MAINE, USA — Maine is just a day away from its first primary in two decades. While a large part of the agenda is centered around national issues, there is a lot at stake for local issues too.
At the forefront of it all is the months-long debate about Question 1, a people's veto to reject a law that would get rid of philosophical and religious exemptions from childhood vaccines, starting in September 2021.
Voting "yes" on Question 1 would uphold philosophical and religious exemptions from vaccines, while voting "no" would keep the new law in place, allowing only medical exemptions from vaccines in Maine.
The law wouldn't force anyone to get vaccinated, but un-vaccinated K-12 and college-aged children without a medical exemption would not be allowed to attend public or private schools. They would also not be allowed to enroll in daycare or work in certain public health facilities.
Reginald Arsenault has lived in the small town of Mexico for his entire life. He contracted polio at the age of two years old and has been living with the after-effects of the disease for 65 years.
"I've learned how to walk, like I said, five times. I've gone into six different types of braces to be able to walk," Arsenault told NEWS CENTER Maine. "I am now back in a brace full-time to walk, to function."
Arsenault has been trying to encourage people to vote "no" on Question 1, saying he is worried diseases like polio could make a comeback because of lack of immunity. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the United States has been polio-free since 1979, thanks to vaccinations and herd immunity. The Maine CDC reports, though, that the number of non-medical exemptions has been growing in recent years, from 4.3 percent in 2014 to 5.6 percent in 2019.
Herd immunity requires a 95 percent vaccination rate or higher.
"I would just hate in my lifetime to see any children go through this," Arsenault, a father and grandfather, said about serious diseases like polio. "I mean, it's heartbreaking."
Rachel Ortiz says she has had a heartbreaking experience on another side of the debate. She is a Bangor-based mother who says she used to be all for childhood vaccines until a devastating situation.
"I used to have that mindset that that was the responsible thing -- that you vaccinate and don't question it," Ortiz explained to NEWS CENTER Maine. "Everything changed for my family when my son had his 15-month inoculations."
Ortiz says her son was developing at a normal pace at the time but experienced encephalitis and febrile seizure as a result of vaccine combinations, leaving him permanently brain damaged.
"There's not a day that goes by that I don't regret vaccinating," Ortiz expressed.
It's why she wants to preserve medical freedom for her family when it comes to vaccines. She now claims philosophical exemptions for her other son, since she stopped getting him immunized after his brother had that reaction. Ortiz says medical exemptions from physicians are hard to get -- less than one percent of Mainers have them -- and she was not able to obtain one based on familial relations.
On the converse, Brandon Libby, an emergency medical physician with Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, argues that allergies (for instance, to a certain vaccine) are not genetic in the same way that certain diseases are.
Ortiz says she believes other families should be allowed more time to research medical history to feel comfortable vaccinating their kids. She says the new law would eliminate that right, since vaccines would be required for daycare and school-aged children.
"I'm not saying that all vaccines are bad -- that's not what I'm trying to communicate," Ortiz emphasized. "But for children like my son, this is a devastating piece of legislation."
All registered Maine voters can weigh in on Question 1 on Super Tuesday, which is March 3, 2020.