[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 2257-2258]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   REEMERGENCE OF VACCINE-PREVENTABLE DISEASES: EXPLORING THE PUBLIC 
                    HEALTH SUCCESSES AND CHALLENGES

  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a copy of 
my remarks at the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions 
Committee hearing earlier this week be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

   Reemergence of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases: Exploring the Public 
                    Health Successes and Challenges

       From smallpox to polio, we have learned in the United 
     States that vaccines save lives. And yet a troubling number 
     of parents are not vaccinating their children.
       Last September this committee held a hearing about the 
     Ebola virus. Our witnesses included a brave physician, Dr. 
     Kent Brantly, who worked in Liberia; and a brave father in 
     Sierra Leone who came to warn us about how rapidly the virus 
     was spreading. The number of people being infected with Ebola 
     was doubling every three weeks, and many of those infected 
     were dying--because for Ebola there was and is no cure, and 
     there was and is no vaccine.
       This produced a near panic in the U.S.--it changed 
     procedures in nearly every hospital and clinic. In response, 
     Congress appropriated more than $5 billion to fight the 
     spread of the virus. The impact of efforts to fight Ebola is 
     that the number of Ebola cases is declining.
       At the same time, here in the U.S. we are now experiencing 
     a large outbreak of a disease for which we do have a vaccine. 
     Measles used to sicken up to 4 million Americans each year--
     and many believed that it was an unpreventable childhood 
     illness--but the introduction of a vaccine in 1963 changed 
     everything. Measles was declared eliminated--meaning absence 
     of continuous disease transmission for greater than 12 
     months--from the United States in 2000. From 2001 to 2012, 
     the median yearly number of measles cases reported in all of 
     the U.S. was 60.
       Today is February 10, 2015. It is the 41st day of the year 
     and we already have seen more cases of measles than we would 
     in a typical year. One measles outbreak--in Palatine, 
     Illinois, a suburb about a half hour from Chicago--has 
     affected at least five babies, all less than a year old.
       Infants and individuals who are immunocompromised are 
     traditionally protected by what is called herd immunity--the 
     people around them are vaccinated, so they don't get sick, 
     and that keeps the babies and others who can't get vaccinated 
     from getting sick. That herd immunity is incredibly 
     important. Measles can cause life-threatening complications 
     in children, such as pneumonia or swelling of the brain.
       Our witnesses today will talk more not just about what is 
     causing this outbreak, but why some parents are choosing not 
     to vaccinate their children. Measles is only one example. 
     This hearing which was planned before the measles outbreak 
     reminded us of the importance of vaccines. An analysis of 
     immunization rates across 13 states performed by USA Today 
     found the following:
       ``Hundreds of thousands of students attend schools--ranging 
     from small, private academies in New York City to large 
     public elementary schools outside Boston to Native American 
     reservation schools in Idaho--where vaccination rates have 
     dropped precipitously low, sometimes under 50%.''
       California is one of the 20 states that allow parents to 
     claim personal belief exemptions from vaccination 
     requirements. In some areas of Los Angeles, 60 to 70 percent 
     of parents at certain schools have filed a personal belief 
     exemption. In those elementary schools, vaccination rates are 
     as low as those in Chad or South Sudan.
       The purpose of this hearing is to examine what is standing 
     between healthy children and deadly diseases. It ought to be 
     vaccinations. But too many parents are turning away from 
     sound science.
       Sound science is this: Vaccines save lives. They save the 
     lives of the people who are vaccinated. They protect the 
     lives of the vulnerable around them--like infants and those 
     who are ill.
       Vaccines save lives. They protect us from the ravages of 
     awful diseases like polio, which invades the nervous system 
     and can cause paralysis. I can remember as a child how 
     parents were frightened by the prospect of polio for their 
     child. I had classmates who lived in iron lungs. Our Majority 
     Leader, Senator McConnell, contracted polio as a child. Or 
     whooping cough, which causes thick mucus to accumulate in the 
     airways and can make it difficult for infants to breathe. Or, 
     diphtheria, a bacterial infection that affects the mucous 
     membranes of your nose and throat and can, in advanced 
     stages, damage your heart, kidneys and nervous system.

[[Page 2258]]

       We have learned that vaccines save lives. They take deadly, 
     awful, ravaging diseases from horror to history. So it is 
     troubling to hear that before we've even reached Valentine's 
     Day this year, 121 Americans are sick with measles, a disease 
     eliminated in the U.S. 15 years ago. It is troubling that a 
     growing number of parents are not following the 
     recommendations doctors and public health professionals have 
     been making for decades. At a time when we are standing on 
     the cusp of medical breakthroughs never imagined--cutting-
     edge personalized medicine tailored to an individual's 
     genome--we find ourselves retreading old ground.

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