Even though I am not a father, I suppose that for a parent, the health of his or her child is the most important thing in the world. I believe that as a father I would always be concerned about whether my child is developing in a healthy environment or not.
In the state of Texas, the law states that parents who decide not to vaccinate their children are required to report that choice to their public school. However, school districts are not required to report information about campus-level immunization rates. That is the reason why I think that the Texas Legislature is doing
a pretty good job in considering the House Bill 2474 “Relating to requirements
for and the transparency of epidemiological reports and immunization exemption
information and reports”.
It is a fact that there is only a really small percentage of parents who prefer not to immunize their children and also there is just a tiny percentage of children suffering from fatal illnesses (being the ones most affected by this matter). So, some people may stay behind the argument that this bill is a "discrimination bill" against those who do not have every vaccine required by the government. I think this argument is nowhere near as powerful as for example: "I have a son who is a cancer patient and he is in a very delicate immuno-compromised situation. That being said, he would be better off if he is in a school with a high immunization rate".
This bill is not trying to violate the right of the people by making them to vaccinate their children and it should not fall into the discrimination subject whatsoever. This bill is about letting people know where is the best place for their children to go to school in the subject of immunization rates. It is the health of the children we are talking about here and I think it is more important than anything else.
1 comment:
I very much agree with Luis’ poignant blog post titled “It Is Time to Go Public”. He starts off with a disclaimer about not having children, and I am in that same boat. Being older, it has turned out that I am one of only a few in my friend group that has chosen to not have children (yet?) while all of theirs are in public school already. This leads me, personally, to have very strong opinions on the vaccination talk that has been circulating. I’m around a lot of kids.
I’m unsure of the specifics of HB 2474, but generally, I do agree that vaccination statistics should be public. I would not agree with a public listing of each student’s name being because it’s not the child’s decision and it would be awful for them to be shunned for their parent’s decision. However, there has to be a way to let the general public know where potentially dangerous zones are.
I’ve had a lot of heated conversations with people over the subject of vaccinations. It’s very touchy. My personal opinion/idea of a perfect world, though, would be that the fad of thinking immunizations cause autism will blow over, everyone will become a scientist, and nobody will get polio OR cancer ever again.
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