California has been facing growing problems of disease outbreaks due mainly to a growing number of children who aren’t vaccinated against common infectious disease.

A measles outbreak that began at Disneyland eventually infected 131 Californians before it ended this year. It sent nearly 20 percent of those infected to the hospital.

That and other outbreaks can be traced to a California law that allowed parents to refuse vaccinations for their kids based on personal or religious beliefs and by an unusually large number of parents who take advantage of it. In the 2013-2-14 school year there were 17,000 philosophical exemptions. In some schools only half the students have all the vaccinations they should.

The state has acted, passing a tough new law that requires young children to be vaccinated unless there is a medical reason not to. (There were just 1,000 medical exemptions in California in 2013-2014.)

Parents who won’t vaccinate their children based on philosophical opposition still have the right to — they just can’t send their kids to public schools but must instead home school them.

The California law is reasonable and should be looked at by other states with weak vaccination laws.

If parents don’t want to believe in the generally accepted science on the need for vaccinations, they should not be allowed to expose other school children to a higher risk of disease. There are various rules in schools about what is and is not acceptable and if parents don’t like a rule, they can either accept it anyway or home school.

State’s without exemptions not surprisingly have the best rates of vaccination in the country. In Mississippi 99.7 percent of all students have their mumps-measles-rubella vaccination.

Minnesota is among 20 states that allow personal exemptions for vaccinations. Fortunately, Minnesotans understand the benefits of vaccinations and the state has an immunization rate of 90 percent. Less than 2 percent of the state’s kindergarteners enter school unvaccinated because of conscientious-objection exemptions. But some worry that more parents could seek exemptions and the rate could slip.

A bill in the last legislative session would have improved things some by leaving the exemption in place but requiring that parents visit a doctor first to at least learn about the benefits and any potential risks of vaccination. The bill did not pass.

Lawmakers should closely follow the vaccination rates in the state to watch for any slipping and they should revisit the state’s vaccination laws next session.

The Mankato Free Press

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency