VACCINE DA

1NC
1. Measles risk is high risk due to anti-vaccination proponents,
pro-vaccination public opinion is reversing the trend.

Salzberg 15 Steven Salzberg, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering,

Computer Science, and Biostatistics at Johns Hopkins University, former researcher at The Institute for
Genomic Research with a focus in sequencing the genomes of many bacteria, including those used in the
2001 anthrax attacks, member of the Human Genome Project and the co-founder of the influenza virus
sequencing project, 2015 (Anti-Vaccine Movement Causes Worst Measles Epidemic In 20 Years, Forbes,
February 1, Available Online at http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2015/02/01/anti-vaccinemovement-causes-worst-measles-epidemic-in-20-years/, accessed 7/20/15, KM)

Measles is now spreading outward from Disneyland in California, in

the worst outbreak in years. The epidemic is fueled by growing
enclaves of unvaccinated people. The CDC reports that in just the past month, 84 people
from 14 states contracted measles, a number that is certainly an under-estimate, because the CDC doesnt
record every case. California alone has 59 confirmed cases, most of them linked to an initial exposure in
Disneyland. A majority of people who have gotten sick were not vaccinated. For years, scientists (including

the anti-vaccination movement was going to

cause epidemics of disease. Two years ago I wrote that the anti-vaccine movement had
caused the worst whooping cough epidemic in 70 years. And now its happening with measles. Finally,
though, the public seems to be pushing back. Parents are starting
to wake up to the danger that the anti-vax movement
represents to their children and themselves. Whats sad about this tragic,
really is that we eliminated measles from the U.S. in the year 2000,
thanks to the measles vaccine. As this CDC graph shows, weve had fewer than 100
cases every year since. But we had 644 cases in 27 states in 2014, the
most in 20 years. And 2015 is already on track to be worse.
Measles may become endemic in the U.S, circulating
continually, thanks to the increasing numbers of unvaccinated
people. Until now, each outbreak was caused by someone
traveling from abroad and bringing measles to us. The antivaccine movement has turned this public health victory into
defeat. Anti-vaxxers have been relentless in the efforts to spread misinformation. Despite
me) have warned that

overwhelming scientific evidence that vaccines are beneficial, they endlessly repeat a variety false claims,
such as: Vaccines cause autism. They dont. The preservative thimerosal in vaccines causes autism. It

Measles infects 90% of people

exposed to it unless they are vaccinated. A healthy lifestyle will protect you
from measles. It wont. Now, finally, some parents are pushing back. Parents and
doesnt. Natural immunity is all you need. It isnt.

schools in California, where the epidemic began, are concerned that their children will be exposed to

schools are starting to do

send the unvaccinated kids home.

measles from unvaccinated children in schools. And the

something they should have done long ago:

The

problem arises from Californias vaccine exemption policy: although public schools require kids to be
vaccinated, parents can exempt their kids simply by saying they have a personal objection to vaccination.
Its not just California: only two states, Mississippi and West Virginia, dont allow parents to claim a

philosophical or religious exemption to vaccines And Colorado has the worst rate of vaccination, at just
82%, primarily due to parents claiming a philosophical exemption. These parents are the anti-vaxxers.

we now have large pockets of unvaccinated children

through whom epidemics can spread further and faster than
weve seen in decades. The CDC reports that in 2014, 79% of measles
cases in the U.S. involving unvaccinated people were the result
of personal belief exemptions. Anti-vaxxers dont recognize the threat their behavior
Thanks to them,

poses to others, especially to children whose immune systems arent functioning properly.

CNN reported this

week on the case of Rhett Krawitt, a 6-year-old California boy who has gone through 4 years of chemotherapy for childhood leukemia. His
leukemia is in remission and hes back in school, but the treatment wiped out his immunity, and hes still not ready to get vaccinated. If Rhett
gets measles, he might not survive. His father Carl wrote to school district officials to ask them to ban unvaccinated children from
school. Krawitt expects the schools to deny his request. Meanwhile, the parents who refuse to vaccinate their kids arent budging. The New
York Times reported on one mother, Crystal McDonald, who refused to vaccinate any of her four children, after researching the issue by
reading anti-vaccine websites. When their high school sent her daughter home for two weeks, the daughter asked if she could get the measles
shot so she could return. As quoted in the Times, McDonald told her daughter I said No, absolutely not. I said Id rather you miss an entire
semester than you get the shot. Where does this breathtaking science denialism come from? Its been building for years, as I and many
others have written. The wave began with a 1998 paper published in The Lancet by Andrew Wakefield, claiming that the MMR vaccine was
linked to autism. Wakefields work was later shown to be fraudulent, and his claims about the vaccine dishonest and irresponsible. After
lengthy investigations, the paper was retracted and Wakefield lost his medical license. Despite this very public repudiation, Wakefield has
stuck to his claims, though, and has spent much of the past 15 years speaking (or perhaps preaching would be a better term) to anti-vaccine
groups, to whom he is a kind of folk hero. Its not just Wakefield, though. Anti-vaccine messages have been broadcast aggressively by the
group Generation Rescue, led by former Playboy playmate and MTV host Jenny McCarthy, and by Age of Autism, a group dedicated to the
proposition that vaccines cause autism. (Age of Autism is doing it again right now.) And just last summer, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. published a new
book further promoting the long-discredited claim that thimerosal causes autism. Most of the anti-vax crowd have no scientific training or
expertise, which might explain (but doesnt excuse) their complete ignorance of the science. Over the past 15 years, dozens of studies
involving hundreds of thousands of people have shown convincingly that neither vaccines nor any of the ingredients in them are linked to
autism. Vaccines are not only safe, but they are perhaps the greatest public health success in the history of civilization .

Measles, though,
is dangerous. The CDCs Anne Schuchat had a message for parents this week: I want to make sure that
parents who think that measles is gone and havent made sure that they or their children are vaccinated

measles is still around and it can be serious. And that MMR

vaccine is safe and effective and highly recommended. Make no mistake, measles is a very
dangerous infection. In the current outbreak, 25% of victims
have ended up in the hospital. And it is extremely infectious: the
CDCs Schuchat explained that: You can catch it [measles] just by being in
the same room as a person with measles even if that person
left the room because the virus can hang around for a couple
of hours. Perhaps the Disneyland epidemic, which has now spread to 14 states, will finally convince
are aware that

parents, schools, and state legislatures that they need to insist that children get vaccinated before going to
school. Perhaps it will also convince parents to stop listening to nonsense, and choose wisely by getting
their children vaccinated against measles. We won this battle before, and we can win it again.

2. Anti-vaccination parents view the debate as a matter

of the right to choose plan gives their views
legitimacy.
AP 15 The Associated Press, 2015 (Anti-vaccination parents explain their perspectives: 'We are not
anti-science', AP, February 23, Available Online at
http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2015/02/anti-vaccination_parents_expla.html, accessed
7/14/15, KM)

Anti-vaccination parents include a mix of views -- from religious communities to

families practicing alternative medicine and libertarians who shun government

interference.

But many are Americans with college degrees living in liberal communities such as

Santa Monica or Marin County in California and Portland, said Gary Freed, a professor of pediatrics at the
University of Michigan. Most hesitant parents do not avoid all vaccinations. They typically under-vaccinate, either delaying the shots
until their child is older or refusing certain vaccines while continuing with others, Freed said. The parents who spoke to AP recounted spending
hundreds of hours reviewing medical studies, books and news stories and networking on social media. They cited cases of children who were
supposedly hurt by vaccines and the existence of a government-run vaccine injury-compensation program. And they worried about the
oversight of pharmaceutical companies that reap profits from vaccines and are shielded from liability when a vaccine causes harm. Moore said
she read a 1998 study published in The Lancet journal by Dr. Andrew Wakefield, who raised the possibility of a link between the measlesmumps-rubella vaccine, bowel disease and autism. She said she knows the study was later discredited and retracted. She believes the
research was inconclusive. Moore concedes that the vast majority of studies show vaccines are safe, but she says some research points to
inconsistencies, unknowns or negative effects that deserve further investigation. And while autism is still a concern, Moore and others also
worry about how exposure to chemicals, bad nutrition and stress can affect genes and health. They say large doses of synthetic additives
found in vaccines, including aluminum and mercury, can harm the immune and digestive systems and brain. They're believers in living
naturally and eating organic food who also question the safety of genetically modified organisms, pesticides and other common substances

"There are so many environmental toxins, but anything in my

children's world that I can influence I do," Moore said.The CDC has phased out
such as flame retardants and plastics.

a mercury-containing preservative in vaccines as a precautionary measure, and the agency says vaccines
containing aluminum pose extremely low risk to infants. Federal officials also say GMOs in foods are safe,

These parents say they should be

able to decide whether their child undergoes a medical
procedure -- a decision, they say, that goes to the core of what
it means to have freedom of choice. "I have the right to decide
what to put into my child's body," said Heather Dillard, a mom in
Springfield, Missouri, who is also a registered nurse. "Nobody has the right to put
toxic chemicals into my son's bloodstream. That's taking my
rights away , and it's very scary to me." Dillard said she decided against
as are pesticides if used according to labels.

vaccinating because her first child was born a preemie and has autism.

Dillard does not believe vaccines caused the

autism, but the disease led her to do a lot of research about health. She says she now chooses to build her son's immunity naturally, through
diet, while avoiding shots or other medication. Dillard and others say they are not worried about measles because their children have strong
immune systems. They cite statistics: Out of the 1,000-plus measles cases in the past decade, there was not a single death. "What I'm more
nervous about is the hysteria that would result," if her children were to get ill, Moore said. Moore said she does worry about affecting children
who are immune-compromised and cannot be vaccinated. Before visiting friends with babies or young children, she said, she always informs
them her twins are not vaccinated "so they have the power to make a choice." She also keeps the girls home at any sign of sickness.
Researchers say berating parents who oppose vaccines will not persuade anyone and only puts people on the defensive. Educational
messages from health officials may also make little difference and could, in fact, be counterproductive, said Brendan Nyhan, assistant
professor of government at Dartmouth College. A study conducted by Nyhan and his colleagues last year showed that when parents were
presented with evidence that vaccines do not cause autism or that measles cause great harm, some ended up feeling even more ambivalent.
"We tend to be skeptical toward information that contradicts our existing views," Nyhan said. If Oregon were to take away the right to a

She's keeping an open mind about vaccinating as

her children get older, but hopes more studies on the long-term effects of vaccines can help dispel her
vaccine exemption, Moore said, she would likely home-school her twins.

"I worry about living in a society that's progressively more

intolerant toward any dissent," Moore said. "All scientific advances have come from
doubts.

questioning the status quo."

3. Anti-vaxxers cause outbreaks of dangerous diseases

highly contagious diseases means it will spread
quickly.
Sifferlin 14 Alexandra Sifferlin, Alexandra Sifferlin is a writer for TIME. She covers public health
issues including infectious and chronic disease, big ideas in medicine, and breaking news, 3-17-2014
("Here are some diseases we're seeing thanks to anti-vaxxers," TIME, 3-17-2014, Available Online at
http://time.com/27308/4-diseases-making-a-comeback-thanks-to-anti-vaxxers/, Accessed 7-14-2015)

These should be avoidable

Diseases that are and have been

avoidable in the U.S. thanks to vaccines, are resurfacing all
across the country. Measles, for instance, was considered wiped
out in 2000, but there have been several outbreaks in the past few years.
New York City isnt an anomaly, though.

This map shows outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases since 2008 (click on Map and select which

The emergence of these diseases

especially measles is alarming, and mostly due to parents in
the U.S. not vaccinating their kids. If you are unvaccinated
and you come in contact with measles, theres a 90% chance
you will get it, says Jason McDonald, a spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Though
diseases and regions you want to see).

measles outbreaks are primarily linked to unvaccinated people, McDonald notes that some vaccines arent foolproof. For example, the
whooping-cough vaccine may lose its efficacy over time. And, overall, most people do get their vaccinations. A CDC report looking at children
entering kindergarten for the 201213 school year in all U.S. statesfound that more than 90% of these kids had their
vaccines.

Still, there are people including public figures and

celebrities who dont vaccinate their kids and promote their

choices. Most infamously, Jenny McCarthy has espoused her antivaccinationposition because she
believes vaccines are full of toxins and cause autism. When she recently posed a question on Twitter about
finding a mate, the vaccination backlash was loud and clear. Just how harmful are these notions, though?

preventable diseases making a vicious return thanks

to people not getting their vaccinations. Measles According to the CDC, for every
Below are some

1,000 children who get the measles, one or two will die. Currently, public-health workers are worried about the situation in New York, but just
in the past three months, there have been reported cases of the disease in Massachusetts, Illinois and California. The CDC reports that from
Jan. 1 to Feb. 28, 2014, 54 people in the U.S. have reported being infected with measles. On average, there are about 60 cases reported in the

. Most people in the U.S. are vaccinated against the

measles, but since measles is still around in other countries, those who travel outside of the U.S. can
U.S. every year

contract it if they are not vaccinated. New York City has not been able to confirm the source of the
disease.

Mumps

As recently as Monday, health officials confirmed 23 cases of mumps at Ohio State University. In 2011,
there was a mumps outbreak on the University of California at Berkeley campus, with 29 reported cases

The source of the outbreak was thought to be an

unvaccinated student !The last major occurrence was in 2006,
when there was a multistate outbreak of 6,584 reported cases.
Less than 20 cases a year was considered usual at the time.
Whooping Cough Whooping-cough outbreaks are thought to be spurred by waning immunity
from the vaccine. However, a 2013 study published in the journal
Pediatrics reports that Californias worst whooping-cough
outbreak, which infected more than 9,000 people, was also
encouraged by a large number of kids who were
unvaccinated. Chicken Pox, in 2012, a county in Indiana
experienced a major chicken-pox outbreak of more than 80
cases, which was thought to start from an unvaccinated
child. The vaccine is 90% effective, so its possible for people who have been vaccinated to contract
confirmed by the CDC.

the disease.

UNIQUENESS
PRO-VACCINATION TRENDS NOW

1. Pro-vaccination movement gaining steam now plan

reverses the trend.
Alcindor 14 Yamiche Alcindor, USA TODAY national breaking news
reporter, holds a Master's degree in Broadcast News and Documentary
Filmmaking from New York University and BA in English and International
Relations from Georgetown University, 2014 (Anti-vaccine movement is
giving diseases a 2nd life, USA Today, April 8, Available Online at
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/04/06/anti-vaccinemovement-is-giving-diseases-a-2nd-life/7007955/, accessed 7/20/15, KM)
Now Mitchell, who takes care of her son full time, and Jeremiah, who faces more reconstructive surgeries,
work with Meningitis Angels, a non-profit that supports families affected by bacterial meningitis and

organizations including the National Meningitis Association,

combine personal stories and scientific evidence
to encourage vaccinations. From the medical side of the equation,
some physicians have resorted to their own defenses to protect their
patients from those who won't vaccinate. Doctors at Olde Towne Pediatrics in
Manassas, Va., won't take new patients if the parents don't plan to
vaccinate their children. It's not clear how many other physicians do the same, as experts say
advocates for vaccinations. Other
Every Child By Two, and PKIDs

no comprehensive studies of the practice have been done. "We don't want to put our patients at risk
because people for their own personal reasons don't want to vaccinate," said Anastasia Williams, a
managing partner of the practice who has been a pediatrician for 15 years. "We are doing our due

Several states have also

worked to make getting an exemption tougher. In Colorado, where 4% of
kindergartners last year didn't have their shots for non-medical reasons, a proposed bill
sponsored by State Rep. Dan Pabon, a Democrat from Denver, would require
parents to get a doctor's note or watch a video about risks before
opting out of vaccines. VACCINE SKEPTICS Such measures offend Sarah Pope, a
Tampa mother of three, and Shane Ellison, a father of three in Los Angeles. They both
decided against vaccinating their kids because they fear the potential side effects. In
diligence to protect our children who wait in our waiting room."

2006, all three of Pope's children now 9, 11 and 15 contracted whooping cough, the same disease
that killed Brady. Seven years earlier, Pope had decided against vaccinating any of her children. After
seven weeks of coughing, and with treatment by a holistic doctor and natural supplements, all three
recovered without complications, she says. "I wasn't scared by it," says Pope, 49, who runs The Healthy
Home Economist, a healthy living website and blogs about vaccines. "People only see the bad with
infectious diseases. But infectious diseases do help children strengthen their bodies."

Ellison say it is unfair to pressure parents

Pope and

into using vaccines that aren't 100%

effective. However, doctors note that all drugs even aspirin have risks, and none is 100% effective.
High vaccination rates can protect even unvaccinated people by lowering the level of infectious disease in
the community, a phenomenon known as herd immunity, says Hinman, a senior public health scientist at
the Task Force for Global Health. The more people who are vaccinated, the less likely anyone in that
community will be infected. Though vaccines are considered safe, Schuchat points out that they can cause
reactions in some children, which in rare cases can be serious. But one of the most publicized fears of the
anti-vaccine movement that they cause autism has been debunked by dozens of studies that have
found no link. Even so, parents like Ellison, 39, don't buy it, and he points out that he comes to the issue
with some expertise: He has a master's degree in organic chemistry and used to work in the
pharmaceutical industry designing medicines. His children 6 months old, 8 and 12 were all born at
home. Aside from one visit to an emergency room for a bruised finger, none of them has ever been to a
doctor, and they're all healthy, he says, except for the occasional sore throat or common cold. "The doctors
all have the same script for vaccines," says Ellison, who runs The People's Chemist, a website about health.
He is working to build and support his children's natural immune system using three healthy meals a day,

exercise and sunshine. He says if his kids get sick he would rather rely on emergency care than vaccines.
"It's much more soothing to trust emergency medicine than a vaccine, which for me is like playing Russian
roulette," he says.

2. Preventable diseases are making a comeback

numerous areas are potential hotspots the amount of
influence of the anti-vax movement is the critical factor.
Alcindor 14 Yamiche Alcindor, USA TODAY national breaking news
reporter, holds a Master's degree in Broadcast News and Documentary
Filmmaking from New York University and BA in English and International
Relations from Georgetown University, 2014 (Anti-vaccine movement is
giving diseases a 2nd life, USA Today, April 8, Available Online at
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/04/06/anti-vaccinemovement-is-giving-diseases-a-2nd-life/7007955/, accessed 7/20/15, KM)
Kathryn Riffenburg decided on a closed casket for her baby's funeral. She didn't want her family to see
what whooping cough, her son's first illness, had done to 9-week-old Brady Alcaide. The nearly forgotten
disease, which has in recent years afflicted thousands of Americans, left Brady's tiny body swollen and
unrecognizable. So his mother dressed him in a white baptismal suit and hat and tucked him into a tiny
white casket. Brady's burial came just four weeks after his first laugh inspired by her version of I'm a
Little Teapot and two weeks after his family learned that he had contracted a vaccine-preventable
illness. "It just seemed like it was impossible," says Riffenburg, 31, of Chicopee, Mass. "It felt like we were
dropped in The Wizard of Oz. We went from sitting in the hospital day by day, waiting for him to get better
for almost two weeks, to doctors telling us we had a 50/50 chance he was going to make it." The mother,
who was inoculated years before giving birth to Brady, later learned that she could have gotten a booster
shot during her pregnancy that likely would have saved Brady's life. Although Riffenburg didn't know to get

people actively choosing not to are helping diseases once

largely relegated to the pages of history books including measles
make a comeback in cities across the nation, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. Recent measles outbreaks in New York,
California and Texas are examples of what could happen on a larger
scale if vaccination rates dropped, says Anne Schuchat, the CDC's director of
revaccinated,

immunizations and respiratory diseases. Officials declared measles, which causes itchy rashes and fevers,

the disease is on track to infect

three times as many people as in 2009. That's because in most cases people
who have not been vaccinated are getting infected by others
traveling into the United States. Then, Schuchat says, the infected spread
it in their communities. The 189 cases of measles in the U.S. last year is small compared with
the 530,000 cases the country used to see on average each year in the 20th century. But, the
disease which started to wane when a vaccine was introduced in 1967 is one of the
most contagious in the world and could quickly go from sporadic
nuisance to widespread killer. Measles kills about once in every 1,000 cases. As
cases mount, so does the risk. "We really don't want a child to die
from measles, but it's almost inevitable," says Schuchat. "Major
resurgences of diseases can sneak up on us." Michaela Mitchell watches her son
eradicated in the United States in 2000. Yet this year,

Jeremiah, 10, play Xbox in his bedroom in Tulsa. Mitchell is teaching Jeremiah how to live again after
meningitis contracted from an outbreak at his school forced doctors to amputate both his arms
and legs.Michaela Mitchell watches her son Jeremiah, 10, play Xbox in his bedroom in Tulsa. Mitchell is
teaching Jeremiah how to live again after meningitis contracted from an outbreak at his school forced
doctors to amputate both his arms and legs. Vaccination rates against most diseases are about
90%. Fewer than 1% of Americans forgo all vaccinations, Schuchat says. Even so, in some states

anti-vaccine movement, aided by religious and philosophical state exemptions,is

the

growing, says Paul Offit, chief of infectious diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He points
to states like Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, Oregon and Vermont where more
than 4.5% of kindergartners last year were unvaccinated for non-medical reasons as examples
ofpotential hot spots. Such states' rates are four times the national average and illustrate a
trend among select groups. "People assume this will never happen to them until it happens to
them," Offit says. "It's a shame that's the way we have to learn the lesson. There's a human price for that
lesson."The

most vulnerable are infants who may be too young to be

vaccinated, children with compromised immune systems and others
who may be unable to be vaccinated for medical reasons, scientists say. In
communities across the nation, Americans of all stripes are making
dangerous decisions to reschedule or forgo immunization , says
Alan Hinman, a scientist who sits on the scientific advisory board of Voices for Vaccines, which supports
and advocates for on-time vaccinations. The anti-vaccination movement has picked up steam in the past
decade with support from celebrities such as actress Jenny McCarthy, actor Aidan Quinn and reality TV star
Kristin Cavallari, who last month said not vaccinating was "the best decision" for her children. Many
continue to believe the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism, while others don't trust the federal
government or the pharmaceutical companies responsible for these vaccines. DISEASE CAN STRIKE
ANYWHERE Riffenburg hopes her family's experience will serve as a wake-up call. At first, Brady seemed to
have a simple cold. As his symptoms worsened, Riffenburg and her fianc, Jonathan Alcaide, took him to
the hospital, where doctors suspected he had whooping cough. Two weeks later, Brady stopped breathing.
His brain was without oxygen for some time, and he was put on life support, where Riffenburg said the
horrific effects of the disease made her child become unrecognizable. A day later, she made the
excruciating decision to take him off machines. The child died while cradled in her arms. "I hope Brady has
saved babies and protected them because we have spread his story," RIffenburg says. Since
then,Riffenburg has made sure that her fianc and her two daughters, now 7 and 10, get all of their
booster shots. She was also inoculated while pregnant with her now 1-year-old son, Jaxon. And she insisted
everyone including doctors, family members and even the hospital photographer got booster shots
before they came near Jaxon. It is not clear where Brady contracted whooping cough. Schuchat says that is

communities must maintain high vaccination rates. Many

might not know they are carrying a disease but can still be
contagious and pass it on before symptoms arrive. "It doesn't have to be on an
precisely why

airplane or at an airport. It could be at a grocery store or the concert you went to," Schuchat says. During a
2008 measles outbreak in San Diego, CDC officials were shocked to find school districts where one in five
children were not vaccinated against the disease, she says. Last year, California had the largest number of
unprotected kindergartners not vaccinated for their parents' philosophical reasons: 14,921. This year, 49
cases of measles had been reported by March. The state had four cases by that time last year.

Uniqueness Yes influence

Changing the minds of anti-vaccination parents is

possible now is key.
Palmer 15 Katie Palmer, senior associate editor at Wired covering
science and health, member of the Science, Health and Environmental
Reporting Program (SHERP) at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute,
recipient of the Jeffrey Owen Jones Fellowship in Journalism, 2015 (How to
Get Silicon Valleys Anti-Vaxxers to Change Their Minds, Wired, February 12,
Available Online at http://www.wired.com/2015/02/get-silicon-valleysunvaccinated-change-minds/, accessed 7/22/15, KM)
THERES BEEN A lot of shaming and blaming of the anti-vaccination crowd in response to the Disneyland
measles outbreak ( even we did it). And when we released our investigation of vaccination rates at Silicon
Valley preschools, people were justifiably angry: Every unvaccinated kid at those schools threatens the

yelling at anti-vaxxers wont

change their mindswhich is what we need most to prevent more outbreaks. That begs
the question: What can turn them around? After writing about how vaccinated
people got measles in California, I read the comments posted about it on Facebook. Among the
anti-vax commenters, there were a few science-hating, vitriol-slinging, homeopathy-hawking
kooks. But the vast majority werereasonable. Take this person, for example: Someone
greater communitys protection against disease. But

strong enough to get the vaccine (and thus be conferred limited immunity for 2-10 years) is likely strong
enough to handle the disease and consequently have real life-long immunity, which is what is really
needed for herd immunity to actually work. This person is wrong, of course, but theres some scienceor

Refusing vaccines
is a bad choice, but anti-vaxxers arent evil for making that choice. Every
parent who turns down a vaccine is simply trying to make the right
decision for their kid. As long as that motivation exists, theres a
chance that a parent can be convinced that vaccination is the safest
choicefor their child, and those around them. To figure out how to turn that
at least some attempts at using sciencein there. Its worth repeating, clearly:

no into a yes, its important to know how that decision occurred in the first place. As Amy Wallace

vaccine refusal comes down to one emotion:

fear. Or, in the current environment, the lack of it. Thanks to the success of vaccination programs, many
explained in a WIRED cover story,

Americans have never seen a single case of measlesthey didnt get it themselves, and probably dont
know anyone whos had it. That interferes with how they process fear in two ways. Number one, we get
responses like this one (from that same story, on Facebook): Measles is not a dangerous disease, it is just a
normal childhood disease, its safer to get antibodies from the actual virus than from vaccines.
Unvaccinated children have higher and stronger immune systems, so they fight it fast Measles has, for
many, become a hypothetical disease. And a hypothetical disease isnt scary. People become desensitized
to the seriousness of the disease when theyre not exposed, says Kristin Hendrix, a pediatric researcher at
Indiana University School of Medicine. Measles was eradicated in the US in 2000, so even if youve seen a
case, you probably havent met someone who pulled the short straw: The one person in 10 who gets an
ear infection, potentially resulting in deafness, or the one in 20 who gets pneumonia, or the one in 1,000
who develops encephalitisor dies. Which leads us to number two. The risk of vaccinesthe one in 3,000
chance of seizure for the MMR, or the one in more than a million chance of a serious allergic reaction
starts to seem much bigger in comparison to those fading memories of measles past. Parents can be
scared very easily by hearing about potentially negative consequences, says Gary Freed, a pediatric
researcher at the University of Michigan. And the act of stabbing your kid in the arm with a needle is far
more immediately threatening than the potential exposure to measles, especially if youre counting on her
not being exposed to the disease in the first place. My husband nearly died from the tetanus vaccine when
he was a kid. Fear is a powerful, often irrational emotion. No matter how many times you drive home the
statistical near-impossibility of a negative vaccine reaction, its often overlooked in the face of a personal
anecdote. If someone has a relative who had a bad reaction to a vaccineor even a great-aunt on
Facebook whose friends daughter became withdrawn after onethe immediacy of that story will carry
more cognitive weight than numbers. Humans are big on narrative. Science (usually) is not. So now,
medical professionals and researchers must figure out how to use informationcold, impersonal factsin a
way that can counteract the power of that primal (and inaccurate) risk calculation. That job is far harder
than it used to be. Doctors once were the primary source of medical information, but now its everywhere
onlinesome of it true, some of it not, and the vast majority somewhere in between. Thats a problem,
because humans suffer from a major case of confirmation bias. We seek out and gravitate toward
information that confirms what we know to be true, says Hendrix. Sometimes confirmation bias is so
extreme that it even turns positive messages into negative ones: One paper last year found that while provaccine information corrected some misperceptions about vaccineslike the fallacy that it causes autism
reading it actually made some resolutely anti-vax parents even less likely to vaccinate.

recent research has shown that

presenting provaccine messages and evidence to anti-vaxersonly
makes them become more ingrained in their misguided
beliefs. Researchers dont have any great ideas about how to change the stickiness of bad
Unfortunately,

information once it gets that distorted.

But theres hope.

There always have been a certain

number of staunchly anti-vaccine parentsresearchers estimate about 2 percent of parents fall into that

a second group of parents and patients

the so-called vaccine-hesitantthat are the ones fueling the fire of vaccine refusal.
But theyre also the ones that still may be open to change . Doug Opel is a
pediatrician at Seattle Childrens Hospital working to target those fence-sitters with
individually tailored information. Parents themselves can have a hard time knowing
camp, and that number isnt changing much. Its

where they are, or they dont fully disclose what they think about vaccines in an appointment, says Opel.
That turns a pediatric appointment into a chess match. Opels shot at a solution is a 15-question survey
that gives parents a score on a scale of 0 to 100over 50, and youre much less likely to vaccinate. Hes
most interested in targeting parents in that 50-to-80 range, by addressing their specific concerns in oneon-one conversations instead of relying solely on an impersonal Vaccine Information Statement from the
CDC. Its not an easy job: Any conversation he has with a parent is going head-to-head with personal
horror stories from Facebook friends and anti-vaccine celebrities. We know that personal narratives and
anecdotes that are emotionally laden are very persuasive, says Hendrix, and that people play into fearbased information more than positive information. Anti-vaccine stories are so powerful because they

With this major

outbreakwhich has racked up 103 cases at last countto play into
the fear of parents, and a potent narrative to boot (Wow, were not even safe
in the Happiest Place on Earth), this might just be a pro-vaccine story that can
change some minds. Normally, pro-vaccine messages dont have the
splash and the buzz of a crisis, says Freed. Now we do. It may just be
that the anti-vaccine movement has created the outbreak that could
kill it.
capitalize on both of those persuasive techniques. But two can play at that game.

Pro-vaccination is changing minds recent California

measles outbreak is persuading vaccine-hesitant
parents to get vaccinated.
Frankel 15 Todd Frankel, reporter for the Washington Post, teaches

journalism at University of Washington-St. Louis, won several journalism

awards, including a National Headliners Award, Livingston Award finalist, and
a member of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize finalist team for breaking new, 2015
(Forget anti-vaxxers. The Disney measles outbreak could change the minds
of an even more crucial group., The Washington Post, January 26, Available
Online at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/storyline/wp/2015/01/26/forget-antivaxxers-the-disney-measles-outbreak-could-change-the-minds-of-an-evenmore-crucial-group/, accessed 7/22/15, KM)
The child was behind on her vaccinations. Wendy Sue Swanson took note of this as she talked with the

Swanson, like
many pediatricians, sometimes needed to coax parents to get the
shots for their children. A few might be unmovable in their objections. But most were
like this couple: A mom and dad who might harbor doubts or were
just behind schedule. They were at least willing to listen. Now,
Swanson had a new way to prod parents like them: Discussing the
Disney measles outbreak in California, which has spread to at least 68 people in 11
girls parents last week at a medical clinic in Mill Creek, Wash., outside Seattle.

states since Jan. 1 and raised alarms about the reemergence of a disease once considered all but
vanquished. There was something powerful about the disease hitting a popular, recognizable vacation
spot.

The girl got her vaccination. Her parents were on board. Their

eagerness was different, Swanson said later. I think it is changing

people. Much of the scrutiny in the Disney measles outbreak has fallen on an entrenched antivaccination movement in places such as Orange County, Calif., home to the two Disney theme parks where
the outbreak gained its foothold. These anti-vaxxers are viewed as dead-set against vaccinations.

doctors believe the current outbreak could change the minds of a

less-known but even larger group: parents who remain on the fence
about the shots. These vaccine-hesitant parents have some doubt
about vaccinations, leading them to question or skip some shots ,
But

stagger their delivery or delay them beyond the recommended schedule. An estimated 5 to 11 percent of
U.S. parents have skipped at least one vaccination or delayed a shot, according to studies. That compares
to only 1 to 3 percent of parents who object to all vaccinations. Boosting

compliance among
the vaccine hesitant population could have major public health
implications, doctors say, especially because last year the United States had its highest number of
measles cases since 1977. The topic of vaccine hesitant patients has become the focus of a growing
body of medical research in recent years. Doctors are trying to understand what triggers vaccine worries
and which strategies work best for overcoming those fears. Doctors spend many office hours trying to
convince these parents that the scientific evidence proves the shots are, in fact, safe and effective. But
these hesitant parents have been bombarded by conflicting information. And they dont view all of the
shots the same way. The vaccine to protect against measles, mumps and rubella faces particularly strong
resistance as a result of thoroughly discredited studies linking the vaccine to autism. So some parents,
even those generally open to other vaccines, push to delay or skip this one. The shot is supposed to be
given at 12 months and again at age 4. One of the problems that vaccines face now is they work too
well, said Michael Smith, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of Louisville School of
Medicine in Kentucky, who has studied vaccine-hesitant parents. Parents dont have experience with
measles, how children can become very ill and in rare cases suffer brain swelling or even die, Smith said.
At the same time, these parents are confronted with stories about the unexplained rise in the U.S. autism
rate. I can understand as a parent why youd skip the vaccine if youd been convinced that its a choice

the Disney outbreak

changes the discussion. Now, doctors have an event to point to. The
threat is no longer abstract or distant. This is definitely going to be a talking point
between giving my kids a shot or giving my kid autism, Smith said. But

that pediatricians should keep in their back pockets, Smith said. Studies have shown that anti-vaxxer
parents are likely to remain steadfast in their opposition. Barbara Loe Fisher, president of the National
Vaccine Information Center, a group that raises doubts about the shots, said she was not convinced that
the Disney outbreak was even a story about the dangers of being unvaccinated. I dont think we know
completely whats going on, Fisher said. But physicians such as Kathryn Edwards of the Vanderbilt Vaccine
Research Program said the measles vaccine is at least 99 percent effective after the second dose. And
measles is one of the most communicable diseases, much more so than the flu. The dangers posed by the
disease have been forgotten. Many U.S. doctors have never even seen it. Edwards still recalls the only
patient she ever saw with measles, years ago when she was a medical resident. He died. So I have a lot of
respect for measles, Edwards said. At Boston Childrens Hospital, pediatrician Claire McCarthy said she is
always happy when parents decide to vaccinate their children against measles in particular. She worries
about the current situation in California. And she plans to use the Disney outbreak to try to convince
hesitant parents that vaccinations are the right choice. I am planning on talking this one up a lot with
families, McCarthy said. I think this probably will make a difference.

Uniqueness booster anti-vaccination brink

Anti-vaccination movement is gaining momentum now

thats leading to outbreaks of preventable disease
case studies prove the long-term effects will be
catastrophic.

Offit 14 Paul Offit, American pediatrician specializing in infectious

diseases and an expert on vaccines, immunology, and virology; co-inventor of
a rotavirus vaccine that has been credited with saving hundreds of lives
every day; Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology and Professor of
Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of
Pennsylvania; Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases; member of the
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization
Practices; Founding Board Member of the Autism Science Foundation, 2014
(The Anti-Vaccination Epidemic, Wall Street Journal, September 24,
Available Online at http://www.wsj.com/articles/paul-a-offit-the-antivaccination-epidemic-1411598408, accessed 7/20/15, KM)
Almost 8,000 cases of pertussis, better known as whooping cough, have been
reported to California's Public Health Department so far this year. More than 250 patients have
been hospitalized, nearly all of them infants and young children, and 58 have required intensive care. Why

this preventable respiratory infection making a comeback? In no small

part thanks to low vaccination rates, as a story earlier this month in the Hollywood
Reporter pointed out. The conversation about vaccination has changed. In
the 1990s, when new vaccines were introduced, the news media were obsessed
with the notion that vaccines might be doing more harm than
good. The measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine might cause autism, we were told. Thimerosal, an
is

ethyl-mercury containing preservative in some vaccines, might cause developmental delays. Too many

Then those
stories disappeared. One reason was that study after study showed
that these concerns were ill-founded. Another was that the famous 1998 report
vaccines given too soon, the stories went, might overwhelm a child's immune system.

claiming to show a link between vaccinations and autism was retracted by The Lancet, the medical journal
that had published it. The study was not only spectacularly wrong, as more than a dozen studies have
shown, but also fraudulent. The author, British surgeon Andrew Wakefield, has since been stripped of his

But the damage was done. Countless parents became

afraid of vaccines. As a consequence, many parents now choose to
delay, withhold, separate or space out vaccines. Some don't
vaccinate their children at all. A 2006 study in the Journal of the
American Medical Association showed that between 1991 and 2004,
the percentage of children whose parents had chosen to opt out of
vaccines increased by 6% a year, resulting in a more than twofold
increase. Today the media are covering the next part of this story, the inevitable outbreaks of
medical license.

vaccine-preventable diseases, mostly among children who have not been vaccinated. Some of the parents
who chose not to vaccinate were influenced by the original, inaccurate media coverage. For example,
between 2009 and 2010 more than 3,500 cases of mumps were reported in New York City and surrounding
area. In 2010 California experienced an outbreak of whooping cough larger than any outbreak there since
1947. Ten children died. In the first half of 2012, Washington suffered 2,520 cases of whooping cough, a
1,300% increase from the previous year and the largest outbreak in the state since 1942. As of Aug. 29,
about 600 cases of measles have occurred in the U.S. in 2014: the largest outbreak in 20 yearsin a
country that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared measles-free in 2000. Who is
choosing not to vaccinate? The answer is surprising. The area with the most cases of whooping cough in
California is Los Angeles County, and no group within that county has lower immunization rates than
residents living between Malibu and Marina Del Rey, home to some of the wealthiest and most exclusive
suburbs in the country. At the Kabbalah Children's Academy in Beverly Hills, 57% of children are
unvaccinated. At the Waldorf Early Childhood Center in Santa Monica, it's 68%, according to the Hollywood
Reporter's analysis of public-health data. These are the kind of immunization rates that can be found in
Chad or South Sudan. But parents in Beverly Hills and Santa Monica see vaccines as unnaturalsomething
that conflicts with their healthy lifestyle. And they have no problem finding fringe pediatricians willing to

cater to their irrational beliefs. These parents are almost uniformly highly educated, but they are making

Children not vaccinated against

whooping cough are 24 times more likely to catch the disease.
Furthermore, about 500,000 people in the U.S. can't be vaccinated ,
an uneducated choice. It's also a dangerous choice:

either because they are receiving chemotherapy for cancer or immune-suppressive therapies for chronic

They depend on those around them to be

vaccinated. Otherwise, they are often the first to suffer. And because
no vaccine is 100% effective, everyone, even those who are
vaccinated, is at some risk. Parents mightconsider what has happened in
other countries when large numbers of parents chose not to
vaccinate their children. Japan, for example, which had virtually eliminated whooping
cough by 1974, suffered an anti-vaccine activist movement that caused
vaccine rates to fall to 10% in 1976 from 80% in 1974. In 1979, more than
13,000 cases of whooping cough and 41 deaths occurred as a result. Another problem: We
simply don't fear these diseases anymore. My parents' generationchildren of the
diseases, or because they are too young.

1920s and 1930sneeded no convincing to vaccinate their children. They saw that whooping cough could
kill as many as 8,000 babies a year. You didn't have to convince my generationchildren of the 1950s and
1960sto vaccinate our children. We had many of these diseases, like measles, mumps, rubella and

young parents today don't see the effects of vaccinepreventable diseases and they didn't grow up with them. For them,
vaccination has become an act of faith. Perhaps most upsetting was a recent study
out of Seattle Children's Hospital and the University of Washington. Researchers wanted to
see whether the whooping cough epidemic of 2012 had inspired
more people to vaccinate their children. So they studied rates of
whooping cough immunization before, during and after the
epidemic. No difference. One can only conclude that the outbreak hadn't been large enough
or frightening enough to change behaviorthat not enough children had died. Because we're
unwilling to learn from history, we are starting to relive it. And
children are the victims of our ignorance. An ignorance that, ironically, is cloaked in
chickenpox. But

education, wealth and privilege.

Vaccination critics are gaining influence can even sway

anti-vax legislation.
Gumbel 15 Andrew Gumbel, foreign correspondent for The Guardian in
Europe, the Middle East, and the United States, 2015 (US states face fierce
protests from anti-vaccine activists, The Guardian, April 10, Available Online
at http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/10/anti-vaccine-protestcalifornia-facts, accessed 7/20/15, KM)
state legislators seeking to
tighten immunisation laws across the country are running the
gauntlet of anti-vaccination activists who have bombarded them
with emails and phone calls, heckled them at public meetings,
harassed their staff, organized noisy marches and vilified them on
social media. Three states blindsided by the activists sheer energy
Oregon, Washington and North Carolina have either pulled back or killed bills that
would have ended a non-specific personal belief exemption for
parents who dont want to vaccinate their children. Now the battleground is
Four months after a measles outbreak at Disneyland,

California, which bore the brunt of the measles outbreak at the beginning of the year and saw school
closures, extraordinary quarantine measures and

a vigorous public debate lamenting the fact

that a disease declared eradicated 15 years ago is once again a public health threat. A health committee

turned into a tense showdown

between lawmakers seeking to argue that the science is
unequivocally on the side of universal vaccination, and
activists accusing them of being in the pocket of unscrupulous big pharmaceutical
meeting in Sacramento, the state capital, on Wednesday

companies. One activist, Terry Roark, told the state senate committee her child had died from a vaccine
and feared others could be next if

their best interests.

parents lost the right to decide what was in

Innocent people will die, she said tearfully. Innocent children will be

killed. The meeting degenerated at points into yelling and screaming, and two activists were removed.
Lawmakers promoting the new law were tenacious in their own way, challenging the claim that the bill
would force vaccinations even on children with legitimate medical reasons not to have them. A doctor
sympathetic to the anti-vaccination movement was ultimately forced to concede the bill contained no such
language. The danger I feel as a policymaker is that when assertions are made in public comment that

state senator Holly Mitchell said. She and the cosponsors of the bill, a doctor from northern California and the son of a polio survivor from
southern California, have become hate figures to the movement and they
and their staff have been chased and shouted at. The southern California coarent fact-based, thats irresponsible,

sponsor, Ben Allen, told the Guardian that while many of his detractors were respectful hed also been
bewildered by Facebook memes of me as a Nazi doctor. He added: Some of them have definitely
crossed a line. The activists were boosted by the participation of a Kennedy: the environmentalist and civil
rights activist Robert F Kennedy Jr, son of the murdered attorney general and nephew of the murdered
president, who has written a book denouncing the use of mercury traces in a vaccine ingredient, which
repeated peer-reviewed studies have found to be safe and which has now largely been phased out.
Kennedy showed a documentary based on his book, spoke at a rally and likened vaccinations to the
Holocaust. Medical experts and legislators supporting the bill say vaccinating as many people as possible
is vital to provide so-called herd immunity a degree of protection strong enough to cover infants too
young for vaccinations or those too sick to receive them. The more alarmist, contrary story of an out-ofcontrol medical establishment covering up the truth that vaccinations are responsible for an alarming
spike in children diagnosed with autism is the view of a tiny minority, perhaps 5% of the population. But

the
backlash to a bill she sponsored as very swift and very furious. It created an
environment that made it difficult to just even talk about it , she told the
the minority is a strikingly vocal one. In North Carolina, state senator Terry Van Duynsa described

NPR radio affiliate in Charlotte.

LINK
PRIVACY LAWS ANTI-VAXXERS

1. The plan builds on the virtuous cycle for privacy to

create more reforms.
Ozer 12 Nicole Ozer, the Technology and Civil Liberties Policy Director at the ACLU of Northern
California (ACLU-NC), where she developed the organization's Demand Your dotRights online privacy
campaign, 2012 (Putting Online Privacy Above The Fold: Building A Social Movement And Creating
Corporate Change New York University Review of Law & Social Change, Lexis)
As noted in Part I, n226 one of the primary challenges of establishing a privacy social movement is

While the privacy community has had success in the past in

addressing specific incidents, these successes did not initially lead
to a coherent and sustainable privacy social movement. n227 More
recently, however, advocates have successfully leveraged the
environmental changes discussed in Part II to win specific battles to protect
individual privacy. The privacy community has also used those
sustainability.

victories to reinforce the climate for change and support the

discussion necessary to sustain the nascent social movement. This
has helped to create a much-needed "virtuous cycle " n228 in which
each successful advocacy effort reinforces awareness of the ongoing
issues concerning online privacy and makes it easier both to
challenge specific practices in the future and to lay the groundwork
for broader-reaching change.

2. Plan shores up support for privacy which spills over.

Ozer 12 Nicole Ozer, the Technology and Civil Liberties Policy Director at the ACLU of Northern
California (ACLU-NC), where she developed the organization's Demand Your dotRights online privacy
campaign, 2012 (Putting Online Privacy Above The Fold: Building A Social Movement And Creating
Corporate Change New York University Review of Law & Social Change, Lexis)

privacy practices and laws do not auto-update. There

must be sustained public pressure to support real change. Since
2009, the privacy community has been able to leverage factors to start
to build a viable social movement to push for legal and policy
change. The next several years will be significant in determining
whether a privacy social movement is able to grow and mature like the
environmental movement by utilizing recent successes and current attention
to put down roots, mobilize broad public support, and achieve major
reforms. It is my hope that, by reflecting on recent successes related to online privacy, identifying
Unlike modern software,

factors that have contributed to these advances, and [*281] suggesting a focus for privacy work that can
reinforce these factors and break down remaining obstacles, this article contributes to the discussion of
why and how the privacy community should build and sustain a viable social movement. If the privacy
community can continue building the necessary infrastructure and taking the strategic policy steps
necessary to increase transparency about how an individual's own information flows through the data
ecosystem, it will be possible to sustain a large-scale social movement to ensure that, as technology
advances, privacy protections are safeguarded in the modern digital world.

RIGHTS ANTI-VAXXERS

GENERIC

1. Framing the debate in terms of rights is dangerous

the language of choice and freedom conveniently
justifies anti-vaccination that endangers society as a
whole.
Thornton 15 Paul Thornton, Los Angeles Times letters editor, 2015

(Opinion Vaccine skeptics and Chris Christie say it's about choice. They're
wrong, LA Times, February 2, Available Online at
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-chris-christie-vaccines-choice20150202-story.html, accessed 7/14/15, KM)
Chris Christie and vaccine skeptics say they want choice. What about those
who can't be vaccinated? Vaccine skeptics have exchanged autism for an appeal to choice as their cri

"Choice" is a great word -- it has a universal, empowering

appeal, and it's useful for winning a debate. Women's rights activists were smart
de coeur

decades ago to call their side of the abortion debate "pro-choice," asking us to ignore our feelings on the
procedure itself and trust women enough to make their own medical decisions.

So it's no

surprise that vaccine skeptics have now changed the subject from
their rightly ridiculed nonscientific claims on autism to the freedom to
parent as they wish -- in other words, to make their own choices.
And it appears they've convinced New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (or maybe
not), who says that even though vaccinating children is crucial and that his
own kids got their shots, choice is great too, and parents deserve to have
some when it comes to stopping the spread of communicable
illness. Yes, we can note the irony of this being the same governor who recently locked a nurse in a
tent to protect New Jersey from an Ebola virus this woman wasn't carrying, but that's beside the point.

Christie's statement (you might even call it gaffe) represents

the latest strategy for the vaccine skeptics: They're trying to win
apologists for their cause, not an argument on the efficacy of
vaccines. Whether you agree with them doesn't matter -- you could even ridicule their efforts to pass
off fraud as science in linking vaccination to autism. But freedom is a core American
value, and everyone deserves to make his or her own choices,
especially when it comes to parenting. This is Christie's logic.
Christie isn't the only one making this argument . As I've noted before, this
appeal to choice has replaced autism as our letter writers' preferred antivaccine argument. In response an editorial last week calling for an end to California's personalbelief exemption for parents who would rather not vaccinate their children, a small handful of
readers hyperbolically accused The Times' editorial board of favoring
totalitarianism (one said, "Sorry, but we dont live in Nazi
Germany"). Previously, a reader from Nevada whose letter was published -- much to the
dismay of at least a dozen others who sent us their own responses to their letter -- wrote
that "freedom means choice. Plain and simple. Without choice, we
are not a democracy." He continued: "It is my choice whether or not I want
to be vaccinated. It is your choice whether or not to wash your
hands or take basic public health precautions. It is an individual's
choice whether he or she wants to gamble with their child's life. It is
not your place to say what they have to do." Heres the problem:
This isnt about choice, and vaccine skeptics' use of freedom instead
of autism as their new cri de coeur exposes the joyful self-centeredness of
their obstinacy. Any pediatrician (well, perhaps not all pediatricians) will tell you a parent's
What's important is that

decision to vaccinate is as much about other children as their own. Parents who vaccinate their children
not only protect their own kids as well as pick up some of the slack for the mothers and fathers who
refusedvaccination, they also help to protect those who cannot get immunized. It's sad for anyone to come
down with a preventable disease, but lost in our focus lately on the children of vaccine-skeptical parents
who have come down with measles are those who rely on the rest of us who can choose to immunize to

organ transplant recipients, cancer

survivors and infants, among others -- might not have the choice that
Christie and others champion.
make the right choice. These people --

2. The vaccination debate will come down to rights SB

277 proves.
Herbert 15 Steven Herbert, Night Editor of City News Service, 2015
(Opponents of new California vaccination law gathering signatures to
overturn it, LA Daily News, July 15, Available Online at
http://www.dailynews.com/health/20150715/opponents-of-new-californiavaccination-law-gathering-signatures-to-overturn-it, accessed 7/16/15, KM)

Opponents of SB 277, a recently signed law requiring almost

all schoolchildren in California to be vaccinated against diseases such as measles
and whooping cough, received permission Wednesday to begin gathering signatures that
would qualify a referendum to overturn it. This referendum is not
about vaccinations. It is about defending the fundamental freedom
of a parent to make an informed decisions for their children without
being unduly penalized by a government that believes it knows
best, said former Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, the referendums
proponent. Valid signatures from 365,880 registered voters 5 percent of the total votes cast for
governor in the 2014 general election must be submitted by Sept. 28 to qualify the measure for the
November 2016 ballot, according to Secretary of State Alex Padilla. Q&A: What you need to know about
Californias new SB 277 If the attempt to overturn SB 277 qualifies for the ballot, its provisions would be
suspended. The bill, signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown on June 30, eliminates vaccination exemptions
based on religious or personal beliefs. It will require all children entering kindergarten to be vaccinated
unless a doctor certifies that a child has a medical condition, such as allergies, preventing it. The
legislation was prompted in part by an outbreak of measles traced to Disneyland that began in late
December and ultimately spread to more than 130 people across the state. Cases were also reported in
Arizona, California, Colorado, Nebraska, Oregon, Utah and Washington state.

3. Making broad claims about the importance of civil

liberties is hazardous antivaxers will be making the
same assertions listen to how this pro
choice antivaxer frames the debate
Fisher 14 Barbara Loe Fisher, Co-founder & President of the National
Vaccine Information Center, 2014 (Vaccination: Defending Your Right to
Know and Freedom to Choose, National Vaccine Information Center,
November 13, Available Online at http://www.nvic.org/nvic-vaccinenews/november-2014/vaccination--defending-your-right-to-know-andfree.aspx, accessed 7/16/15, KM)

Following is a referenced excerpt from a keynote presentation given by Barbara Loe Fisher at the 2014 U.S.
Health Freedom Congress in Minneapolis, Minnesota. View the video of her full 75 minute presentation
here. The public conversation about whether we should have the freedom to choose how we want to
maintain our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health has become one of the most important public
conversations of our time. It is a conversation that challenges us to examine complex public policy,
scientific, ethical, legal, philosophical, economic, political and cultural issues. This may appear to be a new
conversation but it has been around for centuries. 1 At the center of this new and old public conversation
about health and freedom, is the topic of vaccination. 2 3 What unites those defending an open discussion
about vaccination and health is a commitment to protecting bodily integrity and defending the inalienable
right to self-determination, which has been globally acknowledged as a human right. 7 8 9 Whether you
are a health care professional practicing complementary and alternative medicine or specializing in
homeopathic, naturopathic, chiropractic, acupuncture, or other holistic health options, 10 or you are a
consumer advocate working for the right to know and freedom to choose how you and your family will stay
well, many of you have a deep concern about health and freedom. Vaccination: Most Hotly Debated of All
Health Freedom Issues The most divisive and hotly debated of all health freedom issues is the question of

individuals should be at liberty to dissent from established

medical and government health policy and exercise freedom of
thought, speech and conscience when it comes to vaccination. 11 12 13
whether

In the health freedom movement, there are some who will defend the legal right to purchase and use
nutritional supplements, drink raw milk, eat GMO free food, remove fluoride from public water systems and
mercury from dental amalgams or choose non-medical model options for healing and staying well, but are
reluctant to publicly support the legal right to make vaccine choices. A Sacrosanct Status for

Vaccination Vaccination is a medical procedure that has been elevated to a sacrosanct status by those in
control of the medical-model based health care system for the past two centuries. Vaccination is now being
proclaimed as the most important scientific discovery and public health intervention in the history of
medicine. 14 15 16 Using religious symbols and crusading language, medical scientists describe
vaccination as the Holy Grail. 17 18 19 20 Vaccines, they say, are going to eradicate all causes of sickness
and death from the earth and anyone who doubts that is an ignorant fool. 21 22 23 24 25 In the 1970s,
pediatrician and health freedom pioneer Robert Mendelsohn, who described himself as a medical heretic,
warned that medical science has become a religion and doctors have turned the act of vaccination into

In the 21st century, if you refuse to believe that vaccination is a

dare to question vaccine safety or advocate for the
legal right to decline one or more government recommended
vaccines, you are in danger of being branded an anti-science heretic, a traitor and a threat to the
public health. 27 28 You are viewed as a person of interest who deserves to
be humiliated, silenced and punished for your dissent. 29 30 31 32
the new sacrament. 26
moral and civic duty and

Exercising Freedom of Thought, Speech and Autonomy To learn who rules over you, simply find out who
you are not allowed to criticize, said Voltaire, 33 34 the great 18th century writer during the Age of
Enlightenment, who was imprisoned several times in the Bastille for defending freedom of thought and
speech before the French Revolution. As contentious as the public conversation about vaccination, health

There has never been a better

time to challenge those ruling our health care with an iron fist . We have
the power and all we need to do is exercise it. Information is Power We have the tools in the 21st
century to bring about a modern Age of Enlightenment 35 that will liberate the people so
we can take back our freedom and our health. The electronic communications revolution
and autonomy has become, we cannot be afraid to have it.

has provided a global platform for us to access the Library of Medicine 36 and evaluate the quality and
quantity of vaccine science used to make public health policy and create vaccine laws. The World Wide
Web allows us to circumvent the paid mainstream media dominated by industry and governments and
publicly communicate in detail on our computers, tablets and smart phones exactly what happened to our
health or our childs health after vaccination. 37 38 39 40 We are connected with each other in a way that
we have never been before and it is time to talk about vaccines and microbes and the true causes of poor
health. It is time to face the fear that we and our children will get sick and die if we dont believe and do
what those we have allowed to rule our health care system with an iron fist tell us to believe and do. Who

What is at stake in this

debate between citizens challenging the status quo and those
resisting constructive change is: Who will control the multi-trillion
dollar U.S. health care system?41 If people have the right to know and freedom to choose
Will Control the Multi-Trillion Dollar U.S. Health Care System?

how to heal and stay healthy, a free people may think independently and choose to spend their money on

A
free people may reject sole reliance on the expensive and , some
say, ineffective pharmaceutical-based medical model that has dominated US
health care for two centuries. 43 44 45 A free people may refuse to buy and eat GMO foods. 46 A free
people may walk away from doctors, who threaten and punish
patients for refusing to obey orders to get an annual flu shot or
decline to give their children every single government recommended
vaccine on schedule no exceptions and no questions asked. 47 The
something different from what they have been carefully taught to spend their money on right now. 42

most rational and compelling arguments for defending health freedom, including vaccine freedom of

The human right to voluntary,

informed consent to vaccination is the best example of why
Americans must not wait any longer to stand up and defend without
compromise the inalienable right to autonomy and protection of bodily integrity.
choice, are grounded in ethics, law, science and economics.

PRIVACY

1. The right to privacy becomes a tool for antivaccination parents to refuse vaccination
immunization is seen as an intrusion.
Friedersdorf 15 Conor Friedersdorf, staff writer at The Atlantic, where he focuses on politics
and national affairs, holds a Masters degree in Journalism from New York University and BA in Politics,
Philosophy, and Economics from Pomona College, 2015 (Should Anti-Vaxers Be Shamed or Persuaded?,
The Atlantic, February 3, Available Online at http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/02/shouldanti-vaxxers-be-shamed-or-persuaded/385109/, accessed 7/14/15, KM)
While anti-vaxer ignorance has caused great damage, the vast majority are not, in fact, especially selfish people. But I
part with the commentators who assume that insulting, shaming, and threatening anti-vaccination parents is the best

Chris Christie is getting flak for

to anti-vaccination parents. He said, "We vaccinate ours kids, and so,
you know thats the best expression I can give you of my opinion. You know its much more
important what you think as a parent than what you think as a
public official. Thats what we do. But I understand that parents
need to have some measure of choice in things as well, so thats the
balance the government has to decide." Those remarks could be improved upon. Indeed,
course, especially when they extend their logic to politicians. For example,
"pandering"

Christie's office released a clarifying statement after his original comments came under criticism. But isn't Christie's
approach more likely to persuade anti-vaccine parents than likening their kids to bombs? Let's emulate the New Jersey
governor. If I could address any anti-vaccine parents reading this article: Like you, I looked into the scientific evidence with
an open mind. When I regard conventional wisdom or the ruling establishment to be wrong, I'm always eager to publicly
dissent. In this case, I came to the same conclusion as my own hyper-cautious mother: Not only would I definitely
vaccinate my own kid if I had onethe case is so strong that, were standard vaccinations more expensive, I'd spend 20
percent of my income to get my kids their shots. That's how high my confidence is in their safety and importance. And if
you're surprised by this measles outbreak, you underestimated the costs of your choice, which you'd be smart to reverse
as soon as possible. Testimony from people who actually have kids is, of course, going to be more credible. (See Roald
Dahl's story about his daughter for a particularly affecting testimony.) I'd urge parents with the impulse to shame and
insult to try that approach instead, not just because it strikes me as more likely to persuade the typical anti-vaccine
parent, but due to the conviction that while anti-vaxer ignorance has caused great damage, the vast majority are not, in
fact, especially selfish people, and characterizing them as such just feeds into their mistaken belief system. Put another
way, the parents I know who vaccinated their children, mine included, were not acting selflessly or sacrificially to protect
the herd. They were appropriately confident that vaccinating their kids would significantly increase rather than reduce
their chances of surviving and thriving in this world. Well-informed selfish people get vaccinated! Like Chris Mooney, I
worry about this issue getting politicized. As he notes, there is presently no partisan divide on the subject. " If

at
some point, vaccinations get framed around issues of individual
choice and freedom vs. government mandatesas they did in the 'Christie vs. Obama'
narrativeand this in turn starts to map onto right-left differences ... then watch out," he writes. "People could
start getting political signals that they ought to align their views on vaccinesor, even worse, their vaccination behaviors
with the views of the party they vote for." As a disincentive to this sort of thinking, folks on the right and left would do
well to reflect on the fact that the ideology of anti-vaxers doesn't map neatly onto the left or right, with the former willing
to use state coercion and the latter opposing it. For example, consider some of the standard language used to talk about

If you're a progressive who believes in both a constitutionally

guaranteed right to privacy and a moral right to autonomy over one's body, do
you also believe that choices about vaccinations ought to be between
patients and doctors, and that the state has no right to intrude on
such a sensitive matter? If you're a conservative who believes that the community has a role in
abortion.

safeguarding innocent babies, even when that infringes on a parent's choices and bodily autonomy, do you also believe
vaccinations can be compelled by the state? I don't mean to suggest that the abortion and vaccination debates map onto
one another perfectlyonly to illustrate that legally compelling vaccinations would be both consistent with and in tension
with other positions taken by both the left and right. Personally, I can think of hypothetical situations where I'd support
compelled vaccination and others where I'd staunchly oppose them, based not only on specific facts about the world, a

given disease, and the vaccine against it, but also on the question of whether such a law would really improve public
health outcomes.

CONSTITUTION
1. Anti-vaccination proponents base their arguments in
the Constitution too according to this anti-vaxer, its a
fight for inalienable rights to freedom
Fisher 14 Barbara Loe Fisher, Co-founder & President of the National
Vaccine Information Center, 2014 (Vaccination: Defending Your Right to
Know and Freedom to Choose, National Vaccine Information Center,
November 13, Available Online at http://www.nvic.org/nvic-vaccinenews/november-2014/vaccination--defending-your-right-to-know-andfree.aspx, accessed 7/16/15, KM)
NVIC: Defending Ethical Principle of Informed Consent I and the more than 100,000 followers and

the National Vaccine Information Center,

take an informed consent position with regard to vaccination . Since our
supporters 48 of the non-profit charity,

founding in 1982, we have defended the ethical principle of informed consent to vaccine risk-taking
because vaccines are pharmaceutical products that carry a risk of injury, death and failure, 49 and
because informed consent to medical risk taking is the central ethical principle guiding the ethical practice
of medicine. 50 We support the first do no harm precautionary approach to public policymaking, which
focuses on how much harm can be prevented from a policy or law and not how much harm is acceptable.

We do not advocate for or

against use of vaccines. We support your human and legal right to
make informed, voluntary health care decisions for yourself and your
children and choose to use every government recommended vaccine,
a few vaccines or no vaccines at all. 52 NVIC has worked for more than 30 years to
51 NVIC Supports Your Health Choices & Vaccine Exemptions

secure vaccine safety and informed consent provisions in public health policies and laws, including flexible

We are doing this in an

increasingly hostile environment created by an industrygovernment-medical trade alliance that is lobbying for laws to compel all Americans to
medical, religious and conscientious belief vaccine exemptions.

use every government recommended without deviation from the official schedule or face a growing
number of societal sanctions. 53 Although historically, children have been the target for vaccine mandates,
authoritarian implementation of federal vaccine policy is not just for children anymore, it is rapidly
expanding to include all adults. 54 55 Californians Stood Up for Personal Belief Vaccine Exemption In 2012,
many California residents traveled to Sacramento to protest a law introduced by a pediatrician legislator to
make it harder for parents to file a personal belief vaccine exemption for their children to attend school.
They responded to Action Alerts we issued through the online NVIC Advocacy Portal and lined the halls of
the state Capitol building, many with their children, and waited for hours and hours to testify at several
public hearings. Mother after mother and father after father, grandparents, nurses, doctors and students of
chiropractic, came to the public microphone. Some talked about how vaccine reactions left their children
sick and disabled but they cant find a doctor to write a medical exemption so their children can attend
school; others talked about how their babies died after vaccination; and others simply opposed restriction
of the legal right for parents to make medical decisions for their minor children. It was a remarkable public
witnessing by articulate, courageous citizens pleading with their elected representatives to do the right
thing. The right thing would have been for lawmakers to vote to leave the personal belief vaccine
exemption alone so parents could continue to make vaccine decisions for their minor children without
being forced to beg a hostile doctor or government official for permission to do that. That didnt happen.
56 Today, parents in California are forced to pay a pediatrician or other state-approved health worker to
sign a personal belief vaccine exemption and the doctor can refuse to sign and parents are reporting many
pediatricians ARE refusing to sign. Californians Inspired Colorado Citizens to Stand Up in 2014 Yet, because
in 2012 California citizens made a powerful public statement by participating in the democratic process

and taking action with calls, letters, emails and personal testimony, in 2014 Colorado citizens were
inspired to do the same when the personal belief vaccine exemption was attacked in that state. Because in
2012 enough people in California did not sit back and assume the job of defending health freedom would
get done by someone else, in 2014 enough people in Colorado did not assume it would get done by
someone else. 57 And this time, we were able to hold the line and protect the personal belief vaccine
exemption in that state from being eliminated or restricted. 58 This time, there were enough lawmakers in

pressure
from drug industry, government and medical trade lobbyists labeling
a minority of citizens as ignorant, selfish, crazy and in need of
having their parental and civil rights taken away for defending the
human right to self determination and informed consent to vaccine
risk-taking. The Right to Make a Risk Decision Belongs to You I do not tell anyone what risks to take
and never will. The right and responsibility for making a risk decision
belongs to the person taking the risk. When you become informed and think rationally
Colorado, who listened and carefully considered the evidence. 59 They did not cave in to

about a risk you or your child will take - and then follow your conscience - you own that decision. And when
you own a decision, you can defend it. And once you can defend it, you will be ready to do whatever it

fight for your freedom to make it, no matter who tries to

prevent you from doing that. Einstein: Never do anything against conscience Albert
takes to

Einstein, who risked arrest in Germany in the 1930s when he spoke out against censorship and
persecution of minorities, said, Never do anything against conscience even if the State demands it. 64 It
takes strength to act independently. When the herd is all running toward the cliff, the one running in the
opposite direction seems crazy. People who think rationally and act independently even when the majority
does not, may be the only ones to survive! Gandhi: Speak Your Mind Gandhi was often persecuted by the
ruling majority for challenging their authority and using non-violent civil disobedience to publicly dissent.
He said, Never apologize for being correct, for being ahead of your time. If youre right and you know it,
speak your mind. Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is still the truth. 65 Sharing what you know
to be true empowers others to make conscious choices. Jefferson: The Minority Possess Their Equal

The authors of the U.S. Constitution made sure to include

strong language securing individual liberties, including freedom of
thought, speech and conscience. They did that because many of the families
Rights

immigrating to America had personally faced discrimination and persecution in other countries for holding
beliefs different from the ruling majority. In his first Presidential inaugural address, Thomas Jefferson
warned: All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases
to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority posses their equal rights, which
equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression. 66 Getting Vaccinated Is Not A Patriotic

There is no liberty more fundamentally a natural, inalienable right

than the freedom to think independently and follow your conscience when choosing
what you will risk your life or your childs life for. And that is why voluntary, informed
consent to medical risk taking is a human right.
Act

YES SPILLOVER

1. Yes spillover anti-vaccination advocates use Court

cases, pro-choice rhetoric, and even GMOs to justify
their beliefs.
McGough 15 Michael McGough, Los Angeles Times senior editorial writer that writes about
law, national security, politics, foreign policy and religion, holds a Masters degree in law from Yale Law
School, 2015 (Opinion: A Supreme Court quote anti-vaxxers will love, LA Times, February 5, Available
Online at http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-vaccines-supreme-court-parents-20150203story.html, accessed 7/14/15, KM)

The Supreme Court has recognized the right of parents to make choices for their children The antivaccination movement has an interesting connection to the judicially created right to abortion Vaccination

The refusal of many parents to vaccinate

their children against measles has become a political story . Some (but not
is the latest test of parental authority

all) Republican presidential hopefuls are giving aid and comfort to anti-vaxxers. Meanwhile, some have
argued (unpersuasively) that President Obama is guilty of the same sort of pandering. Outside the realm of
electoral politics, a debate rages over whether credulity about the dangers of vaccination is primarily a
feature of right-leaning libertarians or liberals who also harbor ridiculous fears about genetically modified

the anti-vaccination movement also

has an interesting connection to the Supreme Court and the
judicially created right to abortion. In 1925, in Pierce vs. Society of
Sisters, the court struck down on constitutional grounds an Oregon
law that required children to attend only public schools. Ruling in favor of
an order of Catholic nuns and a military academy, the court held that the law
unreasonably interferes with the liberty of parents and guardians
to direct the upbringing and education of children. The decision includes this
food. No one to my knowledge has mentioned that

famous sentence: The child is not the mere creature of the state; those who nurture him and direct his
destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional

This ringing affirmation of parental authority continues to

resonate in conservative and libertarian circles. The website of the Home School
obligations.

Legal Defense Assn. says it was established to defend and advance the constitutional right of parents to
direct the education of their children and to protect family freedoms."

as in American culture, parents rule.

In American law as well

- But does the Constitution really give parents the

power to decide how their kids will be educated? Not explicitly, but the court located such a right in the
14th Amendment, which says that no state may deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without
due process of law. In a previous decision, the court had said that liberty denotes not merely freedom from bodily restraint but
also a constellation of other fundamental rights. Now for the abortion connection. The landmark Roe vs. Wade decision cites Pierce vs.
Society of Sisters. Like the right to shape your child's education, a womans right to abortion (rooted in a larger right of privacy) is derived
from a broad reading of liberty. Many Americans are offended by the idea that abortion rights are fundamental; but some of those same
people would enthusiastically agree with the court that parents have a constitutional right to shape the upbringing of their children -- whether
the issue is education or medical care. Im not saying that the Supreme Court necessarily would strike down a law requiring vaccination with

the courts statement that the child is not the mere

creature of the state isnt that far removed from New Jersey Gov. Chris
Christies insistence in his vaccination comments that parents need to have some
measure of choice in things as well. A reader complained that I "said, basically, that
no exemptions. But

the U.S. Supreme Court supports parents' rights over health concerns on vaccinations, citing a parochial
school case from 1925. The analogy is incorrect; the Supreme Court clearly stated in 1905 that health
concerns justify mandatory vaccinations." Actually I didn't say that the Supreme Court would strike down a
requirement that children be vaccinated. In fact, I wrote: "I'm not saying that the Supreme Court

the
Supreme Court had used very expansive language about parental
rights similar to that employed by opponents of vaccination (and
necessarily would strike down a law requiring vaccination with no exemptions." My point was

supporters of home-schooling). But I should have mentioned the 1905 ruling, which involved the
prosecution of an adult who declined to be vaccinated for smallpox. (Here's the court's ruling in Jacobson
vs. Massachusetts.)