LOS ANGELES _ Two years after California adopted one of the toughest child vaccination laws in the nation, the state's immunization rates are near record-high levels.
Approved after a measles outbreak that originated at Disneyland, the law makes California one of only three states that bar parents from citing their personal beliefs to avoid having their children vaccinated.
Yet, even with the strict new law, there remain schools and neighborhoods with dangerously low vaccination rates, experts say, largely because a growing number of parents are obtaining doctors' notes exempting their kids from the required shots.
At least 95 percent of the population needs to be vaccinated to prevent an outbreak of a highly contagious disease such as measles, experts say.
But at 105 schools in the state, 10 percent or more of kindergartners had a medical exemption in the school year that ended last month, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis of state data. That was nearly double the number of such schools in the first year the law was in effect.
State Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, who sponsored the immunization law, said he is contemplating legislation that would tighten the state's vaccination laws even further. Some physicians have advertised online that they will consider medical exemptions for children with asthma or skin conditions such as psoriasis.
"People are getting fraudulent exemptions," Pan said in an interview. "If we continue to see abuses, then I think there should be some thought as to how to address it. ... People need to realize this is about the safety of their kids."
But parents resistant to vaccines seem to be digging their heels in. Many were angered last month when Dr. Bob Sears, an Orange County pediatrician, was punished by the state medical board for improperly exempting a young boy from all childhood vaccinations. The penalty _ 35 months' probation _ inspired many to rally around Sears, who appeared to be gearing up for a battle with the state.
"Is this fight over? No it is not," Sears wrote on Facebook. "I will fight against mandatory vaccination laws until they are no more."
The debate over how to enforce the immunization law is shaping up to be the next chapter in the vaccine fight in California, a state that has become somewhat of a test case for regulating anti-vaccine attitudes.
