6277 Golden Lily Way

San Diego, CA 92130

February 27, 2018

Mr. Scott Peters

1122 Longworth House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515

Dear Scott Peters,

In recent years many parents and families have begun to shy away from getting vaccines and giving

them to their children. These parent’s refusal to vaccinate their children has risen from a fear of the

vaccines causing autism or other conditions that would cause their children harm. A study done in 1998

was the introductory cause of the fear of vaccines and remains a major source for many parents that

refuse to give their children necessary vaccines. The study found that these necessary vaccines caused

forms of Autism and bowel disease. While the study seemed legitimate at the time, no recent reputable

study has confirmed those findings. The doctor that led the study, Andrew Wakefield, has since been

found to have stood to profit from vaccines being taken out of everyday life, and has since been banned

from practicing medicine.

While many parents remain hesitant to give their child vaccines, they remain necessary to maintain

everyday life. For example, before vaccines were discovered, hundreds of people died every year from

measles. Since the introduction of vaccines, the amount of people that have contracted measles has

dropped dramatically and most doctors have never even seen a case involving the disease. Clearly

vaccines have helped reduce the number of cases of vaccines today, but that does not mean that

humans are now immune to it. There are still outbreaks of measles that occur due to the low
vaccination rates within the area. If only a few people get vaccinated, the disease will spread almost like

there wasn’t a vaccine in the first place. Therefore, we must keep the vaccination rates up.

My bill will move to make vaccinations that are classified by the CDC as essential mandatory for all those

that qualify to take them. If people can prove that they may not take vaccinations for strict health or

religious reasons, they may be excluded from the program since it is only essential that a great

percentage of people take the vaccine. Making these vaccinations mandatory for the vast majority of

the population will help prevent major disease outbreaks and slow the spread of common disease like

influenza.

I hope to hear your opinion on this matter shortly and you can find the finer details of the bill on my bills

website. Thank you for taking your time out of your day to consider this topic.

Sincerely,

Cal Aiken