Randa D Faulkner
On a scale of “Strongly Agree” (5) to “Strongly Disagree,” (1) rank your position on the following statements:
Vaccines are safe: 5
Vaccines are effective at preventing disease: 5
Keeping children safe is a shared responsibility: 5
What is your position on West Virginia’s current school vaccine requirements (which allow only medical exemptions)?
Maintain current requirements
In your view, what role should the state play in ensuring access to vaccines—especially in rural or underserved communities?
I am in favor of vaccine mandates with only medical exemption. With such a law, the state should provide and administer vaccinations at no cost to the recipient. Rural clinics, mobile units and temporary sites most certainly would need to be implemented, in those communities where medical facilities are not available.
Which of the following best reflects your understanding?
Vaccines primarily protect the individual receiving them
Vaccines help protect both individuals and the broader community
Vaccination is largely a personal decision with limited community impact
Vaccination is a personal decision regardless of community impact
If a preventable disease outbreak (such as measles) occurred in your district, what actions—if any—would you take as a policymaker (e.g., make a statement regarding safety, coordinate with public health officials, take policy actions, encourage vaccination, etc.
First steps would include coordinating with public health officials and public school systems. Since there should be no large scale outbreak where mandated vaccinations are in place, some investigation by the health dept would also be necessary. Press releases and updates, informing the community would certainly be a priority.
Is there anything else you would like West Virginia voters to know about your approach to public health, community wellbeing, and/or vaccines?
Had it been available in 1965, the Rubella vaccine would have saved my sister Lisa, from a life of blindness, Cerebral Palsy, and profound disabilities. Born premature, weighing 3 lbs, Lisa suffered through life, not only blind, but nonverbal, surviving on baby food, heavily medicated, yet enduring dozens of seizures daily. Lisa, not really living, but not yet dead, for 45 years. From 1964 to 65, 20,000 unborn babies were infected with the Rubella virus, resulting in birth defects and death. My sister, one of these 20, 000.
During her first weeks of pregnancy, my mother's exposure to German Measles, with just a brief encounter through a screen door, changed the lives of my unborn sister, and those of our family. My sister Lisa's suffering was just part of the devastating impact this disease had on our lives. Financially devastating, emotionally overwhelming, with no support or resources from outside the family, my other sibling and I suffered as well. Ask me for more of this story. It is not pretty and it does not end well. Vaccine mandates is a hill I will die on!
