I appreciate the critical importance to public health of vaccination both as a veterinarian and as the parent of a student in the California public schools. While our generation has been fortunate enough not to see the epidemics of polio, measles, and other vaccine-preventable disease our parents can still remember, many of these disease can and will return to harm our own children if we are not vigilant. Parents certainly have the right to decline vaccination for their children, even if their decision may be based on misinformation and fear. However, they do not have the right to endanger my daughter or others by sending their children to public schools unvaccinated.

The measles outbreak and the pertussis epidemic in California are stark reminders of how fragile we are as a community.  SB277 will protect our children and communities by raising the vaccination rates.  SB277 is the best way to ensure that the weakest among us – the young, the ill, the old, and those for whom vaccines don’t work – are safe from vaccine-preventable disease. 

We are relying on our representatives to put science and the public's health above the misinformation and fear put forward by opponents of this legislation. As citizens, it is vital that we make ourselves heard on this issue, for our health and that of all Californians.