Legislation proposed in the Texas House of Representatives would require the state health department to publicly disclose school immunization data, including information on students whose parents opted not to vaccinate their children, according to the Houston Chronicle.
The number of unvaccinated children in Texas has increased sharply since the state relaxed its immunization requirement criteria to include personal-belief exemptions. The number of unvaccinated children in the state has since risen from 2,314 in the 2003-2004 school year to 44,716 in 2015-2016. In some parts of the state, vaccine adherence is dropping below the 90 to 95 percent threshold needed to ensure herd immunity. The vaccine opt-out movement in Texas has been fueled by theories linking vaccines to health conditions like autism, despite the fact that these theories have been debunked by the scientific and medical community.
Opponents of the legislation argue public disclosure of students' vaccination history would be a violation of medical privacy.
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"If this is truly about keeping children safe, we have to have that honest conversation about keeping all people safe. It puts a target on the backs of children whose parents have chosen to opt out for various different reasons," said Jackie Schlegel, executive director of the parent's group Texans for Vaccine Choice, which has seen an uptick in membership in recent years as the anti-vaccine movement has gained a foothold in the state, according to the Chronicle.
Parents advocating for increased transparency say the information will help them make the decision on whether to switch to a school with higher immunization rates. Advocates for the legislation say this would be especially helpful for parents of children with compromised immune systems like those who've received an organ transplant.
"To protect their children's sensitive feelings from the choice that their parents have made, someone else's child must die," said Jason Sabo, a lobbyist for the Immunization Partnership, a pro-vaccine group, according to the Chronicle. "They're making the argument that other people's children are expendable to protect their, in my opinion, misplaced paranoia."
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