Massachusetts Citizens for Vaccination Choice

Vaccinechoice.org began its work in 1995, with a mission to provide encouragement, information and resources in an effort to help individuals make informed vaccination decisions, regardless of what those decisions are.

Whether you’ve found us as expecting or new parents concerned about this complex and often heated topic, a more seasoned parent facing your child’s school admission, a college student surprised by unexpected requirements, or by some other path, we hope you find our web resources informative and empowering.

Our goal is to help you access unbiased information that will assist in making intelligent vaccine choices. We offer education, public information, and opportunities to collaborate with others. Our work is funded not by government, pharmaceutical or medical interests, but by individuals like you. If you find our contribution of value, please consider making a donation of any size.

The information on this site is admittedly just the tip of the iceberg, but we hope it helps you along at least part of your journey. As it is likely to generate more questions than answers, however, we also welcome your contact. It may seem as though you’re alone. But you’re not.

Read. Talk with other parents. Talk with your physician. Talk with your partner. Listen to yourself.

If you choose to decline vaccination, know your rights (viewable in our “Laws & Rights” section) and the risks you might be facing.

If you decide to vaccinate, we recommend the following action steps for your consideration:

1) Talk with your healthcare provider; make sure that s/he knows what your concerns are and that s/he is able to respect your decisions, regardless of what they are.

2) Read the vaccine package inserts, available from your doctor’s office (or via this website in the ‘Vaccines & Disease’ section), ideally prior to your child’s visit (we parents are generally anxious enough during these visits without being expected to quickly read and comprehend these often complicated documents).

3) Have vaccines administered separately when possible, both to lessen their impact on the child’s system as well as to help clarify, should your child have a reaction, to what vaccine s/he is reacting. Find more information about purchasing separate vaccines.

4) Know your family history. Is there history of: vaccine reactions? convulsions or neurological disorders? severe allergies? immune system disorders? It is important to share this information with your healthcare provider.

5) Know your child’s current health and the contraindications for (i.e., reasons for not giving) the vaccine. For instance, fever is generally reason not to administer a vaccine, as the child’s immune system is already engaged in one challenge. It’s okay to delay until another day if you’re unsure; vaccine schedules are recommendations, not immutable truths.

6) Has your child had a vaccine reaction before? Previous reactions are often contraindications.

7) Make sure you’re getting what you’ve asked for before the vaccine is administered; e.g., if you’re concerned about thimerosal, make sure the vaccine is a thimerosal-free version. Be empowered to ask the doctor and read the vaccine package insert.

Massachusetts law honors both medical and religious exemptions to vaccination.

Medical exemptions are signed by doctors on a vaccine-by-vaccine basis and reviewed annually. They are granted for medically-recognized contraindications.

Religious exemptions in Massachusetts are honored regardless of tradition, even if you stray from the orthodox teachings of your tradition. Though some school districts will request the signature of clergy with this exemption, no such authorization is required, as this exemption is filed by you and should be respected on that basis. There is no standard exemption letter in use across the state; rather, parents need to write and submit their own letters, including the language: “I am exempting my child from vaccination because it conflicts with my sincerely held religious belief.” We recommend that those claiming a religious exemption include the Mass. General Law language below in their exemption letter, both to serve as a reminder to school authorities of the law as well as to serve notice that you are aware of your rights regarding this issue.

Here is the language of the law:
GENERAL LAWS OF MASSACHUSETTS
PART I, TITLE XII, CHAPTER 76.
Section 15: Vaccination and immunization

No child shall, except as hereinafter provided, be admitted to school except upon presentation of a physician’s certificate that the child has been successfully immunized against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, measles and poliomyelitis and such other communicable diseases as may be specified from time to time by the department of public health.

A child shall be admitted to school upon certification by a physician that he has personally examined such child and that in his opinion the physical condition of the child is such that his health would be endangered by such vaccination or by any of such immunizations. Such certification shall be submitted at the beginning of each school year to the physician in charge of the school health program. If the physician in charge of the school health program does not agree with the opinion of the child’s physician, the matter shall be referred to the department of public health, whose decision will be final.

In the absence of an emergency or epidemic of disease declared by the department of public health, no child whose parent or guardian states in writing that vaccination or immunization conflicts with his sincere religious beliefs shall be required to present said physician’s certificate in order to be admitted to school.

You can also access the text of this law on the Massachusetts state government site.

NOTE: While religious and medical exemptions are honored in Massachusetts, school officials retain the authority to exclude unvaccinated students from school for a period of time following the positive identification of a case of a vaccinated disease. Visit the MDPH site for a schedule of exclusion periods.

The DTP vaccine is the vaccine that initiated the work of groups such as ours back in the 1980s, when numerous adverse reactions were first being associated with the vaccine--the pertussis portion in particular.

More recently, the Centers for Disease Control moved to recommend the DTaP, because the purified acellular version of the pertussis vaccine was associated with fewer reactions.

Vaccinechoice.org would always recommend, should you decide to vaccinate your child, that vaccines be administered separately when possible. Though it is becoming increasingly difficult to get traditionally ‘trivalent’--or shots with three different vaccines in them, like the DTaP--vaccines separately, you might find some assistance at the bottom of our MDs & Others page.

For more information, visit the National Vaccine Information Center’s DTP webpage.

You can also visit the Center for Disease Control’s DTP webpage.

View the vaccine package insert (Tripedia from Sanofi Pasteur).

Children aged 6 to 48 months are in the highest risk group for developing HIB infection, especially if they are immune compromised or live in crowded, substandard living conditions. HIB disease is spread through inhalation of the respiratory tract secretions--most often via sneezing or coughing--of an infected person. HIB infections occur most often during the late winter and spring.

For further information on HIB and the vaccine, visit the National Vaccine Information Center’s HIB webpage.

You can also click here to visit the Center for Disease Control’s HIB webpage.

Here is the vaccine package insert (ActHIB from Sanofi Pasteur).

For information on these diseases and the MMR vaccine, visit the National Vaccine Information Center’s MMR webpage.

Of note is the fact that the second dose of MMR is required of 100% of children because 5% do not show sufficient measles antibodies after the first administration. If your child is in the 95% that appears to have sufficient antibodies, s/he is not required by law to receive this second dose. You may consider having your child’s blood tested (titred) to determine if a second dose of measles vaccine is recommended.

Vaccinechoice.org would always recommend, should you decide to vaccinate your child, that vaccines be administered separately when possible. Though it is becoming increasingly difficult to get traditionally ‘trivalent’--or shots with three different vaccines in them, like MMR--vaccines separated, you might find some assistance at the bottom of our MDs & Others page.

You can also visit the Center for Disease Control’s MMR webpage.

View the vaccine package insert (MMR II from Merck).

MASSACHUSETTS ORGANIZATIONS

Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH)
617.983.6800

New England Patients’ Rights Group
Advocates for the rights of health care consumers.
PO Box 141
Norwood, MA 02062-0002
781.769.5720

VACCINE CHOICE ORGANIZATIONS IN OTHER STATES

Connecticut Vaccine Information Alliance

Illinois Vaccine Awareness Coalition

Michigan Opposing Mandatory Vaccines

New Jersey Coalition for Vaccination Choice

New Yorkers for Vaccination Information and Choice

Texas: Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education

Vaccine Awareness of Florida

West Virginia for Vaccine Exemption

Click here for information regarding other states and their contacts.

NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)

Association of American Physicians & Surgeons
The only national doctors’ organization that publicly opposed universal hepatitis B vaccination mandates.

Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
800.232.SHOT

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC)
A national non-profit educational organization established in 1982 to ensure access to information and the right to choose with respect to vaccination.
204 Mill Street, Suite B1
Vienna, VA 22180
703.938.DPT3

Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS)
To report a potential adverse vaccine reaction, visit the site or call:
800.822.7967

The hepatitis B vaccine (for details, visit our Hepatitis B page) is the first vaccine parents need to consider, as it is being given to newborns--with and occasionally without parental consent--in hospitals across the country.

It is important for you to know that administration of the hepatitis b vaccine in newborns is a recommendation, not a requirement. Some parents have been told that they would not be able to bring their baby home if they did not accept this vaccine. This is absolutely false. Some hospitals in Massachusetts have decided that parental consent is not necessary prior to administering this vaccine. Be sure that your healthcare provider knows whether you want your baby to receive this vaccine at birth. If you give birth in a hospital or birthing center, make sure your choice is clearly written in the mother’s chart as well as the baby’s.

If you choose to have your child receive this vaccine, you should be aware that there is a new version that does not contain thimerosal (mercury). This is in response to an Environmental Protection Agency concern that mercury-containing vaccines can, because mercury accumulates in the body, progressively endanger the health of our children. We encourage you to make a point of asking for this newer vaccine.

For further information, visit the National Vaccine Information Center’s hepatitis B webpage.

You can also visit the Center for Disease Control’s hepatitis B webpage.

View the hepatitis B vaccine package insert (Merck’s Recombivax HB).

What groups are at risk for contracting this disease?

*IV drug users
*people who practice unsafe sex
*health care workers
*hemodialysis patients
*infants born to infected mothers

“Although [the hepatitis B virus] is present in moderate concentrations in saliva, it?s not transmitted commonly by casual contact,” said Eric Mast, M.D., the Chief of the Surveillance Section, Hepatitis Branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (1997 public hearing).

According to the October 31, 1997, issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), published by the CDC, “Hepatitis B continues to decline in most states, primarily because of a decrease in the number of cases among injecting drug users and, to a lesser extent, among both homosexuals and heterosexuals of both sexes.”

Most children do not fall into any of these categories.

Hepatitis B Incidence Low in the US and is Particularly Low in Children

The US has always had among the lowest rates of hepatitis B disease in the world, affecting approximately 0.1% to 0.5% of the general population (National Vaccine Information Center). The CDC estimates a 5% lifetime risk of infection in the United States. Of that 5%, between 90-95% will fully recover, clearing the virus from their bodies. Only the remaining 5 -10% (of the original 5%) may become chronic carriers. This means that the overall lifetime risk of becoming a chronic carrier of hepatitis B is approximately one quarter of one percent (.25%) of the entire U.S. population, leaving 99.75% of the total population at no significant risk.

The CDC acknowledges “...an estimated 91% of hepatitis B infections in the U.S. are acquired during adolesence and adulthood and much of the public health benefit of widespread infant vaccination will not be known until vaccinated infants become adolescents and adults” (MMWR, vol.43, no. 33, August 26, 1994, p.608).

Pregnant women in Massachusetts are routinely screened for hepatitis B disease. This allows for at-risk newborns to be appropriately treated.

Vaccine Effectiveness

One pharmaceutical company, Merck & Co., states in their 1996 hepatitis B vaccine product insert that “...the duration of the protective effect of [our product] in healthy vaccinees is unknown at present and the need for booster doses is not yet defined.” The CDC concurs. With a vaccine that likely confers only 7, or optimistically 10, years of protection, most children who received the hepatitis B vaccine will not be protected as they approach ages at which higher risk behaviors become more prevalent.

Vaccine Safety

Merck & Co. included the following disclaimers on its 1996 hepatitis B vaccine package insert:

“As with any vaccine, there is the possibility that broad use of the vaccine could reveal adverse reactions not observed in clinical trials.”

What they fail to explain is that the clinical trials in question involved only several thousand children, and that those children were monitored for reactions for only four or five days.

The insert continues:

“...it is not known whether the vaccine can cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman or can affect reproductive capacity;” and

“Specific data are not yet available for the simultaneous administration of [our hepatitis B vaccine] with other vaccines.” It is, however, frequently given with other vaccines.

Consumers, Doctors and Governments Question Hepatitis B Vaccine

A September, 1998 report entitled Hepatitis B Vaccine: The Untold Story, available from the National Vaccine Information Center, contains thirty-eight citations of medical articles that discuss hepatitis B vaccine as the cause of chronic immune and neurological disease in both children and adults, including: diabetes, arthritis, chronic fatigue immune deficiency, multiple sclerosis, alopecia (hair loss), lupus, Guillain-Barre syndrome, and demyelinating neuropathy.

“Considering the low risk of hepatitis B, and the published reports of serious adverse effects of the vaccine, why can’t school mandates wait for more research?” asks Jane Orient, M.D., Executive Director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. “Mandates effectively use school children as research subjects without informed consent, in violation of the Nuremberg Code.”

Bonnie Dunbar M.D., a molecular biologist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, has said, “I am horrified by what I am seeing on this issue. I can’t believe this is happening in this country. “Public Health” is being used as a rationale to undermine individual responsibility and to legitimize intrusion on family autonomy.”

For further information, visit the National Vaccine Information Center’s hepatitis B webpage.

You can also visit the Center for Disease Control’s hepatitis B webpage.

View the vaccine package insert for the hepatitis B vaccine given to children in the Commonwealth.

Click here for the vaccine package insert for the hepatitis B vaccine given to adults in the Commonwealth.

There are currently several meningitis vaccines in use. None are required for school admission, though two are being recommended for secondary school students attending boarding schools and residential college students. Of note is the fact that a parent, guardian or age-of-majority adult can decline this vaccine simply by signing a Department of Public Health waiver.

You can find additional information at the National Vaccine Information Center’s meningitis webpage.

For more meningitis information, you can also visit the Centers for Disease Control site.

Check with your healthcare provider to see which meningitis vaccine s/he uses. Click on Menactra to read a copy of the vaccine package insert for menactra from Sanofi Pasteur.

Massachusetts law honors both medical and religious exemptions to vaccination.

Medical exemptions are signed by doctors on a vaccine-by-vaccine basis and reviewed annually. They are granted for medically-recognized contraindications.

Religious exemptions in Massachusetts are honored regardless of tradition, even if you stray from the orthodox teachings of your tradition. Though some school districts will request the signature of clergy with this exemption, no such authorization is required, as this exemption is filed by you and should be respected on that basis. There is no standard exemption letter in use across the state; rather, parents need to write and submit their own letters, including the language: “I am exempting my child from vaccination because it conflicts with my sincerely held religious belief.” We recommend that those claiming a religious exemption include the Mass. General Law language below in their exemption letter, both to serve as a reminder to school authorities of the law as well as to serve notice that you are aware of your rights regarding this issue.

Here is the language of the law:
IMMUNIZATION REQUIREMENTS FOR GROUP DAY CARE AND
SCHOOL AGE CHILD CARE PROGRAMS
Regulations Of The Department of Early Education and Care

102 CMR 7.00: Standards For The Licensure Or Approval Of Group Day Care And School Age Child Care Programs (7/10/97)
Section 102 CMR 7.09(5)(a) Required Medical Examinations in Group Child Care Programs

“The licensee shall require, at admission, a physician’s certificate that each child has been successfully immunized in accordance with the current Department of Public Health’s recommended schedules against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), poliomyelitis, measles and such other communicable diseases as may be specified from time to time by the Office. No child shall be required, under 102 CMR 7.00 to have any such immunization if his parent(s) objects thereto, in writing, on the grounds that it conflicts with their religious beliefs or if the child’s physician submits documentation that such a procedure is contraindicated.”

NOTE: While religious and medical exemptions are honored in Massachusetts, school officials retain the authority to exclude unvaccinated students from school for a period of time following the positive identification of a case of a vaccinated disease. Visit the MDPH site for a schedule of exclusion periods.

Massachusetts law honors both medical and religious exemptions to vaccination.

Medical exemptions are signed by doctors on a vaccine-by-vaccine basis and reviewed annually. They are granted for medically-recognized contraindications.

Religious exemptions in Massachusetts are honored regardless of tradition, even if you stray from the orthodox teachings of your tradition. Though some schools will request the signature of clergy with this exemption, no such authorization is required, as this exemption is filed by you--a parent, guardian, or an age-of-majority adult--and should be respected on that basis. There is no standard exemption letter in use across the state; rather, parents (or age-of-majority adults) need to write and submit their own letters, including the language: “I am exempting my child (myself) from vaccination because it conflicts with my sincerely held religious belief.” We recommend that those claiming a religious exemption include the Mass. General Law language below in their exemption letter, both to serve as a reminder to school authorities of the law as well as to serve notice that you are aware of your rights regarding this issue.

Here is the language of the law:
GENERAL LAWS OF MASSACHUSETTS
PART I, TITLE XII, CHAPTER 76.
Section 15C: Immunization of college health science students

No full-time student under thirty years of age or any full-time or part-time undergraduate or graduate students in a health science who is in contact with patients shall, except as hereinafter provided, be registered at an institution of higher education except upon presentation of a medical certificate that such student has been immunized against measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus and diphtheria; provided, however, that a student may be registered at such institution upon certification made, in writing, by a physician who has personally examined such student and in whose opinion the physical condition of such student is such that his health would be endangered by any such immunization; and provided, further, that students who have attended an elementary or secondary school in the commonwealth may submit a copy of their school immunization record, indicating receipt of the above required immunizations, in lieu of such certificate; and provided, further, that unimmunized students may be registered on the condition that the required immunizations be obtained within ten days of registration.

In the absence of an emergency or epidemic of disease declared by the department of public health, no student who states in writing that such immunization would conflict with his religious beliefs shall be required to present such medical certificate in order to be admitted to such institution.

Click here to access the text of this law at the Massachusetts government site.

A new recommendation for the meningitis vaccine is now in place in Massachusetts’ secondary boarding schools and residential colleges. This is a recommendation, not a requirement, and the signing of a meningitis vaccine waiver is sufficient to forego this vaccine for those who are so inclined.

NOTE: While religious and medical exemptions are honored in Massachusetts, school officials retain the authority to exclude unvaccinated students from school for a period of time following the positive identification of a case of a vaccinated disease. Visit the MDPH site for a schedule of exclusion periods.

If you’re looking for a supportive doctor, you can use these websites to find their members nearest you or solicit referrals:

American Association of Naturopathic Physicians
Washington, DC
866-538-2267

Holistic Pediatric Association
“We empower parents to trust their natural wisdom and make informed choices on behalf of their children.”
Santa Rosa, CA
707-237-5312

International Chiropractic Pediatric Association
Media, PA
610-565-2360

Do you need a lawyer with expertise in vaccine law and injury? Here are some to consider:

Kevin Conway and Ronald Homer
Conway, Homer & Chin-Caplan, P.C.
Specializing in vaccine injury litigation.
Boston, MA
Phone: 617-695-1990

You can also visit the National Vaccine Information Center’s lawyer referral webpage.

Do you want to get vaccines separately?

There used to be several pharmacies at which interested people could purchase the individual components of traditionally trivalent vaccines--MMR, DTaP--separately. Regrettably, as of the summer of 2009, they’ll not be available for at least two years, said one Merck sales representative. This, coincidentally at the same time pharmaceutical efforts were being devoted to developing a swine flu vaccine. 

According to the American Medical Association?s Encyclopedia of Medicine (1989), chickenpox is a “common and mild infectious disease of childhood” and “all healthy children should be exposed to chickenpox...at an age at which it is no more than an inconvenience.” The American Academy of Pediatrics states in its brochure on chickenpox (1996) that “Most children who are otherwise healthy and get chickenpox won’t have any complications from the disease."`

Of the approximately 4 million cases of chickenpox in the United States each year, the death rate is only .0025%, with a hospitalization rate of .23%, making it one of the most benign diseases in existence.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, “when an adult gets chickenpox, the disease usually lasts longer and is more severe, often developing into pneumonia. Adults are almost 10 times more likely than children under 14 to need hospitalization from chickenpox and more than 20 times more likely to die from the disease.”

Yet despite these facts, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health mandated universal vaccination for all children, not adults. This blanket policy can be expected to move the incidence of this mild childhood disease into the adult population where it generally poses a greater threat.

The natural disease typically offers lifetime immunity, while vaccine effectiveness wanes. No one knows exactly when or how a booster schedule can be successfully implemented.

“Many primary care physicians either do not recommend the vaccine or suggest that children be immunized only if they have not developed the chickenpox by 12 years of age” (Journal of the American Medical Association, Nov., 1997).

The varicella (chickenpox) vaccine is a live-virus vaccine. It is made from the Oka/Merck strain of live, attenuated (weakened) varicella virus. The virus was initially obtained from a child with natural varicella, then introduced into human embryonic lung cell cultures (aborted fetal tissue), adapted and propagated in embryonic guinea pig cell cultures and finally propagated in human diploid cell cultures. The vaccine contains sucrose, phosphate, glutamate, neomycin, fetal bovine serum and processed gelatin (Merck & Co., Inc., 1995; Fisher, 1997).

Scientists are concerned about the long-term effects of viral DNA, from live-virus vaccines, being incorporated into human genes.

The marketing of this vaccine by both the manufacturer, Merck & Co., and the American Academy of Pediatrics, is mainly focused on the economic consideration of parental work loss, or the inconvenience of a child missing a soccer game or birthday party (images used in corporate advertising), rather than on any pressing health issues facing the public. The chief of the Pediatric Infectious Disease Department of New England Medical Center, who also participated in the development of the chickenpox vaccine, has stated, “Studies suggest that widespread use of the varicella vaccine will be cost effective, primarily through a reduction in the number of work days missed by parents caring for sick children.”

For further information, visit the National Vaccine Information Center’s chickenpox webpage.

You can also visit the Center for Disease Control’s chickenpox webpage.

View the vaccine package insert (Merck’s Varivax).

Visit the state DPH site for information regarding the exclusion of unvaccinated children from schools where cases of chickenpox have been positively identified.