The Assembly Health and Senior Services Chairman, Herb Conway, refused to allow a vote on a bill that would allow parents in NJ to keep their children from receiving some mandatory vaccinations. The bill which was first proposed seven years ago, but only got it's first hearing today, would allow parents to claim a "conscientious exemption" to any of the vaccines. The bill was also drafted at a time when many parents were concerned about the vaccinations possibly being the cause of an increase in autism from a study that has since been disproved.
The bill would have allowed the state commissioner of health to suspend the objections in a time of a health scare or even not allow children who were not vaccinated to be suspended from school in such times.
I have a three year old at home who has a mother who was very concerned about the effects of vaccinations on her "perfect" child. While he has attended preschool since he was 6 months we managed to not get him vaccinated for MMR until he was three, mostly by ignnoring the letters from the school. He now has all his shots and I am happy to say he is still "perfect". Lucky for us and his classmates no one got seriously ill.
Looking back I don't know if I would've changed anything we did as his mother was adamant about her concerns and had a background with medical training. Who was I to question her? However, I also know I would want all his classmates to have their shots so he would be as safe as possible from a major disease.
This is a very sensitive issue, and while I think the less government involvement in our lives the better, I may think the shots may be in our best interests. Especially in light of the autism study being found to be a fake.
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