Last week, EqualityMaine, the state’s leading LGBTQ+ advocacy group, announced its endorsement of the No on Question 1 campaign to reject a people’s veto of a new state vaccination law.
“The dangerous increase in unvaccinated people and the spread of diseases directly affects folks in our community, especially people living with HIV,” wrote Shane Diamond, EqualityMaine’s communications director, in a press release. “In many cases, people living with HIV cannot get vaccinated, often have a harder time fighting off vaccine-preventable diseases, and are more at-risk to disease outbreaks that are more likely to occur in communities with high rates of unvaccinated people.”
The vaccine law was passed by the state legislature last year, in part as a reaction to an immunization opt-out rate in Maine that has been rapidly climbing. At five percent, Maine has the seventh highest rate of non-medical opt outs in the nation, more than double the national average of two percent.
As a result, in recent years, outbreaks of vaccine-preventable pertussis, or ‘whooping cough,’ and measles have become widespread in the state.
Since HIV can significantly weaken a person’s immune system, the herd immunity provided by vaccination can prevent someone with HIV from contracting what, for them, could be a life-threatening disease. Some HIV patients cannot receive vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, or shingles, making them acutely vulnerable to these diseases if others are not vaccinated.
In its endorsement, Equality Maine singled out groups supporting Yes on Question 1, such as the Christian Civic League of Maine, for putting ideology before evidence-based science.
“We have seen what happens when extremist organizations like the Christian Civic League prioritize their ideology over actual science and evidence-based medicine,” Diamond continued. “We defended our most vulnerable populations when they opposed protecting young people from the dangerous and discredited practice of conversion therapy, and now they’re attacking vulnerable populations again by opposing vaccines.”
Photo: Doctors and other No on 1 supporters speaking at the campaign’s launch in Augusta on February 4. | Cara DeRose
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