Academy of Pediatrics Announces Support for California Vaccination Law

SACRAMENTO, CA -- A national pediatrics organization is urging lawmakers to enact policies that will increase immunization rates.

The American Academy of Pediatrics released a statement Monday announcing its support for laws such as California's Senate Bill 277, which requires children to receive vaccinations before attending public schools.

“Parents, pediatricians, and policy-makers all have a role here in protecting children from diseases like measles and whooping cough,” said Benard Dreyer, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics. “As pediatricians, we care about every individual child in our practices, and we know that vaccines are an important way to protect them from disease. We also care about the broader communities where our patients live, play and learn, and high immunization rates are critical to keeping disease outbreaks at bay. No child should have to suffer through a disease that could have been prevented by a vaccine.”

The organization added that allowing exemptions have failed.

“It’s clear that states with more lenient exemptions policies have lower immunization rates, and it’s these states where we have seen disease outbreaks occur as the rates slip below the threshold needed to maintain community immunity,” said Geoffrey R. Simon, lead author of the medical exemptions policy statement. “Non-medical exemptions to immunizations should be eliminated.”

In a separate statement, the American Academy of Pediatrics urged doctors to have "compassionate dialogues with parents to clear up misconceptions around vaccines, provide accurate information about the safety and importance of vaccines, and strive over time to help parents make the decision to vaccinate their child."

California became one of only three states in the U.S. to require children to be vaccinated before attending the school. The bill, which continues to be hotly debated, was enacted this school year.

Senate Bill 277 was introduced following a measles outbreak in Disneyland in December 2014. Public health officials said the disease spread to 131 people in California.

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