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SALEM, OR (KPTV) — Hundreds of people gathered in Salem Thursday afternoon to protest Oregon House Bill 3063, which would provide measles vaccination exemptions for kids with a medical diagnosis.
Under the proposed bill, religious and personal beliefs would not be considered.
Some parents feel the bill would infringe on their parenting decision, including a local who mom says she thinks her son was negatively affected by previous vaccines.
“He had seizures and 3 and 5 months old, called my doctor and was told there’s nothing to be alarmed about,” she said. “At 5, he was diagnosed with ADHD, anxiety disorder and autism.”
Recently, the results of a decade-long study in Denmark were released, showing the MMR vaccine did not increase the risk of autism.
Meanwhile, several local doctors and nurses are also standing against HB 3063, including a local pediatrician who says he’s not anti-vaccine, but thinks more studies and research need to be done on the long-term side effects of vaccines.
“The challenge we have with vaccine data is they have not done a single study comparing the CDC schedule with unvaccinated children,” Dr. Paul Thomas said. “Imagine the tobacco industry back when they said it was safe to smoke cigarettes. Tobacco science said if you smoke one pack a day verses two packs a day and we’ll look at your outcome a year later — well no one died — so cigarettes are safe. This is the kind of data we’re getting about vaccines being safe, when there hasn’t been a single study on safety. All I’m calling for is let’s get the data.”
If House Bill 3063 passes, a health care emergency would be declared to make sure all kids who are not vaccinated would be, so they can continue to attend school and daycare.
Recently, the US Surgeon General traveled to Clark County to discuss the importance of vaccines; this comes as the World Health Organization listed “Vaccine Hesitancy” as a top threat to global health for the very first time.
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