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Editorial

Reckless Rejection of the Measles Vaccine

A pediatrician in Miami administered a measles vaccination.Credit...Joe Raedle/Getty Images

It is bad enough that many misguided parents are endangering their own children by refusing to let them be vaccinated against measles and other contagious diseases. But it is shockingly irresponsible of them to put other children and adults at risk of catching measles from their unvaccinated children.

Public officials and pediatricians need to restrict where unvaccinated children are allowed to go if the parents refuse to do so. Most unvaccinated people can weather a bout of measles, but some groups are at high risk of complications. Young infants, pregnant women, children suffering from leukemia, and people with weak immune systems, among others, can’t take the vaccine and could suffer great harm from measles, including encephalitis and even death.

Measles is so contagious that 90 percent of the people who are not immune to the disease will become infected if exposed to a measles carrier. Even after an infected person leaves the room, the virus can hang around and infect people for a couple of hours.

The tragedy is that there is a highly effective vaccine that federal health officials deem 95 percent to 97 percent effective, yet many parents refuse to use it either because they believe, mistakenly, that it would cause autism or they believe, also mistakenly, that measles is a disease of the past so there is no real need to have their children vaccinated.

State and local laws vary on vaccination requirements for entering the public schools. Some have “personal belief” exemptions that allow parents to opt out of mandatory vaccinations.

In Orange County, Calif., some schools report that 20 percent to 40 percent of parents have sought a personal-beliefs exemption. Last year, 79 percent of the cases of measles in the unvaccinated in the United States were connected to personal-belief exemptions.

From Jan. 1 to Jan. 30 this year, some 102 people in 14 states were reported to have measles, of which 56 are part of a large, multistate outbreak linked to Disneyland in California. It is believed that someone infected abroad carried the virus to Disneyland in December and, in the crowded conditions there, spread it to children without immunity.

At least one pediatric clinic in Orange County, Calif., is debating whether to ban unvaccinated children lest they carry measles or other diseases that could infect babies and vulnerable children in the waiting room.

Last year, California made it more difficult for parents to opt out by requiring that their personal-belief request be signed by a doctor. But pockets of resistance remain. In such cases, officials should take action to protect the public. Those in Orange County, for instance, have wisely barred some unvaccinated children from going to school.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 22 of the New York edition with the headline: Reckless Rejection of the Measles Vaccine. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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