This is the problem when people believe bogus information spread by the likes of Jim Carrey:
With the nation’s highest rate of parents refusing vaccinations for their kindergartners, Oregon has become ground zero for the contentious debate over whether children should be vaccinated.
A growing number of parents are declining some or all vaccines for their children out of fear of harmful side effects, alarming doctors and public health officials who fear the trend will create a resurgence of preventable diseases.
The state Senate is scheduled to vote next week on a bill that would require parents to be educated about vaccines before they can exempt their children from them.
State data released this week show 6.4 percent of Oregon kindergartners this school year had a nonmedical exemption from vaccination for at least one disease, up from 5.8 percent last year.
“This is a public safety disaster waiting to happen,” said Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward, a family physician and sponsor of the Senate measure.
It’s true. It’s one thing to get an exemption for medical or religious reasons, but if you’re doing it because you’ve bought into the nonsense about vaccines causing autism, then you’re going to have to start home-schooling.