Measles outbreak in Washington leads to concerns about Ohio’s Vaccination Policy
By: Shelbie Goulding and Akii Butler
In early February, the state of Washington had over 50 measles cases thus far in 2019, mostly as a result of children not being vaccinated. As the number of measles cases grow, parents began to get their children vaccinated, ignoring the anti-vaccination groups they once followed for advice.
Statistics from the Washington Post claimed 2019 to be the worst year for measles since 1992.
Although Ohio is a great distance away from the state of Washington, a case of the measles is one plane ride away. This raised the concern as to whether Ohio’s bill, Amended Substitute Senate Bill No. 282. Ohio Revised Code. Sections 3313.671. Pat (3) and (4), is too relaxed and needs to be more strict demanding children to be vaccinated with limits on vaccination exemptions.
With Ohio’s bill, parents are able to opt out of vaccinating their kids under three reasons: medical, religious and philosophical. In order for one to be able to opt out an exemption form must be filled out and approved.
Back in 2014, Ohio reported 383 measles cases from nine different counties. As of March this year, Washington reported 71 measles cases from two counties.
*Could not record audio from a phone interview*
“When a parent has severe religious views or the child is allergic to the vaccination, they have a chance to opt out of the vaccinations,” said Tom Ash, director of Governmental Relations for Buckeye Association of School Administrators (BASA).
When asked if he thought there was chance of a measles outbreak here in Ohio, Ash said “I think the chances are slim but anything is possible,” and went on to say that getting educated would lead to a healthier school environment for our school districts.
Claudia Hoyen not pictured. Asked for headshot on website and never got a response.
“In Ohio, over the last few years, we’ve had cases of measles. While the viruses are still circulating, nobody has the potential of not being exposed,” said Claudia Hoyen, MD at UH Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital. Hoyen specializes in pediatric infectious diseases and says it’s important people get their vaccinations.
She advised many parents the importance of getting a child vaccinated.
“By having more people vaccinated, the percentage of the virus spreading goes down,” Hoyen said. “This is why having everyone vaccinated is so critical.”
She added that it’s important for adults to get vaccinated as well. “Age doesn’t matter. It’s who has or hasn’t been vaccinated.”
When mentioning the anti-vaccination movement, Hoyen said she doesn’t like to talk detail into the subject. “My hope is that people are doing the right thing in posting stuff online,” she said in regards to the movement spreading on social media. “People who have questions should look to experts.”
Tara Smith, a professor at Kent State University’s College of Public Health specializing in epidemiology, said there are people who are skeptical of vaccinations and the anti-vaccination movement isn’t helping.
“I think social media has allowed some of those individuals to have a very large megaphone to spread their ideas,” Smith said. “Most of them have no real medical qualifications.”
Smith refers to an anti-vaccination activist named Larry Cook, who lives in California and has been opposed to the strengthening laws requiring vaccinations in schools.
“He’s not a scientist. He’s not a medical doctor. He has some training as a naturopathic doctor, but they don’t get the same rigorous training medical doctors do,” Smith said. “I think a lot of parents get sucked into it, but I don’t blame them for buying into some of this information. It’s not the parents themselves that are the problem, it’s the leaders of this movement.”
Smith said some parents have had children who experience what’s known as a vaccine reaction, causing rumors to spread and parents to become skeptical about vaccinating their children.
“The reaction could be anything from a fever to a child maybe having some excess crying a few days after a vaccine,” Smith said. “One individual said her child was constipated after receiving a vaccine and she considers that a vaccine reaction. Sometimes they can be serious, but only one in a million doses do cause a serious allergic reaction or something like that.”
Parents hear the stories of vaccination reactions and think the worst scenario, which causes them to exempt their children from receiving vaccinations.
“Everyone allows medical exemptions,” Smith said. These exemptions range from reasons like allergic reactions, religious exemptions and philosophical exemptions. “For the philosophical exemptions, it’s basically just saying they don’t agree with vaccinations, which, to me, makes no sense. So I disagree with Ohio’s exemption policy right now.” Smith said Ohio is one of the many relaxed states on vaccination requirements.
Here at Kent State University, there are two ways college students to opt out of vaccinations.
Julie Volcheck not pictured, had to wrap the interview in a hurry and no picture on website.
“If it’s a medical reason, we need documentation from a medical provider indicating that,” said Julie Volcheck, director of the DeWeese Health Center on Kent State’s campus. “If it’s for personal or religious reasons, the student makes an appointment with the nurse manager and they go over that reason and consultation, and there’s a form they would sign if it is approved by the nurse manager.”
Kent State’s Immunization Form
The student must be compliant with the policy but if they are not that’s when things gets complicated.
According to Volcheck students enrolled on or after May 1st, 2015, are at a 91 percent compliance rate, which gives us herd immunity. According to Dictionary.com, herd immunity is “the immunity or resistance to a particular infection that occurs in a group of people or animals when a very high percentage of individuals have been vaccinated or previously exposed to the infection.”
However, with the vaccination policy here at Kent State, an interesting tidbit is that the policy only applies to Kent State students.
“We have over 3500 faculty and staff on campus every day and we don’t know our vaccination status on MMR,” said Volcheck.
Incase of an outbreak, the university does have a response plan with a section on health outbreaks which you can find here.
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