Ashley Walborn of Aurora holds her 1-year-old son, Nathanyel Jr., as he gets one of his six shots from nurse Jessica Capetillo at a Kaiser Permanente office in Denver. (Photos by Joe Amon, The Denver Post)
Re: “Colorado kindergartners have lowest measles vaccination rate in the nation,” Feb. 4 news story.
Colorado’s MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccination rate for kindergartners — the nation’s lowest at 82 percent — is too low to provide “herd immunity” to prevent a wider measles outbreak and protect those who can?t be vaccinated for medical reasons.
Reliable scientific research shows that MMR vaccine is very effective (95 to 98 percent ) and very low risk (serious allergic reactions are less than 1 in 1 million and the vaccine does not cause autism). MMR vaccine also protects developing fetuses from rubella, which in its last major U.S. outbreak in the 1960s killed about 11,000 babies and caused birth defects in another 20,000.
As a parent, I hope Colorado legislators will act on this nonpartisan issue and help protect babies, children and community public health by updating Colorado’s lax vaccine-exemption law. It’s reasonable to require parents to seek medical guidance about vaccinations and a medical professional’s signature for exemptions.
Amy Winterfeld, Centennial
This letter was published in the Feb. 9 edition.
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