More than 920 people are now infected with measles in South Carolina as the outbreak there grows, and smaller outbreaks hit Florida, Arizona and Utah.
Kirk Milhoan Jha, chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recently said that he thinks measles and polio vaccines should be optional.
Dr. Ashish Jha, former dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, tells host Robin Young that removing those vaccine mandates will mean not only more children dying of measles, but a near-certain return of polio infections — all preventable with vaccines that have long been determined safe and effective.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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