Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"The problem with PBEs [Personal Belief Exemptions], of course, is that they can be abused, and, when antivaccine misinformation spreads, provide a mechanism by which vaccination rates plummet, leading to local populations with low vaccination rates. That’s exactly what happened in California and is happening in Texas now, so much so that I not-infrequently say that when the next big US measles outbreaks happen, they’ll probably happen in Texas. In California before SB 277, for instance, although statewide the percentage of children with parents claiming the personal belief exemption remained low, there were schools where exemption rates climbed as high as 58% (one kindergarten reported a 76% exemption rate) serving as incubators for outbreaks of measles and other contagious diseases. After all, unvaccinated children have a 23-fold higher risk of contracting pertussis and a 35-fold higher risk of contracting measles than vaccinated children. Unfortunately, non-vaccinating populations tend to cluster, and their refusal of vaccines leads to there being areas with large pockets of unvaccinated children, ripe for outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases." -- David Gorski, "The long, strange road to passing SB 276 appears to be near its end…finally," Science-Based Medicine [thanks to realinterrobangfor quoting this earlier]

[ see also: what's been happening in Samoa, population 195,000 -- 4,800 infected (~2.5%) -- 70 dead so far (mostly children)]