Since 1967, Tennessee has protected students, faculty, staff, and communities by requiring certain vaccinations for children to attend school. House Joint Resolution 28, by Rep. Gino Bulso, threatens to make these requirements unconstitutional. School vaccination requirements play a vital role in keeping diseases at bay. Measles eradication is a shining example of the success of such laws. The return of outbreaks is a chilling reminder of their importance…Tennessee once proudly led the rest of the country in preventing disease. HJR0028 threatens to make us a leader in increased illnesses, hospitalizations, long-lasting impairments, and even deaths. Our General Assembly has the opportunity to choose the kind of example we want to be to the rest of the country.

Advocates Jen Fisher and Dr. Daniel McGinley are featured in this NBC Nightly News piece about decreasing vaccination rates.

Caroline Kennedy was critical of her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s views on vaccinations on the eve of his confirmation hearings for Secretary of Health and Human Services. It comes as vaccination rates for some diseases have been decreasing. NBC News' Erin McLaughlin reports.

Jen Fisher can do only so much to keep her son safe from the types of infections that children can encounter at school. The rest, she said, is up to other students and parents in their hometown of Franklin, Tennessee.

Fisher’s son Raleigh, 12, lives with a congenital heart condition, which has left him with a weakened immune system. For his protection, Raleigh has received all the recommended vaccines for a child his age. But even with his vaccinations, a virus that might only sideline another child could sicken him and land him in the emergency room, Fisher said.

“We want everyone to be vaccinated so that illnesses like measles and things that have basically been eradicated don’t come back,” Fisher said. “Those can certainly have a very adverse effect on Raleigh.”

For much of Raleigh’s life, Fisher could take comfort in the high childhood vaccination rate in Tennessee — a public health bright spot in a conservative state with poor health outcomes and one of the shortest life expectancies in the nation.