Immunizations. Is it absoultely necessary?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here. I should add that I find people who use religious exemptions falsely to avoid vaccination are contemptible, so I am not actually advocating that. Some people indeed take advantage of this when they actually have no actual religious opposition, so this contemptible choice is available to you.

Contemptible? Really?

Not the PP, but yes. They are lying about something that can hurt other children. If you think it is better for your child not to be vaccinated, that doesn't give you the right to expose other kids by lying. It is selfish, wrong, and contemptible.

People don't vaccinate their own children because they feel that it will protect other children. They do it to protect their own child. If they feel others are helped, then that's an added bonus, but if people felt other children would be helped but their own harmed, there's no way they'd be vaccinating their kids.

[Anonymous]

People don't vaccinate their own children because they feel that it will protect other children. They do it to protect their own child. If they feel others are helped, then that's an added bonus, but if people felt other children would be helped but their own harmed, there's no way they'd be vaccinating their kids.

I'm not saying they have to vaccinate but they do need to keep their unvaccinated kid out of a school where the other parents have been told the other kids are vaccinated.

[Anonymous]

Agree strongly with prior poster. If I had to choose between two schools - one of which allowed non-vaccinated kids - I would absolutely choose the one with ONLY vaccinated children. Vaccines confer a large-scale public good that one or two unvaccinated kids can undermine for all the others. And by the way, there is a movement afoot to prosecute people who lie about their religious objections - one I would fully, strongly support.

[Anonymous]

I echo the sentiments of the previous two PPs and frankly don't think there should be a religious exemption at all. If you don't want to vaccinate your child, I think you should have to find a school that allows unvaccinated children or stick with home schooling. It's not fair to put the other children at risk.

[Anonymous]

To nervous OP--I share your concerns. I don't believe you shared if you had not gotten any vaccinations or if you skipped just the mmr? The reason why I ask is that I don't believe it would be in your best interest to rush out and get completely caught up in such a short amount of time and I don't care what doctor would say it would be fine. I did space mine out and just finished the mmr in time to go to preschool but I waited until the last minute for the mmr shot because I was concerned and my child seemed to have reactions with most the shots so I am glad I spaced..MMR she got a fever of 105 which I am told is not a typical reaction but I felt better that I had waited for her immune system to mature.

If you need extra time to catch up just wait a year for preschool--I agree that going the religious exemption route seems dishonest and not a good way to live your life and preschool is not going to determine if you child goes to college. You can also get the first set of shots and then wait and see if the titers show that your child has developed an immunity so that you won't have to get as many shots because a titer can be documented.

Again I share your concern and am not going to chastize you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here. I should add that I find people who use religious exemptions falsely to avoid vaccination are contemptible, so I am not actually advocating that. Some people indeed take advantage of this when they actually have no actual religious opposition, so this contemptible choice is available to you.

Contemptible? Really?

Not the PP, but yes. They are lying about something that can hurt other children. If you think it is better for your child not to be vaccinated, that doesn't give you the right to expose other kids by lying. It is selfish, wrong, and contemptible.

Herd immunity isn't being compromised by the people who are choosing to delay or skip vaccinations for their children. So nobody's getting hurt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here. I should add that I find people who use religious exemptions falsely to avoid vaccination are contemptible, so I am not actually advocating that. Some people indeed take advantage of this when they actually have no actual religious opposition, so this contemptible choice is available to you.

Contemptible? Really?

Not the PP, but yes. They are lying about something that can hurt other children. If you think it is better for your child not to be vaccinated, that doesn't give you the right to expose other kids by lying. It is selfish, wrong, and contemptible.

Herd immunity isn't being compromised by the people who are choosing to delay or skip vaccinations for their children. So nobody's getting hurt.

So, it's OK to lie because "nobody's getting hurt"? Good grief--stop rationalizing. What you really should say is, "it's OK for me to lie because I'm getting what I want."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here. I should add that I find people who use religious exemptions falsely to avoid vaccination are contemptible, so I am not actually advocating that. Some people indeed take advantage of this when they actually have no actual religious opposition, so this contemptible choice is available to you.

Contemptible? Really?

Not the PP, but yes. They are lying about something that can hurt other children. If you think it is better for your child not to be vaccinated, that doesn't give you the right to expose other kids by lying. It is selfish, wrong, and contemptible.

Herd immunity isn't being compromised by the people who are choosing to delay or skip vaccinations for their children. So nobody's getting hurt.

So, it's OK to lie because "nobody's getting hurt"? Good grief--stop rationalizing. What you really should say is, "it's OK for me to lie because I'm getting what I want."

You really can't see the forest for the trees, can you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here. I should add that I find people who use religious exemptions falsely to avoid vaccination are contemptible, so I am not actually advocating that. Some people indeed take advantage of this when they actually have no actual religious opposition, so this contemptible choice is available to you.

Contemptible? Really?

Not the PP, but yes. They are lying about something that can hurt other children. If you think it is better for your child not to be vaccinated, that doesn't give you the right to expose other kids by lying. It is selfish, wrong, and contemptible.

Herd immunity isn't being compromised by the people who are choosing to delay or skip vaccinations for their children. So nobody's getting hurt.

So, it's OK to lie because "nobody's getting hurt"? Good grief--stop rationalizing. What you really should say is, "it's OK for me to lie because I'm getting what I want."

You really can't see the forest for the trees, can you?

You really think the law applies to everyone but you? Sorry. I didn't realize you were so special.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here. I should add that I find people who use religious exemptions falsely to avoid vaccination are contemptible, so I am not actually advocating that. Some people indeed take advantage of this when they actually have no actual religious opposition, so this contemptible choice is available to you.

Contemptible? Really?

Not the PP, but yes. They are lying about something that can hurt other children. If you think it is better for your child not to be vaccinated, that doesn't give you the right to expose other kids by lying. It is selfish, wrong, and contemptible.

Herd immunity isn't being compromised by the people who are choosing to delay or skip vaccinations for their children. So nobody's getting hurt.

So, it's OK to lie because "nobody's getting hurt"? Good grief--stop rationalizing. What you really should say is, "it's OK for me to lie because I'm getting what I want."

You really can't see the forest for the trees, can you?

Um, what? Again, I say to you, stop rationalizing. A lie's a lie...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Herd immunity isn't being compromised by the people who are choosing to delay or skip vaccinations for their children. So nobody's getting hurt.

t

What are you talking about? Ever since the MMR got a (false) bad rap, there have been measles outbreaks in the US and Europe. Those people aren't getting hurt?

[Anonymous]

"I echo the sentiments of the previous two PPs and frankly don't think there should be a religious exemption at all. If you don't want to vaccinate your child, I think you should have to find a school that allows unvaccinated children or stick with home schooling. It's not fair to put the other children at risk. "

I am not anti vaccine and we didn't even delay. As a legal point though, I believe it is inappropriate for the government to mandate any type of medical action, procedure, drug therapy, or vaccine. You'll notice there is no law that all children must be vaccinated because it would be unconsitutional but by requiring vaccination to enter public school the same affect is created.

[Anonymous]

18:42 - do you understand the idea of herd immunity? polio hasn't disappeared from the US alone... it's b/c of mass immunization.

And, FWIW, no one is forcing you to send your kids to public schools.

[Anonymous]

I am a lawyer with a pretty broad view of constitutional rights but it would not be unconstitutional to require immunizations. The "police power" (a legal/constitutional term that is not just about police) is very strong when it comes to matters of public health.

[Anonymous]

Herd immunity isn't being compromised by the people who are choosing to delay or skip vaccinations for their children. So nobody's getting hurt.




Ummm .... yes it is! You clearly don't understand the concept of herd immunity. The success of vaccinations relies both on the individual immune reaction a vaccine provokes (protecting the individual who is exposed to a particular disease) AND the "herd" immunity that is conferred when a particular germ that provokes illness can not be passed from person to person because enough people are vaccinated.

So, in a small-scale example, if one kid in a preschool gets measles and 99% of the kids in the dorm are vaccinated, it's very unlikely that the measles will be transmitted to another receptive host kid. If 25% of the kids at a preschool have delayed or skipped their measles vaccination, then the odds of transmission to a receptive (unvaccinated host) go up substantially. Once there are a significant number of cases, then even some of the vaccinated kids will be at risk because no vaccine is 100% perfect and some people's immune systems don't react properly and sometimes immunity wanes after time (that's why you often see outbreaks of measles among college kids living in the close proximity of dorms and why we need to get booster shots as we age).

The irony is that when YOU skip vaccines, you are gambling on the host immunity to protect you from actually getting measles. In other words, because in most communities most people are getting vaccinated, your odds of actually being exposed to the measles are slim (but maybe not as slim as you think in today's age of global connectedness.) You vaccine-skippers are "free-riders," declining to expose yourself to the slim risk that vaccines pose but still benefiting from the immunity they confer on a populational level because almost everyone else still gets their shots.

I say irony because host immunity protects you from catching measles, even if you are not individually getting vaccinated for measles. But, if enough people made the same decision to skip vaccination, then there would be no herd immunity and your non-vaccinated kid would get sick.