Boy Who Battled Leukemia Lobbies for More Vaccinated Students
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luiscar/iStock/Thinkstock(SAN FRANCISCO) — A young boy who fought through leukemia is now fighting to keep unvaccinated children out of school.
After going through chemotherapy, Rhett Krawitt, 6, remains unprotected against certain illnesses, including the measles. So the boy and his family this week asked his local school district to support new legislation that would abolish personal-belief exemptions, which allow families to opt out of required vaccinations, according to ABC News station KGO-TV in San Francisco.
“My name is Rhett and I give a damn!” Rhett told the Reed Union School District members, according to KGO.
Rhett and his Corte Madera, California, family asked the Reed Union School District to support state legislation introduced by state senator and pediatrician Dr. Richard Pan that would abolish personal-belief exemptions that allow students to attend school without being fully vaccinated. For the current school year, 5.89 percent of kindergartners in Marin County have a personal-belief exemption.
Rhett attends school in Marin County in California, where just over 84 percent of kindergartners are fully vaccinated, according to the California Department of Public Health.
“This story isn’t about Rhett anymore. It’s about the expecting mothers, the babies and the hundreds of kids currently with suppressed immune systems,” Rhett’s father, Carl Krawitt said, according to KGO-TV.
The multistate outbreak of measles that started in Disneyland in December has infected at least 121 people, with 99 of those infections in California, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
After the family’s plea, the school district voted to support legislation introduced by Pan.
Carl Krawitt also told ABC News that son Rhett will meet with his doctors to determine whether his immune system is healthy enough to get a measles vaccination.
The importance of vaccinations was underscored again Wednesday after the Contra Costa Public Health Department alerted Bay Area California residents that a passenger on the Bay Area Rapid Transport public transportation system has been infected with measles, meaning other passengers could have been exposed to the contagious virus.
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