With the outbreak of measles in Washington state and the issue of whether a child should be vaccinated unbelievably being brought up once again, I believe there is a solution that the state of Utah could enact to help protect the children of this state.
If a parent does not want to provide a child with the medically/scientifically proven protection of vaccinations for once-eradicated diseases, if they’re able to be vaccinated, that’s fine.
Those children, though, should not be allowed to attend any publicly funded educational facility. Tax dollars should not be spent to educate those children when their parents so willingly ignore scientific fact and willfully endanger the lives of the other children attending public school.
This is not a free speech issue. It is a public health issue. Freedom of speech ends when the lives and well-being of others are endangered.
If this issue is not brought up and rectified, it is my opinion that the state of Utah is just as at fault for any preventable disease outbreak in our state as the parents who refuse to vaccinate their children.
Matt Meranda, Murray