U.S. Representative Kim Schrier, MD Introduces The VACCINES Act of 2019
May 22, 2019
The U.S. now has 940 cases of measles in 24 states. That’s the highest number of cases since 1994. Public health officials are doing their best to stop the spread of the disease while vaccine critics continue to spread disinformation. According to The Washington Post, leaders of the anti-vaccine movement including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Del Bigtree, and Barbara Loe Fisher are continuing to encourage communities hit hardest by these outbreaks not to vaccinate.
So what can governments do to help stop the spread of both disease and misinformation? While states such as New York are trying a variety of methods to encourage vaccination, the U.S. Congress is now stepping in to help reassure parents of the safety and efficacy of vaccines.
The VACCINES Act of 2019, bipartisan legislation introduced by Representative Kim Schrier, MD of Washington State, will enable the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and its partners to conduct communication campaigns to address disinformation and encourage parents to make an informed choice to vaccinate their children.
This is a big step forward for national and state public health departments who have been chronically underfunded and therefore unable to spend the resources needed to ensure all parents have access to science-based information about immunizations.
Please contact your Representative today to ask them to support this legislation.
NOTE: We will update this post if and when the Senate introduces its own version of the VACCINES Act. For those not familiar with the federal legislative process, or for those who need a just a refresher, both the House and Senate must pass the same bill for it to become law. If the Senate introduces its own version, the House and Senate will have to agree on a version.
Please join us in support of vaccines. We need your help to spread the word about the importance of vaccines to your family, friends, community and legislators. Your support is also critical to ensuring strong state and federal policies that increase our ability to help protect everyone from vaccine-preventable diseases. Learn how you can make a difference.
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