Dear Senators Robbie Morris and Bill Hamilton, and Delegates Elias Coop-Gonzales and Jonathan Kyle:

I am writing this letter to you in reference to the upcoming proposed legislation to relax vaccine requirements in the schools in West Virginia. I have been a pediatrician here in Elkins for over 40 years and am a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics, which has 67,000 pediatricians across the United States as members.

Naturally, I am a HUGE fan of vaccines. One hundred years ago, the number one killer of kids was infections. Graveyards at that time were full of children, some as young as a few weeks old. Now the number one killer of kids is accidents.

It is vaccines that have caused this miracle. Vaccines were the biggest success story in public health in the 20th century. Unfortunately, now vaccines are the victim of their success because younger people who have not seen or remember polio, measles and diphtheria do not think vaccines are necessary.

At the present time, enough kids in West Virginia are getting vaccines that we have what is called herd immunity. But if we start having exemptions, the herd immunity level will go down, and we will start having these infections that other states are experiencing. When that happens, those kids who have problems with their immune systems or have cancer will be susceptible to infections.

The kids at school are in class very close together and easily pass germs. I know most parents know this is true!

Right now, West Virginia is No. 1 in the United States in school vaccine rates because of our present requirements. To those of our representatives who voted to preserve our good law, THANK YOU!

Forty-three states reported measles last year, including ALL Five STATES that border West Virginia, but not in West Virginia. Three infants died of whooping cough (pertussis) in Kentucky last year. Two recent polls show that West Virginians overwhelmingly support our vaccine law.

I have always loved children, even when I was a teen. That is why I went into pediatrics. EVERYTHING I do while working at my clinic is to BENEFIT kids, ESPECIALLY giving vaccines, and I know that other pediatricians feel the same way.

Let us love the children of West Virginia by protecting them from these deadly diseases that used to put babies in graveyards.

I beg you, DO NOT VOTE to change our good vaccine law. Thank you.

Mary S. Boyd, MD, FAAP

Elkins