Paige Reiring
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?
It is the state's duty to provide life-saving medical care and education to all of its people, especially those communities which have been underserved and the targets of disinformation campaigns.
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.
I would publicly encourage who can get vaccinated to do so. I would help spread good information about prevention and health management. I would remind people that this is something that we can actually take control of and change within our communities if we only choose to work together.
Is there anything else you would like West Virginia voters to know about your approach to public health, community wellbeing, and/or vaccines?
Most attacks on vaccines can trace their origins to people who were concerned with one thing and one thing only: making money. The myth about vaccines causing autism was the result of one man, Andrew Wakefield, hoping to spark fear and panic so that he could sell more books. Even though he was found guilty and admitted to lying for profit, his "activism" has resulted in hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths.
We have more to lose from grifters and lobbyists than from doctors trying to provide honest, time-tested, safe vaccinations that have been studied and proven effective over the course of decades.
