Kansas, Please Protect Our Children: Why Kansas Should Remove the Religious Exemption for Mandatory School Vaccinations

On January 27, 2015, six-week-old DeAngelo passed away from whooping cough in Barton County, Kansas. 1 DeAngelo was too young to vaccinate so he was relying on herd immunity—others being vaccinated—to protect him. 2 DeAngelo was among four other cases of pertussis, more commonly known as whooping cough, in Barton County in January 2015; and cases were reported in Johnson County, McPherson County, and the city of Wichita as well. 3 In response to DeAngelo’s death and the other cases, the Barton County Health Department “urg[ed] [local] residents to make sure their whooping cough vaccines [were] up to date, or [to] get a booster if recommended.” 4 Specifically, Health Director Shelly Schneider singled out people with young children, urging