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Bernadette Pajer doesn't trust the pharmaceutical industry. And she doesn't trust vaccines. The founder of a Washington state advocacy group says her dual distrust shouldn't come as any surprise. She notes drugmakers have a "pretty poor record over all" on safety and transparency. Not to mention the opioid crisis, though Pajer often does. Pajer is not alone. As distrust of the pharmaceutical industry grows, so too has the anti-vaccination movement. And that is a critical issue as the number of measles cases in the U.S. surges toward a record. (O'Donnell, 4/23)

California lawmakers advanced tougher rules for vaccinations late Wednesday after hearing hours of testimony from hundreds of opponents while the nation grapples with the highest number of measles cases in decades. The Senate Health Committee approved the proposal to give state public health officials instead of local doctors the power to decide which children can skip their shots before attending school. The push coincides with this year's national measles tally reaching the highest it's been since 1994, according to an Associated Press count. (4/24)

The emotional testimony on the bill comes as a measles outbreak has put public health officials on high alert. More than 100 doctors and medical students spoke in favor of Senate Bill 276, which would empower the state health department to vet medical exemptions sought by physicians. Sen. Richard Pan, a Sacramento physician and Democrat, introduced the legislation, which passed 6 to 2 on Wednesday in the Senate Health Committee. The Capitol hallways were hot and humid amid the mass turnout of mostly opponents, many of whom said their children were injured by vaccines. One opponent called Pan a “tyrant,” another labeled his bill a “crime against humanity,” while a third urged the senator to abandon the proposal to “save your soul.” (Gutierrez and Karlamangla, 4/24)

"We witnessed physicians who advertised exemptions for cash on social media and the internet," Pan said. "We’d see some parents post on social media that their child's regular physician refused to grant their child a medical exemption so they traveled to go purchase one from a distant physician." (Dembosky, 4/24)

On a party-line vote, an Oregon legislative committee on Wednesday approved a bill that would eliminate non-medical vaccine exemptions for students. Oregon currently has an estimated 15,500 school-aged children whose parents used non-medical grounds to exempt their children from being vaccinated for contagious diseases including measles and hepatitis B. If the bill becomes law, such children would be barred from attending public or private schools, licensed day cares and preschools. Online schools and home school would be their only option. (Lehman, 4/24)