk,” Van De Wege said. “People who cannot receive vaccinations, such as newborns or individuals with chronic illnesses, are very vulnerable.”
Measles can cause hearing loss, pneumonia, encephalitis and death, and can increase the potential for pregnant women to give birth prematurely or to a baby with low birth weight, public health officials say.
The disease is also easily spread: One person with measles in an un-immunized population can infect 12 to 18 others, officials have said.
Kindergartners are required to be immunized against polio, measles, chicken pox, pneumococcal disease and other illnesses, but state law allows for three exemptions — religious, medical and personal belief.
In Washington, for the 2017-18 school year, the percentage of kindergartners exempted for personal reasons was 3.7 percent, compared to only 0.2 percent for religion and 0.8 percent for medical necessity, Van De Wege said.
Removing the personal belief exemption could have reduced the overall number of unvaccinated children by more than 75 percent, from 4.7 percent to 1 percent, he said.
In Jefferson County, the county with the second highest rate of personal belief exemptions in the state, the reduction could be even more dramatic.
“Because vaccinations have been so effective, the measles virus was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000,” Van De Wege said.
“Now we’re seeing a resurgence, with statistics showing 90 percent of patients were not vaccinated or were of unknown vaccination status. This suggests the outbreaks are coming from the unvaccinated, and we need to take the necessary steps to safeguard public health.”
