Dorit Rubinstein Reiss

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Dorit Rubinstein Reiss
Dorit-reiss.jpg
Born1973-1974
Education Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Alma mater University of California, Berkeley
Occupation Professor of Law
Employer UC Hastings
Known for Advocacy of immunization

Dorit Rubinstein Reiss is a Professor of Law and the James Edgar Hervey '50 Chair of Litigation at UC Hastings College of Law. She has also worked for the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Israeli Ministry of Justice's Department of Public Law. [1]

Contents

A law professor specializing in torts and administrative law, since 2013 Reiss has become known for her work on legal issues regarding vaccination policies. Reiss has proposed that parents who don't vaccinate their children, including those who obtain legal exemptions, should face legal liability. [2] She is also noted for her support of California Senate Bill 277, which cut back on exemptions to vaccination requirements for enrollment in California schools and daycare centers. [3] [4] She has expressed her views in various journals, panels and blogs. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]

She is a frequent contributor to academic journals, blogs and newspapers. Her work focuses on accountability, health care, social policies and law. [10]

Career

Dorit Reiss obtained her undergraduate degree in law and political science from the Faculty of Law at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She would later serve as editor-in-chief of the Law Review for the same institution. After her graduation, Reiss worked for the Israeli Ministry of Justice's Department of Public Law. Reiss received her PhD from the Jurisprudence and Social Policy program at UC Berkeley. While studying there, Reiss worked as a teacher's assistant and won the Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award. [1]

Professor Reiss's dissertation focused on the accountability of the telecommunications and electricity sectors in England, France, and Sweden. Her later research also dealt with accountability, in this case concerning agencies at state, national, and international levels in the United States and Europe. Since 2010, Reiss has become known for her work on legal issues surrounding vaccination and health care policies. [1] [11]

Early pro-vaccination activism

Reiss says her focus on immunization advocacy started in 2010, with the birth of her son. There had been stories on the news about a whooping cough epidemic, which prompted Reiss to seek advice from her doctor on how to protect her child. As her son was too young, the doctor's advice was to undergo immunization herself. [11]

Reiss says the birth of her son also motivated her to read parenting blogs in her spare time. In one of those blogs, Reiss says came across an article about the resurgence of measles and myths about the MMR vaccine. Reiss discovered that one of the readers of the article had posted a comment with common anti-vaccination claims. Reiss says that being familiar with how vaccine-preventable diseases used to affect and kill many people, she was shocked that someone would oppose vaccines. After that first encounter with anti-vaccine arguments, Reiss says she started reading more about the claims made by people opposing vaccines and the refutations provided by experts. She became convinced that the answers given by scientists were solid and powerful. [11] She says:

Vaccines protect children, and safeguard the public health. Being a part of those that work to promote immunization rates gives me a purpose. Something to do that means something. I've met amazing people in this journey – people with large hearts, brilliant minds, dedication and selflessness. I'm very proud to know them, and am amazed to be a part of some of these groups. [11]

Reiss also collaborates with the organization Voices for Vaccines, where she acts as a member of its Parents Advisory Board. [12] She is also a member of the Vaccines Working Group on Ethics and Policy. [13]

Reiss's academic work has addressed some of the legal issues surrounding vaccination, one of her main arguments being that parents who do not vaccinate their children should be liable if their child transmits a vaccine-preventable disease to other people. [14] [15] In 2015, Reiss and coauthors Charlotte A. Moser and Robert L. Schwartz published a paper with the title ″Funding the Costs of Disease Outbreaks Caused by Non Vaccination″, in which they propose the creation of a no-fault fund paid by parents who refuse to vaccinate their children. This fund would act as a tax which would cover the public health costs generated as a consequence of non-vaccination. Another alternative would be billing parents if it is determined that their failure to vaccinate caused an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease. [16] The authors sent their proposal to California state Senators Ben Allen and Richard Pan. [17]

Reiss has also expressed support for California Senate Bill 277, a bill that eliminated non-medical vaccine exemptions for children attending school and child care centers in California. [4] Reiss argues that sending non-vaccinated children to school would put both the non-immunized child and the other children at risk, and says that parents who don't vaccinate their children are negligent and impose an unfair financial burden on others. [15]

In April 2015, Reiss gave her testimony on SB 277 before the Senate Judiciary Committee. In her testimony, she argued that the legislature has the leeway to require school immunization, and that non-medical exemptions are unnecessary. [18]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vaccination</span> Administration of a vaccine to protect against disease

Vaccination is the administration of a vaccine to help the immune system develop immunity from a disease. Vaccines contain a microorganism or virus in a weakened, live or killed state, or proteins or toxins from the organism. In stimulating the body's adaptive immunity, they help prevent sickness from an infectious disease. When a sufficiently large percentage of a population has been vaccinated, herd immunity results. Herd immunity protects those who may be immunocompromised and cannot get a vaccine because even a weakened version would harm them. The effectiveness of vaccination has been widely studied and verified. Vaccination is the most effective method of preventing infectious diseases; widespread immunity due to vaccination is largely responsible for the worldwide eradication of smallpox and the elimination of diseases such as polio and tetanus from much of the world. However, some diseases, such as measles outbreaks in America, have seen rising cases due to relatively low vaccination rates in the 2010s – attributed, in part, to vaccine hesitancy. According to the World Health Organization, vaccination prevents 3.5–5 million deaths per year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vaccine hesitancy</span> Reluctance or refusal to be vaccinated or have ones children vaccinated

Vaccine hesitancy is a delay in acceptance, or refusal, of vaccines despite the availability of vaccine services and supporting evidence. The term covers refusals to vaccinate, delaying vaccines, accepting vaccines but remaining uncertain about their use, or using certain vaccines but not others. The scientific consensus that vaccines are generally safe and effective is overwhelming. Vaccine hesitancy often results in disease outbreaks and deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases. Therefore, the World Health Organization characterizes vaccine hesitancy as one of the top ten global health threats.

Vaccination and religion have interrelations of varying kinds. No major religion prohibits vaccinations, and some consider it an obligation because of the potential to save lives. However, some people cite religious adherence as a basis for opting to forego vaccinating themselves or their children. Many such objections are pretextual: in Australia, anti-vaccinationists founded the Church of Conscious Living, a "fake church", leading to religious exemptions being removed in that country, and one US pastor was reported to offer vaccine exemptions in exchange for online membership of his church.

A vaccination policy is a health policy adopted in order to prevent the spread of infectious disease. These policies are generally put into place by State or local governments, but may also be set by private facilities, such as workplaces or schools. Many policies have been developed and implemented since vaccines were first made widely available.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Health in the United States</span> Overall health of the population of the United States

Health may refer to "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity.", according to the World Health Organization (WHO). 78.7 was the average life expectancy for individuals at birth in 2017. The highest cause of death for United States citizens is heart disease. Sexually transmitted infections impact the health of approximately 19 million yearly. The two most commonly reported infections include chlamydia and gonorrhea. The United States is currently challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic, and is 19th in the world in COVID-19 vaccination rates. All 50 states in the U.S. require immunizations for children in order to enroll in public school, but various exemptions are available by state. Immunizations are often compulsory for military enlistment in the United States.

Vaccinate Your Family (VYF), formerly known as Every Child By Two (ECBT), is a non-profit organization, based in the United States, which advocates for vaccinations. Founded in 1991, its stated goals are to "raise awareness of the critical need for timely immunizations and to foster a systematic way to immunize all of America's children by age two." ECBT was founded by former First Lady of the United States Rosalynn Carter and former First Lady of Arkansas Betty Bumpers. ECBT was renamed to Vaccinate Your Family in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Measles vaccine</span> Vaccine used to prevent measles

Measles vaccine protects against becoming infected with measles. Nearly all of those who do not develop immunity after a single dose develop it after a second dose. When rate of vaccination within a population is greater than 92%, outbreaks of measles typically no longer occur; however, they may occur again if the rate of vaccination decrease. The vaccine's effectiveness lasts many years. It is unclear if it becomes less effective over time. The vaccine may also protect against measles if given within a couple of days after exposure to measles.

Robert William Sears, known as Dr. Bob, is an American pediatrician from Capistrano Beach, California, noted for his unorthodox and dangerous views on childhood vaccination. While Sears acknowledges the efficacy of vaccines—for instance, he supports the claim that Chicken pox, measles, whooping cough, polio, diphtheria have all disappeared because of vaccines—he has proposed alternative vaccination schedules that depart from accepted medical recommendations. His proposals have enjoyed celebrity endorsement but are not supported by medical evidence and have contributed to dangerous under-vaccination in the national child population. While he denies being anti-vaccine, Sears has been described by many as anti-vaccine and as a vaccine delayer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Epidemiology of measles</span>

Measles is extremely contagious, but surviving the infection results in lifelong immunity, so its continued circulation in a community depends on the generation of susceptible hosts by birth of children. In communities which generate insufficient new hosts the disease will die out. This concept was first recognized by Bartlett in 1957, who referred to the minimum number supporting measles as the critical community size (CCS). Analysis of outbreaks in island communities suggested that the CCS for measles is c. 250,000. Due to the development of vaccination against measles, the world has seen a 99% decrease in measles related cases compared cases before the vaccine was developed.

An alternative vaccination schedule is a vaccination schedule differing from the schedule endorsed by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). These schedules may be either written or ad hoc, and have not been tested for their safety or efficacy. Proponents of such schedules aim to reduce the risk of adverse effects they believe to be caused by vaccine components, such as "immune system overload" that is argued to be caused by exposure to multiple antigens. Parents who adopt these schedules tend to do so because they are concerned about the potential risks of vaccination, rather than because they are unaware of the significance of vaccination's benefits. Delayed vaccination schedules have been shown to lead to an increase in breakthrough infections without any benefit in lower side effect profiles.

<i>Melanies Marvelous Measles</i> Anti-vaccine book with dangerous message that contracting the measles is beneficial

Melanie's Marvelous Measles is a self-published children's book written by Australian author and anti-vaccine activist Stephanie Messenger. Through its story, the book claims, contrary to scientific data, that contracting measles is beneficial to health, and that vaccines are ineffective.

California Senate Bill 277 (SB277) is a California law that removed personal belief as a reason for an exemption from the vaccination requirements for entry to private or public elementary or secondary schools in California, as well as day care centers. The final version of the bill was enacted by the California Legislature in 2015 and was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown on June 30, 2015.

Texans for Vaccine Choice (TFVC) is an anti-vaccine Facebook group turned political action committee in Texas which advocates for personal belief exemptions to vaccination requirements, based on "a collection of fake news, half- truths, and conspiracy theories". Andrew Wakefield, the disgraced former medical researcher and originator of the MMR autism hoax, and infectious disease specialist Peter Hotez, both describe TFVC's lobbying as very effective, with the rate of Texas students opting out of at least one vaccine at least doubling in around five years and over 50,000 Texas schoolchildren not being vaccinated.

In early months of 2019, a measles outbreak occurred in the Portland metropolitan area, including the Clark County, Washington suburbs, in the United States. At the time, the outbreak was the largest outbreak in more than two decades; outbreaks in 2019 in areas including Brooklyn and Rockland County, New York have since seen far greater numbers of cases.

The 2019 measles outbreaks refer to a substantial global increase in the number of measles cases reported, relative to 2018. As of April 2019, the number of measles cases reported worldwide represented a 300% increase from the number of cases seen in the previous year, constituting over 110,000 measles cases reported in the first three months of 2019. In the first half of 2019, the World Health Organization received reports of 364,808 measles cases from 182 countries, up 182% from the same time period of 2018 when 129,239 confirmed cases were reported by 181 countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Measles resurgence in the United States</span> Sharp increase in measles cases between 2010 and 2019

Measles was declared eliminated from the United States in 2000 by the World Health Organization due to the success of vaccination efforts. However, it continues to be reintroduced by international travelers, and in recent years, anti-vaccination sentiment has allowed for the reemergence of measles outbreaks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vaccination policy of the United States</span> Overview of the vaccination policy in the United States of America

Vaccination policy of the United States is the subset of U.S. federal health policy that deals with immunization against infectious disease. It is decided at various levels of the government, including the individual states. This policy has been developed over the approximately two centuries since the invention of vaccination with the purpose of eradicating disease from the U.S. population, or creating a herd immunity. Policies intended to encourage vaccination impact numerous areas of law, including regulation of vaccine safety, funding of vaccination programs, vaccine mandates, adverse event reporting requirements, and compensation for injuries asserted to be associated with vaccination.

The New Jersey Coalition for Vaccination Choice (NJCVC) is a state-level anti-vaccination group advocating against mandatory vaccination. Scientists and medical experts have countered many of these statements, arguments against vaccination being contradicted by overwhelming scientific consensus about the safety and efficacy of vaccines.

<i>Phillips v. City of New York</i> American legal case

Phillips v. City of New York, 775 F.3d 538, cert. denied, 136 S. Ct. 104 (2015), was a 2015 decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit addressing vaccination mandates and exemptions from them in New York City. The court concluded that it was within the constitutional police power of the state to mandate vaccination, and that religious exemptions were not constitutionally required. Therefore, even though the state did permit religious exemptions, it was free to provide them with limitations including the exclusion of exempted children from school during an outbreak of the disease, and requiring applicants to demonstrate the sincerity of their religious objection in order to receive an exemption.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disneyland measles outbreak</span> Event at Disneyland Resort, California

The Disneyland measles outbreak began at the Disneyland Resort, California, in December 2014, and spread to seven states in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, before it was declared over in mid-April 2015.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, Professor of Law". UC Hastings. 15 January 2021.
  2. ↑ Reiss, Dorit; Moser, Charlotte; Schwartz, Robert (January 2015). "Funding the Costs of Disease Outbreaks Caused by Non Vaccination". Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics. 43 (3): 633–647. doi:10.1111/jlme.12305. PMID   26479572. S2CID   31095903.
  3. ↑ "Reiss CV" (PDF). UC Hastings.
  4. 1 2 "Parents have no rights to expose other kids" (PDF). Daily Journal.
  5. ↑ "Panel of Health, legal experts to address undervaccination in California". UC Berkeley News Center. February 26, 2015.
  6. ↑ "The Costs of the Fight Against the HPV Vaccine". Moms Who Vax. 4 December 2013.
  7. ↑ "The Disneyland measles crisis: how to make negligent parents pay". Los Angeles Times. 28 January 2015.
  8. ↑ "Measles Outbreak: California Bill Would End All Vaccination Exemptions". San Jose Mercury News. 20 February 2015.
  9. ↑ "Measles outbreak: California bill would end all vaccination loopholes except medical". Statesman Journal. 13 March 2015. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
  10. ↑ "Index of Articles by Guest Author-Prof. Dorit Rubinstein Reiss". The Skeptical Raptor. 9 June 2015. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
  11. 1 2 3 4 "Immunization Heroes: Dorit Reiss". MOMunizations. 27 May 2014.
  12. ↑ "Voices for Vaccines". Voices for Vaccines.
  13. ↑ "Vaccines Working Group on Ethics and Policy Members" . Retrieved 27 November 2020.
  14. ↑ Reiss, Dorit Rubinstein (2014). "Compensating the Victims of Failure to Vaccinate: What are the options?" (PDF). Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy . Cornell Law School. 23 (3): 595–633. PMID   25330552 . Retrieved July 30, 2015.
  15. 1 2 "Democracy Now!- February 5, 2015". Democracy Now!. 5 February 2015.
  16. ↑ Moser, C. A.; Reiss, D.; Schwartz, R. L. (3 June 2014). "Funding the Costs of Disease Outbreaks Caused by Non-Vaccination". The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics. 43 (3): 633–47. doi:10.1111/jlme.12305. PMID   26479572. S2CID   31095903. SSRN   2445610.
  17. ↑ "These Professors Want Parents Who Don't Vaccinate to Pay a Tax". BuzzFeed News. 9 February 2015. Retrieved 1 July 2015.
  18. ↑ "Transcript". What The Folly?. 29 April 2015. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 1 July 2015.
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