AMA Advocates To Eliminating Non-Medical Exemptions For Vaccines

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CHICAGO – Building on the AMA’s efforts to protect the public against vaccine-preventable diseases, the AMA adopted policy during its Annual meeting to expand its existing policy to actively advocate for legislation, regulations, programs and policies that incentivize states to eliminate non-medical exemptions from mandated pediatric immunizations.

“Getting vaccinated not only keeps individuals from becoming ill with vaccine-preventable diseases, such as the measles, but also helps prevent further spread to loved ones, neighbors, co-workers and others in close contact,” said AMA Board Member E. Scott Ferguson, M.D. “As evident from the measles outbreaks currently impacting communities in several states, when individuals are not immunized as a matter of personal preference or misinformation, they put themselves and others at risk of disease. The AMA strongly supports efforts to eliminate non-medical exemptions from immunization, and we will continue to actively urge policymakers to do so.”

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The overwhelming scientific evidence shows that vaccines are among the most effective and safest interventions to both prevent individual illness and protect the health of the public. The AMA has long-supported eliminating all non-medical exemptions from required childhood vaccines and provided testimony on legislation in several states, including Arizona, Maine, Oregon and Washington.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. currently has the highest number of measles cases that the country has seen since the disease was considered eradicated. In fact, there have been more cases of measles in the first five months of 2019 than all of 1992, the last year that the U.S. experienced a major outbreak.


About the AMA

The American Medical Association is the physicians’ powerful ally in patient care. As the only medical association that convenes 190+ state and specialty medical societies and other critical stakeholders, the AMA represents physicians with a unified voice to all key players in health care. The AMA leverages its strength by removing the obstacles that interfere with patient care, leading the charge to prevent chronic disease and confront public health crises, and, driving the future of medicine to tackle the biggest challenges in health care. For more information, visit ama-assn.org.

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