Follow Up on Our Earlier Post

Not a new idea.

We noted in an earlier post that UCLA could (should) implement a vaccination requirement for students and others on campus.*  There is a plan to implement such a requirement over an extended period. Given the measles outbreak, it should be now.

We're glad to see the Daily Bruin getting onboard:

Following outbreaks of several infectious diseases on college campuses in recent years – including an outbreak of meningitis at UC Santa Barbara in 2013 – the University of California should move quickly to make sure its students are properly immunized.  The UC is currently considering a tentative plan to require an extended list of vaccinations for its incoming students and to compile a database of students’ immunization records. The UC should quickly implement this plan, which will both increase the number of immunized students on campus and give the University important information about who is immunized, allowing them to take appropriate action in the event of an outbreak. The required immunizations under the University’s tentative plan should include, at the minimum, vaccines against some of the most common and preventable infectious diseases: measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), varicella (chicken pox), meningococcal, tetanus diphtheria and pertussis and Hepatitis B.

The University should implement these immunization requirements for the next incoming freshman class.

Additionally, if the University rolls out this plan as expected, it should only allow exemptions to vaccinations based on documented medical or religious reasons. Students should not be allowed to refuse vaccinations simply because they don’t want them or because they illogically believe vaccines are dangerous. Those students who cannot be vaccinated depend on healthy, able-bodied individuals to protect them from perfectly preventable but potentially debilitating diseases...

Full editorial at http://dailybruin.com/2015/02/02/editorial-uc-should-require-extra-vaccinations-for-incoming-class/

The only thing we would add is that UCLA doesn't have to wait for UC to cook up a systemwide plan.  And it doesn't have to wait for the next incoming freshman class.

See also https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/02/02/measles-outbreak-raises-issues-colleges

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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2015/01/how-about-measles-free-campus.html