Committee to elect matt lambert issued the following announcement on March 3.
With the backdrop of the coronavirus spreading around the world, Mainers are deciding Tuesday whether to nullify the elimination of religious and philosophical exemptions for childhood vaccinations in a referendum campaign that focused on community vs. individual rights.
Every major medical organization in Maine supported the law adopted by lawmakers that reduces vaccine opt-outs at a time when more parents are forgoing vaccines for their children. But groups seeking to restore philosophical and religious exemptions contended parents, not lawmakers, should be responsible for making medical decisions for their children.
The People’s Veto referendum would undo the law that ends nonmedical vaccine opt-outs by September 2021 for students at public and private schools and universities, including nursery schools, and for health care facility employees. It’s part of a trend of states tightening rules on vaccine exemptions.
Fighting the medical establishment with the so-called “People’s Veto” referendum was an assortment of Libertarians, Green Independents and others, including some parents who believe in vaccines but also support “medical choice.”
Much of their messaging targeted “Big Pharma,” a tactic that the law’s supporters called disingenuous. Those who supported the law said it was deceitful to suggest the pharmaceutical industry had a vested interest in Maine’s law because vaccines account for such a small fraction of pharmaceutical revenues, even though they account for billions of dollars in sales.
Democratic Gov. Janet Mills urged Mainers to uphold the new law, saying the spread of the coronavirus around the globe underscores the importance of getting vaccinated.
After the COVID-19 virus was identified in China, "one of the first things that public health officials did was begin to work on a vaccine because vaccines save lives,” she said.
The Legislature's action last year came against the backdrop of a spike in whooping cough cases in Maine.
Maine has one of the highest rates of nonmedical vaccine exemptions in the nation, and officials warned that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccination rate among kindergarteners had dropped below 94%. That means half of kindergarten classes are below the "herd" immunity level of 95% immunization, state officials said.
Original source here.
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