Kristen Bell is the latest celebrity to join the pro-vaccination cause

KRISTEN Bell is the latest celebrity to join the pro-vaccination cause, telling friends that “you have to get a whooping cough vaccination if you are going to hold our baby.”

THE vaccination debate has well and truly been reignited in the States after 121 people contracted measles following a visit to Disneyland in California.

After news of that incident broke, many sought to destroy the credibility of the anti-vaccination movement. The angry reaction reached its peak last week when Canadian mother Jennifer Hibben-White was told that her newborn son Griffin may have contracted measles from another patient while waiting in a doctor’s office.

Griffin is still too young to receive vaccines, and Hibben-White wrote a scathing Facebook post in which she said she is “Angry as hell.”

“If you have chosen to not vaccinate yourself or your child, I blame you. I blame you,” she wrote in the post, which has since gone viral.

MORE: ‘This is my son Griffin, and he may have measles’

MORE: ‘You are playing with your child’s life’

Now, Veronica Mars actress Kristen Bell has also spoken publicly about vaccination.

Kristen Bell while pregnant with her second child.

She and husband Dax Shephard have two children, and in recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter she revealed their policy:

“When Lincoln was born [in March 2013], the whooping cough epidemic was growing, and before she was 2 months old, we simply said [to friends], ‘You have to get a whooping cough vaccination if you are going to hold our baby.’

“It’s a very simple logic: I believe in trusting doctors, not know-it-alls,” she said

The same rule exists for those who come into contact with the couple’s second child Delta, who was born in December 2014.

Bell and Shephard join the likes of Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jennifer Lopez and Julie Bowen in being pro-vaccination.

Sarah Michelle Gellar told Parade Magazine that “Having children is the greatest gift anyone’s ever given me, and if I can help protect anyone else’s gift, then it’s not just my pleasure, but it’s my responsibility to do it.”

Doctors are keen to emphasise that vaccinations have eradicated many diseases.

Many anti-vaccination campaigners believe vaccination is unnatural and can cause autism, despite scientific evidence to the contrary. Sydney GP Dr Tass James told news.com.au last week that “It’s unfortunate some anti-vaxxers say that vaccines cause autism and cancer. There is absolutely no evidence this is true, and those claims may frighten some nervous parents about vaccinating their kids.

“Vaccines have almost eradicated so many diseases — diseases which were childhood killers 40 years ago are almost non existent now. If a significant number of people stop vaccinating children, these conditions will reappear in our society.”

These “conditions” include diseases like the measles.

More: Measles outbreak traced to Disneyland

More:‘This is my son Griffin, he may have measles’

Originally published as Kristen Bell is the latest celebrity to join the pro-vaccination cause