Kudos to California Governor Jerry Brown, who on Tuesday signed into law a bill that mandates all children who attend public school must be vaccinated, with no exceptions for personal and religious exemptions. This was in response to the increase of anti-vaxxers in that state who have endangered others by invoking “parents’ rights” in their refusal to have their kids vaccinated. There’s a direct correlation between the rise of anti-vaxxers and events like the measles outbreak at Disneyland that sickened 147 people, as well as other public health problems across the country.
I have written about this subject often, and named some of the celebrities who have been outspoken anti-vaxxers, like Mayim Bialik, Rob Schneider, and Jenny McCarthy. The latter is the most notorious of these because she has used various media platforms to spread lies and pseudo-science on this subject. So I wasn’t surprised when Jim Carrey, McCarthy’s ex (who should have seen a physician to get inoculated against her garbage), took to Twitter to denounce the California legislation. Fortunately, my friend Phil Plait used his Slate column to debunk the nonsense Carrey et al continue to spread about the effectiveness and safety of vaccines. It’s worth your time.
Now we need other states to follow the lead of California (and Mississippi and West Virginia) to bar any non-health exemptions and ensure that every child in public school is vaccinated.