By Ashley Hiruko

ahiruko@soundpublishing.com

A house bill could add pressure on Washington parents to vaccinate their children, and it’s generating arguments on all sides of the vaccination issue.

House Bill 1638, a result of the recent state measles outbreak, would remove the personal and religious exemptions currently allowed for the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.

Fifty of the state’s 51 confirmed cases originated in Clark County, where officials believe the state measles epidemic began among a cohort of unvaccinated Vancouver school children. And from there it spread to a man in King County and four others (so far) in Oregon.

On Jan. 25, Gov. Jay Inslee declared the measles outbreak a state of emergency, allocating state resources to aid in mitigating the spread of the virus that lives in mucus of the nose and throat.

Douglas Diekema, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine and physician at Seattle Chil-dren’s Hospital, said he understands the importance of vaccines. He was young in his career when doctors began distributing the Haemophilus influenzae vaccine.

“There’s nothing more important than watching a horrible disease that damages children … nearly disappear,” Diekema said about the illness that can cause meningitis, epiglottis or sepsis.

Children who developed H flu typically came down with a fever, and nearly every child with a fever was treated by doctors as a potential H flu case.

Diekema recalled an instance early in his time at Children’s, which he calls the “most memorable” and, to some degree, the “most terrifying” in his 30-year career. He was called to Oak Harbor to transport a child with H-flu-caused epiglottis — it resulted in a blocked airway. The 4-year-old child couldn’t breathe.

To save the child’s life, an emergency room doctor cut a hole in the neck to bypass the blockage.

“Then, I had a terrifying 30-minute flight on a helicopter having difficulty getting air into his lungs the entire way,” Diekema said.

The child safely made it to Children’s from Whidbey Island, but many others don’t, he said.

“The measles causes different sorts of problems, but this is an example of how powerful vaccinations can be at eliminating or getting close to getting rid of these horrible diseases of childhood,” Diekema said.

We vaccinate young children for a reason, he said — they’re most at risk for measles and other diseases preventable by vaccines.

“It’s not that we’re doing it because it’s convenient. Usually it’s given at the age we can have a vaccine be most effective and as young as possible to protect the baby at its most vulnerable time,” Diekema explained.

Rep. Monica Stonier, of Clark County, said she supports a bill requiring vaccination, with or without an outbreak.

“The impacts it’s had on schools and public health workers, makes it a more urgent issue now,” she said. “It does warrant our narrow focus on the measles outbreak.”

In 2015, a vaccine bill sponsored by Rep. June Robinson, D-Everett, and supported by Gov. Inslee, failed to leave the House. It called for the removal of personal or philosophical exemptions from vaccines in the state, and came after a measles outbreak at Disneyland in California that affected more than 90 people across eight states.

This new bill would focus on exemptions related to the MMR vaccine.

Stonier, a teacher and instruction coach, said she heard from teachers about struggles to get their classrooms covered as they search for their own proof of vaccination records. Traffic to school offices, along with students proving they’ve received vaccinations, has added to the “already busy schedule” of school.

Public health workers who would typically respond to issues of the opioid crisis and other large issues have been redirected to address the outbreak.

“They had to be pulled off all of that work to respond to the spread of measles,” Stonier said. “So, the normal operations of things in Vancouver in many ways has come to a halt so we could respond to this.”

Stonier said there is push back from some parents who are concerned about the state’s decision-making in the lives of their children.

“I respect that position and it’s important for parents to make decisions for their kids,” she said. “The difference here is that the privilege those parents are taking is having a huge impact on the rest of the children.”

Lobat Kimiai, of Kirkland, said she isn’t so convinced that vaccines are a good thing, especially when given to young babies as recommended by the Centers of Disease Control. A nutritionist, she said she is “questioning the safety, the validity and effectiveness of them.”

She said she searched to find a study supporting the CDC vaccine schedule.

She worries that the rates of autism, which a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg and CDC report found is one in 59 in 2018, could be linked to vaccination.

However, a 1998 study in The Lancet, which asserted a link between autism and vaccines, used most frequently in anti-vaccination arguments, was retracted in October 2018.

Kimiai said she believes in “strong science,” and admits vaccines may help.

“Looking at evidence when you go back, yes maybe it did help for polio,” she said. But added she believes measles is “the most benign disease out there. You catch the measles and it’s gone in a week.”

Her son was vaccinated in the 1990s, given one vaccine at six months and the other required vaccines at 12 months.

“But back then, vaccines weren’t so toxic as they are now with heavy metals,” she said. “That’s what’s causing these neurological conditions.”

The CDC reports that a 2004 study conducted by the Institute of Medicine proves vaccine ingredients, including mercury-based thimerosal, do not cause autism.

Her son’s food allergies, she speculates, could have come from vaccines. Or, it could be a hereditary condition, given that her husband too has food allergies.

Kimiai decided to oppose mandating vaccines.

“Our kids are sick these days. There’s so much food allergies and a lot of diabetes,” Kimiai said. “It makes one wonder, especially those of us in health care, we’re questioning these protocols.”

Dikema said that the vaccination schedule exists for a reason.

“Doctors are not blindly following someone’s recommendation,” he said. “This is very carefully thought out … The conclusion we’ve reached is that it’s safer to vaccinate than to not vaccinate.”

Of course, immunity can be achieved without a vaccine, Diekema said. But that requires the person catch the virus.

“It’s a little bit like rolling the dice or playing Russian roulette — you may recover from the illness or not,” he said. “A small percentage will suffer very serious outcomes or even death.”

For every 1,000 children who contract the measles, one will develop encephalitis, the swelling of the brain that can cause a mental impairment or leave a child deaf, CDC data shows. One or two will die from measles.

“The consequences can be fairly significant and the whole point of vaccination is to give someone that immunity without exposing them to risk of the disease,” he said.

People who question vaccines need to be judicious of where they’re getting their information, he added.

“There’s a lot of noise out there and a lot of it’s not based on science, but based on belief.”

Diekema said the most trusted adviser someone has is their physician.

“They’re not going to make a recommendation that they think is not in the child’s best interest,” he said. “We will also be able to answer their questions and address their concerns.”

And not all vaccines are required, only those he said that pose a real risk to U.S. children.

Stonier says people should not be dealing with the measles in modern-day Washington state.

“Look at places in the world with no vaccinations. They have widespread measles outbreaks that result in death … In places in the world where they’re struggling with measles outbreaks, they’re clamoring for the measles vaccine.”