Jessica Biel has come out in support of the anti-vaccination movement on Instagram. The actress and mother-of-one Jessica- the wife of Justin Timberlake - appears to be campaigning against a bill that limits state exemptions from vaccinations. This is despite the fact that the United States is facing its biggest measles outbreak since the disease was declared eradicated and the World Health Organisation earlier this year named ‘vaccine hesitancy’ in its top 10 list of the worst health threats facing humanity.
The actress has been campaigning with Robert F Kennedy Jr, an environmental activist who believes vaccines are unsafe, against a California state bill that would limit exemptions from vaccinations. The star posted on Instagram saying that she isn't 'against vaccinations' but that she 'supports families having the right to make educated medical decisions for their children alongside their physicians.'
She continued, 'My dearest friends have a child with a medical condition that warrants an exemption from vaccinations, and should this bill pass, it would greatly affect their family’s ability to care for their child in this state. That’s why I spoke to legislators and argued against this bill.'
In his own Instagram post, Robert called Biel ‘courageous’. Later, he told The Daily Beast that she was ‘a very effective advocate’.
Biel has never declared herself to be an anti-vaxxer, however it was reported in 2015 that the actor ‘refused’ to vaccinate her son Silas Randall Timberlake, who is now four-years-old. Kennedy also refused to label Biel as ‘anti-vaxx’, as he says the term is ‘pharmaceutical propaganda’.
The current measles outbreak is the worst in U.S. history since 1992, when 2,126 cases were recorded - so far, 1,022 cases have been confirmed, with cases in Idaho, Virginia and New York.
As The Independent writes, a report by Unicef recently found 520,000 British children had not been vaccinated against measles between 2010 and 2017. Simon Stevens, chief executive of the NHS, hit back at the report, saying, ‘With measles cases almost quadrupling in England in just one year, it is grossly irresponsible for anybody to spread scare stories about vaccines, and social media firms should have a zero tolerance approach towards this dangerous content.’
American actresses Alicia Silverstone and Jenny McCarthy are among other prominent celebrity anti-vaxxers.
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