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Ottawa County commissioners pass resolution on vaccine exemptions

The vote passed by a margin of 9-2 at Tuesday night's meeting.

OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. — The Ottawa County Board of Commissioners has passed a resolution affirming the rights of parents to make choices for their kids when it comes to vaccines.

Michigan law already allows for vaccine exemptions for a number of circumstances, including religious objections and situations when vaccines may be detrimental to a child's health. But commissioners who voted for the resolution Tuesday night believed that those options were not promoted enough at the county level.

"The need to wade into this issue began when the health department issued an email with the names of the board of commissioners on the bottom, encouraging childhood vaccination for school without offering informed consent on safety risks or informing parents of their legal right to opt their child out of vaccine requirements for school," said board vice chairperson Sylvia Rhodea.

The vote followed two hours of public comment which was mostly related to the vaccine resolution. Two county commissioners, Roger Bergman and Doug Zylstra, voted against the measure.

"The unfortunate thing today is there's so much misinformation out there on the web that in order to get the truth is difficult for people at times - for parents, for grandparents, because there is so much on the web. And often I think through this process that we forget about the fact that this is not just about 'me.' It's about 'us.' It's about all of us," Bergman said.

Earlier this month, the state announced Michigan's childhood vaccination rates are the lowest they've been since 2011.

    

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