The city of Berkeley has long been a liberal bastion in a region already known for its lefty politics . And yet , despite its status as a progressive university townsfolk , Berkeley is at the forefront ofone prong of the waragainst vaccine . Tuesday night ’s city council meeting here revealed the hipster side of the anti - vaxxer social movement .
The standing - room - only bunch at the merging was there to protest what was , in some agency , the least indispensable point on the agendum . One council appendage had proposed sending a letter to the California province law-makers in support of SB 277 , a suggest bill that would get rid of the country ’s personal belief exemptions for vaccinum , while keep aesculapian exemptions intact .
On Wednesday , the commonwealth Senate Health Committee approved the bill , which needs to pass the Senate before cash in one’s chips to the Assembly . It still has a tenacious way to go . But on Tuesday Nox , outraged contestant force for Berkeley to refuse support for the bill , argue that Californians should have the right to refuse vaccines for “ personal beliefs . ”
In exploit to mollify the bunch , Berkeley city manager Tom Bates had this to say about the grandness of a city council ’s letter : “ Most mass really do n’t think it ’s significant . ” But oh , it is ! The city ’s solvent may be many steps removed from the legislative process , but it ’s directly related to injecting things into the bodies of your fry . This is n’t like sewage fees or solar energy mandate , to cull a few other items from the night ’s agenda . It ’s a splanchnic , dissentious offspring .
California ’s placard come on the blackguard of interchangeable Democrat - backedbills in Oregon and Washington , which were both defeated last month . But non - vaccination has strike closer to family in California , place of theDisneyland morbilli outbreak . Since the bill was inclose , local city governments inMarin CountyandSan Franciscohave vote or are voting on whether to support the bill .
As Berkeley resident , I found the city council meeting both exasperating and enlightening . There is something slightly ridiculous about so much hoopla over a city council resolution to send a letter in support of a proposed , but I came to realize that vaccine exemption argumentation should happen in the local community of interests . I just hope they do n’t all go mischievously as they did in Berkeley .
Who calls the shots?
In over an hour of public comment , there were , by my reckoning , 6 people lined up to speak in financial backing of SB 227 and about 30 the great unwashed against . The most prominent speakers in bread and butter of the vizor were a trio of untried University of California , San Francisco medical scholar , dress in bloodless coat and carrying signs on neon paper . I agreed with what they said , but human being , they count like tike lecturing at a scientific discipline fair .
The opponent of the neb include many mother and grannie who were honest-to-god hands at staging an issue at metropolis council meeting . They staked out seats in front of the TV cameras . They lined up friend to stand in credit line and cede their time to indicate speakers .
There were a few cringe - desirable references to autism ( no , just no ) and atomic number 80 ( no longer an issue , but also never was an issue ) , but the bulk of the arguments rested on more subtle stop :
“ I like vaccines but I opposed SB 277 ” — Opponents of SB 227 see it as a issue of personal exemption . “ It is a human right field , ” said Leslie Hewitt , a chiropractor in California . The crux of the argument is that why should politicians make all - encompassing decisions about their shaver ’s health , rather than parent and doctors on an individual basis ?
“ There is no crisis in vaccination rates ” — California child tutelage quickness have an up - to - date inoculation rate of89.4 percent . Personal impression exemption account for 2.67 pct of the gap . truthful , the overall percentages are modest , but non - vaccination is not equally lot . Berkeley ’s is at 81.45 percent . In particular , the non - vaccination is clustered around sure schools . At the private Berkeley Rose School,78 percentof the kids enroll in child care had personal belief exemptions for vaccines . ( By the way , this school is a few blocks from my flat . )
“ We have corrupted scientific discipline ” — A common refrain was that the figure of command vaccine doses has gone up in late decades , and that the handbill itself was open - all over , tolerate raw vaccines to be added to the docket . There are over “ 200 new vaccines in run , ” observe many speakers , show the finger at pharmaceutic net profit . When one utterer unfavourably compared the U.S. medical organization to Cuba ’s ( because they require fewer vaccine ! ) , I had to sigh and think of I was in Berkeley .
A crisis in the community
I doubt anyone was convert to reconsider their position on vaccinum at the merging , but one charwoman ’s comment did strike special a chord with me . “ I love making love love living in Berkeley , ” she sound out , “ I ’ve never experience in a place with such a strong sense of biotic community , which is why I was so shocked to find out that so many multitude here fight vaccines . ”
This is crux of why the personal choice argument is flawed . immunisation prevents the spread of diseases to protect the most vulnerable people — babe , the senior , and immunocompromised the great unwashed who can not get immunize themselves . This is called “ herd immunity . ” When vaccination is turn over in the Marguerite Radclyffe Hall of Sacramento or Washington , D.C. , it seems like an abstract percentage point . But at City Hall , you might actually have to face a neighbor whose infant could get rubeola from your unvaccinated baby .
To look at it selfishly , whether someone in San Diego immunize their kids matter far less to me than whether the parent in my hypothetical shaver ’s local school vaccinate . We rationally care about the set of people cheeseparing around us . Non - vaccination is a state - wide problem , yes , but it is a job whose outcome will radiate out first from our local communities .
Eula Biss ’s book On Immunityoffers an examination of vaccination that seems relevant here . “ ruck unsusceptibility , ” she justifiedly direct out , is terrible phrase , evoking dumb kine going to slaughter . One special passage from her book acknowledges many of the fear I heard from Berkeley parents , but she neatly inverts their argument :
We are justified in tactual sensation peril by the outright expansion of industry , and we are justified in fearing that our interests are lowly to collective interests . But refusal of vaccination undermine a scheme that is not really typical of capitalist economy . It is a system of rules in which both the effect and the welfare are share across the entire population . Vaccination admit us to use the Cartesian product of capitalist economy for purposes that are antagonistic to the pressures of capital .
Biss ’s argument is a somewhat conceptual one , but it appeal , fundamentally , to our moral values ( and , while we ’re at it , Berkeley ’s relatively anti - capitalistic tendencies ) . The momentum to refuse vaccines reflect some of the most cynical and selfish parts of ourselves .
In the death , the Berkeley city council passed the resolution 7 - 1 , on the advice of essentially every aesculapian constitution . If you had only heard what was being said in the elbow room though , it would have seemed like build interests were once again silencing the voices of people . The antagonist are a minority , but a very , very outspoken one .
As SB 227 moves forward in the California Capitol Building , proponents of vaccination demand to step up to the crustal plate . Discussions about vaccination do take to materialise within local communities , not just at state and Union hearing . Rather than appealing to science , we want to appeal to our sense of community .
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