Rep. Andy Vargas Says Anti-Vax Effort Fueled by Pseudo-Science, Digital Misinformation and Profit

Rep. Andy Vargas testifying on a bill. (Photograph by Sam Doran/SHNS.)

Haverhill Rep. Andy X. Vargas was among those testifying yesterday in favor of removing a religious exemption against vaccinating children.

Vargas spoke before the Public Health Committee in favor of his bill that would eliminate the current religious exemption from vaccinations, allowing only medical exemptions. He said the majority of parents using religious exemptions are “good-hearted people.”

“Unfortunately, figuring out what’s best for your kids is increasingly difficult in the era of pseudo-science, digital misinformation campaign and people who profit from the anti-vax movement,” he testified.

Vargas told the committee to be wary of anyone who claims to be an expert and questions the effectiveness of vaccines. He said the hearing should not be about the science of vaccination, but instead about “the use of a quote ‘religious’ exemption to childhood vaccines … about the religious right to put other children at risk in schools across the commonwealth for no science or medically-based reason.”

“The science is settled. Vaccines are safe and incredibly effective. They’re constantly cited as one of the greatest human advances, saving millions of lives and billions in healthcare dollars,” Vargas said.

The bill is backed by a number of health-related organizations, including the Massachusetts Medical Society.

The Committee also heard a bill from Rep. Paul Donato and Sen. Becca Rausch that seeks to standardize immunization requirements and the exemption processes and give the Department of Public Health authority to collect immunization data statewide.

State law currently requires children who are entering school to be immunized against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, measles and poliomyelitis, unless a physician certifies that a vaccine would endanger the child’s health or unless the parent or guardian offers a written statement that vaccination or immunization conflicts with their “sincere religious beliefs.”

“We have serious inconsistencies among various communities and regions in the state with regard to immunization rates, exemption protocols, and data reporting. Diseases do not know school district lines, town boundaries, or county borders,” Rausch said. “We need comprehensive immunization policy, implemented at the state level, to protect the health and safety of everyone in the Commonwealth, and particularly those who are immunocompromised, the elderly, and children too young to receive vaccines.”

Rausch said that, if her bill were to become law, “for the vast majority of people, absolutely nothing changes.” She said both religious and medical exemption will remain available and that the only additional notice parents might receive is a notice if the immunization rate of a program their child participates in—like a school, summer camp or daycare—falls below protective herd immunity levels.

Dr. Andrew Zimmerman, a professor in the pediatrics department of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, said he is “pro-vaccine” but also “quite aware of the limitations of vaccines.” He said he’s witnessed adverse reactions to vaccines, including children who have lost previously-acquired speech or social skills.

“I recommend against all these bills,” he said. “They are medically unnecessary and discriminate against parental rights and the needs of vulnerable children.”

Rep. Michael Soter, a freshman Republican lawmaker from Bellingham, attracted enthusiastic cheers from the audience—the majority of which appeared to oppose the vaccine-related bills — when he asked Rausch and Donato why they were looking to take action on this front at this time.

“The thing I’m struggling with on both bills—and I’m searching everywhere—I guess what I’m concerned about is, why now?” Soter asked. He later added that there are “people in my district that are concerned about this bill changing the way they do things, because we haven’t had a problem.”

Rausch and Donato answered Soter by pointing out that a total of 1,261 individual cases of measles have been confirmed in 31 states through Nov. 7 of this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s the highest number of cases reported in the United States since 1992 and since measles was declared eliminated in 2000, according to the CDC. Last year, 372 measles cases were reported nationwide.

The CDC said that a “majority of cases are among people who were not vaccinated against measles.”

“In Massachusetts, we’ve had three confirmed cases of measles alone. This disease is highly contagious and the virus lives in the air for up to two hours. Particularly in light of this and other resurgences, our current immunization laws do not sufficiently protect the public health,” Donato said. “There are inconsistencies regarding immunization requirements among the different programs for young people, like daycare, K-12 schools, summer camps and colleges. The Department of Health has no direct authority to manage or implement immunization policy so schools and other programs bear the burden of filling the gap.”

Rausch also pointed out that there are some people who cannot be vaccinated themselves for medical reasons, and that they rely on herd immunity — basically the number of people in a particular population who need to be immunized against a particular disease in order for the entire community to be protected—to keep themselves from contracting a dangerous disease.

“It’s never possible or even reasonable to get 100 percent vaccinations … but herd immunity is this critical mass that is needed in order to protect everyone,” she said. The bill she filed with Donato “provides this fabric of protection, particularly for the people who can’t get the individualized vaccination themselves. If someone feels very strongly that they do not want vaccines, the religious exemption is still available under this bill.”

But the religious exemption would be removed if Vargas’ bill becomes law.

“Eliminating the non-medical vaccine exemption for school-aged children, as Rep. Vargas’ bill intends, is an important step toward protecting our patients of all ages from illness and its harmful, sometimes deadly, consequences … and will greatly reduce the likelihood of an outbreak of preventable disease that could bring with it a dangerous public health crisis,” MMS President Dr. Maryanne Bombaugh said in a statement.

The number of religious exemptions for kindergarteners has steadily risen over the years, from 147 in the 1987-1988 school year to 749 in the 2018-19 school year, according to the Department of Public Health. From the 1984-1985 school year to the school year ending in 2019, the total number of any exemption ballooned more than seven times, from 120 to 920.

Now more than 1.4 percent of Massachusetts students have some form of exemption from vaccination requirements, up from less than a fifth of 1 percentage point 30 years ago.

Dr. Sylvia Fogel, who practices psychiatry in partnership with Massachusetts General Hospital, told the committee that she has worked with several families who have opted against having their children vaccinated for various reasons and said their decisions are based on valid concerns.

“These parents are not anti-science. They recognize the significant benefits of vaccination, most in my experience are people who witness an adverse reaction to vaccination in their children or in a family member,” Fogel said. “They wonder about the long-term consequences on brain and immunity function.”

Security analyst and Harvard Kennedy School lecturer Juliette Kayyem, a 2014 Democratic gubernatorial candidate, testified in support of the Rausch/Donato bill Tuesday and had strong words for those in the audience who choose not to vaccinate their children.

“I believe that those who oppose vaccination love their children and I know I love mine. I also know that those who oppose vaccination are putting my children, our children, at risk as well as our nation at risk,” Kayyem said. “I don’t mince words here. We know from the U.S. intelligence agencies that the Russians are promoting a strong anti-vaccination campaign to manipulate divisions in our society to make us believe that two plus two does not equal four. It is one of the most sophisticated misinformation campaigns launched in the American public since the campaign of 2016.”

Maine, New York, California, West Virginia and Mississippi do not allow students to be exempted from vaccines for non-medical reasons, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Forty-five states, including Massachusetts, allow religious exemptions, and 15 allow philosophical exemptions for personal or moral beliefs.

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