-Are you making him all better? Good job.
-My daughter, Brooke, when she was an infant,
was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy,
which means her heart is enlarged three times
the size it should have been,
and there were really no other options
besides a heart transplant.
-Want to go take a break?
She's like, "Uh, no."
-We're so thankful for this gift of a new heart,
but it's always a delicate balance.
It's kind of we've been through the wringer
and come to the other side where she can live a normal life.
-Look at you now, young lady! Oh, my gosh.
How are you? -Good.
-Are you here to pick up the balance?
-At 10 years old,
Brooke Balck has already survived several health battles.
And while most children are protected
from illnesses like measles and whooping cough
because they're vaccinated, Brooke is always at risk.
-She takes immunosuppressant medications,
and her body could not fight a vaccination.
Can you see Catalina?
-Catalina. Is it way out there?
-See it's kind of hazy right there?
-Yeah.
-See if you can focus in on that.
-The only thing keeping her safe from diseases
like measles is herd immunity.
That means she has to be surrounded by a community
where about 95% of the population has been vaccinated.
-In public school, we worry that there could be somebody
who brings in a disease that's previously eradicated.
Actually, somebody came into Brooke's doctor's office
with the measles,
and, so, when that happened, Brooke and all other children
like her needed to stay home from school.
They couldn't go to school for two months,
which meant I needed to stay home with her.
I'm a 5th-grade teacher,
which means I have to have a substitute in my class,
and I'm paying for that substitute
to keep my daughter home and safe
because anywhere she goes in the community
is a potential lethal disease.
-Many parents think of measles as just a common nuisance
which makes their children feel miserable
and keeps them out of school for a while.
But physicians today know that measles is more than a nuisance.
-Before the measles vaccine, the illness killed 400
to 500 people every year in the United States
and caused brain damage to others.
-But the real story of a vaccine is told in the fears
and smiles of a little girl,
who today is given greater protection than ever
before against the infectious diseases of childhood.
-Measles is a highly contagious disease.
People with the illness can infect others
for up to eight days,
and it lives in the air for up to two hours.
The disease was declared eliminated in the U.
S.
in the year 2000, but 14 years later, the outbreaks returned.
-The measles outbreak that has been traced to Disneyland
continues to grow.
-Back in December 2014,
someone brought measles to Disneyland,
and it started spreading in Orange County
across the state, across the country by 2015,
and at that time, we recognized that we've had years
and years of rising exemption rates among students,
and that we were not safe against diseases
we thought we had conquered.
-Vaccines are required for students to begin school
in all 50 states,
but at the time of the Disneyland measles outbreak,
California allowed for religious and philosophical exemptions.
-And that's, ultimately, why we originally passed the law
saying you should get vaccinated before you enter school,
and that's why we need to take further steps
to be sure we can protect the public health.
So, I, working with my colleague Senator Allen authored a bill
to eliminate the non-medical exemptions
because people have traced those non-medical exemption rates
to places where the outbreak would spread more rapidly.
-California State Senate Bill 277 passed by a wide margin
and was enacted in 2016.
-It was the biggest sigh of relief for us
because public school should be a place where kids are safe,
and now I felt like they were.
-After the law went into effect,
vaccination rates in California increased by 3.
5%, according to a study by healthcare economists
at George Washington University.
But some of the counties that previously had
high non-medical exemption rates for vaccines
began to see a striking increase in medical exemptions.
-I've seen medical exemptions that look very inappropriate.
We know there are physicians
who are advertising medical exemptions.
The California Department of Public Health
has done an assessment.
Again, they don't have the total information,
but they are estimating probably 40%
of all permanent medical exemptions
are probably inappropriate.
-And then if you look at the background
of a lot of these physicians,
they don't have a background, for example, in pediatrics.
They don't have a background, for example,
in infectious diseases.
-This is really a pain.
Yeah, I would never do this if it wasn't for dance.
There's a doctor 20 minutes away from us
who is writing fake exemptions.
It's not hidden.
It's not something whispered about.
It's talked about openly.
I hear people talking about it at the baseball park --
who to go to to get an exemption
and how much they charge for those exemptions,
and those are people who go to my school
that are having those conversations.
And, so, I worry.
I look at my daughter in a music class or in an assembly,
and she's just sitting among random kids,
and I don't know if any of them
could potentially be unvaccinated
and what that could mean to her and her health.
-I could get majorly sick and have to go to the hospital.
I don't think it's worth faking.
I think you could just get shots because, like,
I've been to the hospital enough times
where I shouldn't have to be going again.
-Thank you, dancers.
-Now some parents and lawmakers are trying to put a stop
to fake medical exemptions
from the halls of the state capital in Sacramento.
But a vocal group of parents stand firmly
on the other side of the debate.
-Why are we here? !
-Our children!
-What do we stand for? !
-Freedom!
Well, I have a child who has never been vaccinated
because of family history,
and he had eczema when he was born.
When my child was sick, who hasn't been vaccinated,
I keep him out of school.
Sure, there's that chance, um...
but children go to school --
Children who are that severely sick with immunocompromise,
I mean, they're going to school with kids
that might have a cold or the flu,
and, so, you know, sure, I want to protect those children, too,
but, um...
my child's not sick, and he's not passing it to other people.
-[Singing] We shall overcome.
I think these parents who are taking these
medical exemptions are excellent parents.
I also think that they're misinformed,
and I think they're wrong, and I think what they're doing
is they're falling prey to conspiracy theories,
they're falling prey to misinformation spread
by Russian bots,
and they're not following the scientific evidence.
They're not following conventional medical advice.
That's the problem.
-We're zeroing in on it, guys.
We're gonna go over as a group and do our "me, toos."
-Vaccinate California, led by Leah Russin,
sponsored the 2015 bill
to eliminate non-medical exemptions.
Now she's organizing supporters to stand behind new legislation.
-Because we may cut one video that's all doctors,
and then we'll cut another that's all moms, right?
So, last year, when the data came out showing
that the kindergarten medical exemption rate had jumped again,
it had tripled, members of Vaccinate California
and other advocacy groups and coalition members
started talking and talking with Dr Pan
about whether we should do anything
and whether we could do anything.
-Measles causes death.
We do not need to see that in our country and our state.
-And as we were watching measles started spreading.
Just this year alone, we've had four outbreaks
of measles in California,
so we had to start working on a new piece of legislation,
which would impose some oversight over these doctors
that are writing these fake medical exemptions.
-Everybody gets the same amount of time.
-Okay.
-Jenny Balck decided to become politically active
for the first time ever this year
because she was so concerned about this issue.
She was asked to tell Brooke's story at a hearing on the bill,
so she flew in from Orange County to be there.
-There are assembly people
who have stated their opposition to the bill
and have retweeted anti-vaccine talking points.
So, I would not be shocked if one of them would ask
something like, "Really?
You wouldn't feel safe having any of these
other children in class with you?"
Just hold your guard and say, "No, my doctors say no."
-I really would not. -Yeah, "I really would not."
-What we're doing with SB276 is providing the information
to the public health authorities.
-But this protection is being undermined.
So that they know how many exemptions are out there,
who has them for what reason, and who's writing them.
So, this is really about oversight.
-And I understand that people
who choose not to vaccinate their children believe
that they are doing what is right for their children,
but what they feel is right for their kids
puts my child in mortal jeopardy every day.
We have had whooping cough in my neighborhood two weeks ago.
My daughter does competitive dance.
It was another dance studio in our neighborhood.
It is prevalent.
It is everywhere in our community.
-We all went back up to Sacramento,
and there were lines and lines of people
opposing the bill and lines
and lines of people supporting the bill.
-I'm a grandmother of four and a mother of three
with a vaccine-injured grandson, and I strongly oppose this bill.
-Thank you. -I will never consent.
-I'm from Orange County, and I'm begging you
to please not pass this bill.
I oppose. -Can I tell you
that I oppose the bill?
You're gonna cause a revolution if this passes.
-One opponent of the bill is Dr Ron Kennedy,
an anti-aging psychiatrist in Santa Rosa.
The state medical board is investigating
whether Kennedy improperly issued blanket
medical exemptions.
The Washington Post reached out to Kennedy
for comment on the investigation.
He declined.
-I am a vaccine-injured physician,
and I oppose this bill.
-Vast majority of the doctors were on our side,
but there were a few who opposed the bill, as well.
-It's basically "stop and frisk."
You are presumed guilty.
In my case, there's a lot of misinformation
about why I am on probation.
-I would point out that, actually,
the one person the medical board has actually put on probation
for inappropriate medical exemption
is Dr Sears himself, who's here.
He also claims to have a list of quote
"vaccine-friendly" physicians on his website.
-Leah Russin is hoping that if this legislation passes,
it can be used as a blueprint for other states.
-These people who are sick in New York,
they're not just staying in New York.
They're taking the subway. That's fine.
They're traveling to Pennsylvania.
We can trace the disease as it travels across the country.
-Madam Secretary, we have a motion by Dr Arambula,
a second by Mr Bonta.
The motion is due passed as amended to appropriations.
With that, Madam Secretary, please call a roll.
-So, these outbreaks don't just stay put,
and the only way to stop them is to inoculate the community,
and that only happens when we have laws like this.
So, I hope that other states do follow our lead.
-Dr Pan, your bill has nine votes.
It's out of committee.
[ All cheer ]
-Thank you, everybody.
We did it.
-SB276 has to clear several more hurdles
before it makes its way to Governor Gavin Newsom's desk.
Newsom has indicated that if the bill gets to him,
he will sign it into law.
-Say, "I'm so cute!" -I'm so cute!
-Okay, I'll see you later. All done, video.
Say, "Bye-bye, video." -Bye-bye, video.