Children's Mercy Hospital, University of Missouri at Kansas City.
J Health Polit Policy Law. 2012 Feb;37(1):131-40. doi: 10.1215/03616878-1496038. Epub 2011 Oct 14.
We argue that personal belief exemptions to the mandate for childhood immunizations should not be allowed. Parents who choose not to immunize their children put both their own children and other children at risk. Other children are at risk because unimmunized children go to school or day care when they are contagious but asymptomatic, exposing many more children to potentially dangerous infections. The risks to children from disease are much higher than the risks of vaccines. There are, of course, some bona fide reasons why children should not be immunized. Some children have known allergies or other medical contraindications to certain immunizations. Immunization refusals based on parental beliefs, however, do not fall into this category. In those cases, children are denied the protection of immunizations without any medical or scientific justification. By eliminating personal belief exemptions to those childhood vaccines associated with contagious diseases that have high rates of childhood mortality, we would better protect children and would more fairly spread the burdens of this important public health program.
我们认为，不应允许个人出于信仰原因对儿童疫苗接种规定进行豁免。选择不免疫接种的父母会使自己的孩子和其他孩子面临风险。其他孩子面临风险是因为未免疫接种的孩子在具有传染性但无症状时会去学校或日托中心，从而使更多的孩子面临潜在危险的感染。疾病对儿童的风险远高于疫苗的风险。当然，有些孩子确实有不能接种疫苗的原因。有些孩子对某些疫苗已知过敏或有其他医学禁忌症。但是，基于父母信念的免疫接种拒绝并不属于这一类。在这些情况下，孩子在没有任何医学或科学依据的情况下被剥夺了免疫接种的保护。通过消除与高儿童死亡率的传染病相关的儿童疫苗接种的个人信仰豁免，我们可以更好地保护儿童，并更公平地分担这一重要公共卫生计划的负担。
