Her mom had polio. She still won't vaccinate her kids

Marisa Corless is a teacher and mom of five kids in Maple Valley, Washington.

On Friday, she brought two of her five children with her to a hearing in Olympia on who could opt out of the measles vaccine, known as the MMR.

Corless said initially thought she would vaccinate. Her mom even had polio. But she said research she did made her change her mind.

While she didn't specify her research, many parents have been hesitant to vaccinate their children against measles because of a study by Andrew Wakefield, a former British surgeon, who wrote a paper about the MMR vaccine and links to autism.

An overflow crowd showed up to the hearing on the measure. More than 600 people signed in against it.

Corless didn't make public testimony, but was in the room for the hearing. She complained that the committee seemed to give more time to people who spoke in favor of the bill.

“I feel very disappointed because I teach the founding of this country. I teach the ideals of what this country are. We the people show up and they don’t hear the people — that’s not okay," she said.

The panel who spoke in favor of the legislation before the Senate Committee on Health & Long Term Care included Washington State Secretary of Health John Wiesman.

"This policy does not force parents to vaccinate their children," Wiesman said. "If parents strongly object to vaccination, they have the freedom to not do so."

Under the bill, however, children not vaccinated would have to be cared for at home and home schooled.

The measles outbreak in Washington has sickened 74 people. All but one case is in Clark County.

A Senate committee plans to vote Monday on a bill that would eliminate personal and philosophical exemptions to vaccines.

Correction, 10/3/2019: Due to an editing error, we implied that Marisa Corless was swayed by Andrew Wakefield's paper on the MMR vaccine. That was not discussed in the interview.