Should Summer Camps Turn Away Unvaccinated Kids?

What’s the story?

• Summer camps are tightening their policies on vaccines amidst the worst measles outbreak in 25 years.

No shot, no spot

• “I used to accept kids if they had a religious exemption, but now I’m not,” Scott Rosmarin, whose family has operated Rosmarins Day Camp in Monroe, New York, told Reuters.

“If I lose a couple kids, I lose a couple kids ... You’ve got to do what’s right.”

• New York accounts for the majority of the 900 measles outbreaks reported in the U.S. this year.
• The New York State Department of Health sent out a letter saying they “‘strongly recommended’ anyone working at or attending summer camps get the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine, which confers immunity to the disease,’” Reuters reported.
• And the health commissioner in Orange County, New York, issued an order saying that any camp with a permit through the county must require their campers and staff to have at least their first round of the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine.
• But there is no national policy on whether summer camps should require vaccines, and health officials in six other states with active outbreaks told Reuters they aren’t turning away unvaccinated children.

What do you think?

Should there be a national vaccination policy? Take action and tell your reps, then share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman

(Photo Credit: iStock / Jovanmandic)