Noted Orange County physician and best-selling author Dr. Bob Sears harshly criticized a law signed Tuesday by Gov. Jerry Brown that will require nearly all school children to get vaccinated against diseases such as measles and whooping cough.
“This is a sad day for California,” Sears said in an email to City News Service. “This bill clearly violated the constitutional right that every child in California has to attend school. All children, vaccinated and unvaccinated, immuno-compromised and healthy, share an equal right to attend free, public school in California.
“In order to take away that right, there would have to be a significant danger posed by some. No immuno-compromised children caught measles during the outbreak. In fact, there was not a single reported case of any child catching measles within a school at all. There is no danger in allowing all children to coexist in school together despite varying religious, medical, and personal beliefs.”
Sears said he told the governor and legislators the law will not reduce school-based illnesses.
“Whooping cough, the only disease which does run rampant in schools other than the flu, cannot be significantly prevented with our current vaccine,” Sears said. “Ninety percent of children who caught whooping cough last year were vaccinated, according to the California Department of Public Health. The (Centers for Disease Control) clearly states that unvaccinated kids are not the reason for the spread of whooping cough; rather, it occurs because the vaccine doesn’t work well enough and wears off. Even the flu vaccine was only 19 percent effective last year.”
Sears added, “There is no justification for taking away the constitutional rights of hundreds of thousands of Californian children.”
The physician also noted that the legislation mustered 70 votes.
“So, why did almost half the Legislature fail to vote yes even though they support the idea (of vaccinations)? It’s because the smart ones who could look beyond the mantra into the facts of the bill realized it was unnecessary, it won’t work and it robs the constitutional right to attend school,” Sears said. “Bottom line. I am disappointed that the governor couldn’t see that. He was told those facts. He didn’t listen.”
— City News Service