Feature: Anti-vaxxers in California, a minority growing stronger

California has long been known as the cradle of the hippie movement and a haven for independent-minded citizens in the United States, especially since the 1970s. But that penchant for individualism, paired with a residual spirituality from the hippie years, has also led to a growing trend in the state: to question the current vaccination plan.

Still a minority, those who adhere to the anti-vaccination movement, also known as anti-vaxxers, are growing in strength and numbers and many times present a fierce opposition to science- based assertions favoring immunization.

Though there have always been pockets of population in the United States and other countries who opposed vaccination, especially on the grounds of religious beliefs, the last decade has witnessed an increase in parents who have opted out of immunizing their children.

In the U.S., parents who don't want to immunize their children can claim Personal Belief Exemption (PBE). Statistics from California's health records show that some kindergartens have up to 100 percent of unvaccinated children and some counties in northern California have up to 12 percent PBE rates in total.

"Frankly, we are at odds as to how to react to this trend," clinical professor John Swartzberg, who works at the University of California at Berkeley, told Xinhua. "The phenomenon is not new and it is still far from becoming widespread, but we need to keep an eye on these people to curb this movement."

One of the reasons behind parents slacking off in their child's vaccination shots, Swartzberg believes, could be because they have never seen the devastating effects of diseases that used to be every parent's nightmare less than 100 years ago.

"The vaccine that is now common among infants, and is applied in different shots, is the MMR (Mumps, Measles and Rubella)," Swartzberg said. "And of course, many parents' logic is that why should they inoculate their children with strange substances if these diseases are almost eradicated?"

"The truth is that although these maladies are almost gone from the U.S. and most developed countries thanks to vaccines, we have seen a rise in measles in recent years, mostly because of some parents refusing to immunize their kids," he said.

A recent measles outbreak last December at the Disney World in southern California brought the issue to the public arena. Though the phenomenon was known to exist before, it had been widely regarded as a private matter, dealing with a few extravagant or misinformed parents.

But in December, over a dozen children and adults who were not vaccinated contracted measles at the popular theme park and spread the disease to other states. Other similar measles "scares" followed suit, especially in California, where authorities issued warnings about possible outbreaks in crowded establishments like shopping centers and public transportation.

The professor explained that "measles is a highly contagious disease that can take up to a week before visible signs are seen. The infected child or adult can therefore infect others multiple times before the illness can be detected. Also, measles can have devastating effects in infants and sometimes in adults, with some extreme cases showing encephalitis," or inflammation of the brain.

However, some parents are not convinced by the vast amount of scientific literature showing the benefits of immunization. Many claim that vaccines lead to autism, citing Dr. Andrew Wakefield's discredited research carried out in 1998, which alleged a link between vaccines and increased autism among children.

In California, at the forefront of this battle is Marin county, an area dotted with private kindergartens and schools, famous for being free-spirited in the already independent state, as well as for following healthy lifestyles associated with organic food. The education centers in the county rank among the lowest in the state when it comes to immunization rates, with some having as little as 30 percent vaccinated children.

"We have a lot of people here who don't want their kids vaccinated and have opted out and have stayed out, so we have about 25 percent of our students here, who are not vaccinated against measles or other diseases," John Carroll, superintendent at Lagunitas school district in Marin county, told Xinhua. "The law provides that we give them that option and we encourage all of our parents to vaccinate, but there are some that just won't do it and we can't force them to."

According to Carroll, many parents of vaccinated children in the school district have expressed concerns about the rise of children who have not been immunized.

"Many parents don't want their vaccinated kids mixing with non- vaccinated children because they are afraid they might get sick, since sometimes some of these children have compromised immune systems because of other illnesses," he said. "Also, just like me, they just can't understand why someone would prefer to expose their kids like that."

For anti-vaxxers, there can be different reasons, including religious beliefs, to opt out. Most of the time, they are what the scientific community calls "vaccine hesitant," which means that they do not fully reject the idea of vaccinating their children, but they prefer to space out the shots for longer periods of time, sometimes resulting in incomplete immunization.

"I had my oldest son vaccinated for MMR, and we skipped the last vaccine shots, but now with the baby, we are still deciding if we are going to vaccinate him," said Maria, mother of two. Maria takes her oldest son, who is five years old, to Open Classroom, a center in Marin county with an alternative education curriculum.

"I think we should respect everyone's concern for the welfare of their children and I believe that vaccines are not needed anymore in the U.S. I grew up in Colombia, where it was common for children to have measles, and I myself contracted the illness. Nothing bad happened, my body just recovered in a natural way and now I'm immune, I don't think we should inoculate our kids with unnecessary vaccines," she said.

However, Maria believes that with holistic and alternative medicine, she can cure her two children from any such illnesses, like rubella. "We regularly take our oldest son to acupuncture and treat him with natural medicine when he gets sick and if he would become infected with mumps or any other diseases, we would treat him the same way."

But to people who do vaccinate their children, parents like Maria are selfish and rely on "herd immunity" to protect their offspring.

"Of course these kids don't usually get sick, because the other children are vaccinated! If we all acted the same way they do, it would be a disaster," said Jennifer Sulpicio, mother of two children at a school in the Lagunitas district.

"I personally know three children who are my kids' age, between 12 and 14 years of age, who have been diagnosed with leukemia, in the last four years," she said, "so the children who have been struggling to overcome cancer find themselves in schools where 50 percent of their classmates are not immunized against diseases that would definitely lead to very serious complications or fatalities in these children, because their immune systems are compromised."

Scientists believe that the reason parents opt out of vaccination is primarily because in the last 50 years, especially since the polio vaccine came out, people under 40 years of age are not familiar anymore with these diseases.

"It kills children, measles does kill a large number of children every year," Arthur L. Reingold MD. Professor and head of Epidemiology at UC Berkeley, told Xinhua. "But their argument is, well, those are malnourished kids in Africa, my children are in Marin county and they are not malnourished."

"They truly believe measles is not such a terrible disease in well nourished children in the United States and of course, that is true to a certain extent, that measles is very different if you are malnourished and very young, as opposed to if you are well nourished and in school age," he said. "Those are facts, but measles still kills 1 in 500 to 1 in 1,000 perfectly healthy, well nourished American or European children."

Some believe parents who do not vaccinate their children are adhering to the old dilemma of action versus inaction, an inner battle of will, which usually leads to the latter.

"Some of these parents believe that by not vaccinating their children, if something like measles happens to them, it's something natural, therefore they will not blame themselves. But if they do vaccinate and their child dies, then they will never forgive themselves for having caused their child's death. It's a mechanism that is common in humans," Swartzberg said, quoting sociological studies on the anti-vaccination phenomenon. Endite