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Vaccines are in the news again in the wake of an outbreak of measles in Washington and, now, Oregon. The number of cases of measles was up to 70 over the weekend, five of them in Oregon. Most of those infected are children, and the vast majority were unvaccinated. Measles can cause serious side effects, including blindness, brain damage and even death. Two bills introduced in the Legislature relate to vaccines required for school attendance. One would remove non-medical exemptions for children in public schools. The other would require that parents be given information about “ingredients” in vaccines that would make it more likely to scare them into refusing to vaccinate their children. Why is “ingredients” in quotes? Because the lists required include something called excipients — substances that serve as a vehicle or medium for a drug or vaccine but may not actually be present in the finished product. Supporters of Senate Bill 649, who include “Oregonians for Medical Freedom,” a group dedicated to protecting vaccine exemptions, say the measure is all about informed consent and providing more information. That sounds harmless enough. But what information, exactly? Federal law already requires that parents receive a Vaccine Information Sheet explaining the benefits and risks of immunizations. But SB 649 would require doctors administering vaccines to also provide the Centers for Disease Control’s excipient list for each vaccine. Making vaccines requires a culture medium for growing the virus. Human cells — derived from two specific fetal cell lines dating back to 1962 and 1966 — are on some of those lists. So, believe it or not, are African green monkey kidney cells, in the case of the polio vaccine. Are those cells actually in the resulting vaccines given to children? No. But they are on the excipient lists. So supporters who claim they simply want parents to know what’s in the vaccines their children are receiving are being deliberately deceptive. The bill also requires disclosure of any vaccine ingredient found on the Oregon Health Authority’s list of “High Priority Chemicals of Concern for Children’s Health.” Sounds reasonable enough. But is it? Not exactly. The high priority list includes 66 chemicals that can be hazardous to children when included in children’s products, but the Oregon Health Authority’s website specifies that “the presence of these chemicals in a product does not necessarily mean the product will harm a child’s health.” Take formaldehyde, which is on the list and may be present in some vaccines. The Multnomah County health officer explained to the Senate Health Care Committee that the human body actually creates formaldehyde in amounts far greater than what is contained in any vaccine, and eliminates it naturally. So why tell parents that their children are being injected with formaldehyde? Perhaps to encourage them to refuse to vaccinate their children. If House Bill 3063, introduced Friday, becomes law, those children won’t be able to attend public school. The bill would remove personal, philosophical and religious reasons as grounds for exemptions from vaccinations. No child would be forced to be vaccinated, but unvaccinated children without a medical exemption would not be allowed to attend public school. That may sound harsh, but high numbers of unvaccinated children put at risk those few children who cannot be vaccinated because of medical conditions, such as a compromised immune system from cancer treatment. HB 3063 would protect public health. SB 649 could mislead more parents into refusing to vaccinate, risking the health of their own children and others.