What is Immunization Exclusion Day?
Over the past few years, the state of Oregon has made it pretty clear where it stands in the heated vaccine debate: Since 2015, the state has held an annual Immunization Exclusion Day.
Immunization Exclusion Day is the deadline for parents to make sure kids are up-to-date on their vaccinations, or submit medical or non-medical exemption forms if they are not. (In order to qualify for a non-medical exemption for their children, parents or guardians must fill out a form "verifying completion of education about immunizations, either from a health care practitioner or the online vaccine education module," according to the Oregon Health Authority.) If official papers aren't filed with a child's school by that date, the student is sent home. And not just for the day - indefinitely, until parents submit up-to-date records. Last year, 4,000 students were sent home from school. This year's Immunization Exclusion Day happened on February 21, although statistics on the number of students affected are currently unavailable.
The Oregon Health Authority states that the number of vaccines required varies by a child's age and how long ago they were vaccinated. Most children must have shots for Polio, Hep B, Hep A, DTaP (Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Acellular Pertussis vaccine), the flu, the chicken pox, and measles/mumps.
The law is intended to help reduce the amount of children without vaccinations and prevent the spread of fatal illnesses in schools, including private and charter schools. A recent Oregonian report found that Oregon's public charter schools have some of the state's lowest rates of herd immunity against measles - meaning the population's collective resistance to the disease is low, thereby increasing the chance that an infected individual would spread it across the community.
"Immunization is the very best and safest way to protect children against vaccine-preventable diseases such as whooping cough and measles," Umatilla County Public Health Administrator Jim Setzer told the Hermison Herald of local governments' stance on the issue. "Immunization helps keep our schools and community safe and healthy.
"We're all hands on deck."
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