News

Anti-Vax Parents Calling Themselves Refugees as They Flee States for 'Medical Freedom'

NewsPublished Feb 19, 2020
By Kaitlin Stanford
Child getting immunizediStock

It’s been pretty hard to ignore the fact that the vaccination debate has reached fever pitch in the last few years. In 2019, several US states cracked down on vaccination loopholes by ending religious exemptions that allow anti-vax parents to skip crucial immunizations without medical reasons, including New York and California. The move has been undeniably controversial, leading anti-vaxxers to protest that the laws violate their rights, and health officials to argue that it's a public safety issue, plain and simple. But now, it seems anti-vax parents are starting to leave states like California that are tightening their restrictions -- and in the process, some parents are even referring to themselves as refugees, fleeing to seek “medical freedom” for their families.

The insight comes from a new report, which analyzed testimony at a public hearing held by the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.

The hearing was actually held in August 2019, where members of the public discussed whether Idaho should be the next state to tighten its vaccination laws. In doing so, it would require children attending school to be vaccinated for measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR), and crack down on exemptions. If parents refuse, their children would need to be home schooled.

It was only recently that nearly 600 pages of written testimony and several hours' worth of recordings from the day were released to the Idaho Statesman -- and they certainly include a lot of eye-opening statements from anti-vax parents.

Many of them claim they were driven from their homes over what they're calling "medical segregation."

In Idaho, they’d found “medical freedom,” where they could choose freely if and when to vaccinate their children. But the risk of Idaho following suit in tightening the restrictions has left many of them panicked and fearful.

"I'm writing as a deeply concerned Parent & California Refugee, who had to pull my entire Family out of the State to protect them from Tyrannical Government,” read one written statement. "I will not stand by allowing Idaho to become a Socialist State.”

"I'm a mother. And I'm also a California refugee,” read another statement, written by Shalee Brindley. "I came here in search of medical freedom.”

The Idaho Statesman notes that Brindley is a resident of Meridian, Idaho, who moved her family from San Francisco three years ago over California’s tightening restrictions.

Others tried to highlight just what a haven Idaho has been for them.

"It needs to be known that a very popular reason Idaho has been the most moved to state in the country two years in a row, is medical freedom!” wrote one parent. "Many are SB277 refugees. I personally know a handful of these refugees very well …"

Another parent, described as a licensed civil engineer with a master's degree from Stanford University, said he moved to Idaho "for the freedoms of this state," and if backed against a wall, he would "defend it with my life and my weapons."

Although their passionate pleas of medical freedom are certainly moving, health experts and government officials say there’s more to the story.

The fact is, laws are tightening in response to the growing number of measles outbreaks, which are hitting many parts of the country where vaccination rates are low. Last year, there were more than 1,200 cases of the illness in 31 different states -- the highest rate since 1992.

More than 73% of those cases were linked to recent outbreaks in New York, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"The majority of cases were among people who were not vaccinated against measles," the agency reported. "Measles is more likely to spread and cause outbreaks in U.S. communities where groups of people are unvaccinated.”

At the heart of the matter is a principle known as "herd immunity."

The concept is simple: In order for a population to remain protected from an illness, a certain percentage of the population needs to be immunized for it. If the percentage dips too low, the population is no longer considered protected, and an illness or disease has a better chance of spreading at a more rapid rate. When it comes to the health and safety of schoolchildren, that simply isn’t something many officials are willing to gamble with.

Herd immunity against measles, for example, requires 90 to 95% of the entire population to be immune, which is why the decrease in immunization rates has contributed to recent outbreaks.

California Sen. Richard Pan has insisted that all these laws are trying to do is protect the public -- especially the young and medically vulnerable.

"If you wonder, why do we pass these bills, It's because we don't want people to catch these diseases,” Pan told the Idaho Statesman. "Medical freedom is not [about] having to end up in a hospital because you got a preventable disease. … I want the right to be able to have my kids safe in school. People can home-school or get independent study through public schools if they don't want to vaccinate their children."

But for some anti-vaxxers, this argument doesn't seem to carry much weight.

“We are about the individual in America," one father stated during last August's hearing. "I don’t care about the herd, I care about my family, about my children. But we need to defend this state. … This state is the fastest-growing state in America. And I think it’s because the few people that have a brain left are coming here.”

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