And this week our Department of Defense (Department of War) has changed policy to no longer mandate troops to get the flu vaccine. So in addition to the joy of being deployed to a war zone, you can also look forward to catching the flu while you're there from your fellow soldiers. |
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Meanwhile in Florida, which is in the middle of their measles outbreak, a school vaccine exemption bill, continues to advance.
The proposed legislation, titled Medical Freedom, would allow parents to claim a "conscience-based" exemption to school vaccination requirements. |
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Very sad.
I don’t know many (any?) anti vaxers but my kids are teens. I was looking at a map of MMR vax rates for the US and it seems to vary so much by location. Anyone know more about that? It really seems like there are areas or demographics that need to be targeted. Somehow. Also the map I saw was rates for kindergarteners (I think) so would account for the “we are spacing vaccines out” crowd. I’m guessing the rates are even worse for toddlers. We really need to tighten the loopholes for public school entry IMO. Surely not all of these kids are homeschooled. |
Yes because vaccinated people never get the flu
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Vaccine mandates essentially eliminated measles, mumps, rubella, and diptheria. They absolutely work. Someone else can be patient and kind. These people are putting their own and other children at risk because they are stupid amd selfish. I don't care if they're resentful, I care if they are a public health risk. |
My sister and I each did our own unintentally controlled experiments. She has a family of 6, and I have a family of 5. In different years, we each had half the family vaccinated and the other half not — totally random as to who got the vaccine. Those who didn’t get the vaccine were sick as a dog for a long time; those who got the vaccine had an irritating cold. That’s a very small sample size but luckily there is a ton of data showing the exact same thing in much larger study groups! |
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SSPE is rare but terrifying. Absolute worst case scenario, watching your child slowly and painfully decline and being unable to so anything about it. Infants who catch measles are more likely to develop this complication.
I'm definitely pushing for anl 6 month MMR for my soon to be born kid and keeping him out of public places before then. |
The efficacy of the flu vaccine varies from year to year but while it may as effectively prevent catching the flu it is very effective and preventing hospitalizations and deaths, especially among children. https://www.cdc.gov/flu-vaccines-work/risk-groups/index.html |
How many of these kids even attend public school? I’d be curious. Seems likely there is a lot of overlap with anti vax & homeschooling or private school. |
This is beside the point but: How often are people getting the flu?! I’ve had it once in my adult life, and my kids (18, 16, 16) have had it once. We all had it at the same time ten years ago. Sometimes we get vaxed, sometimes not. Is this an annual thing for some families? That would suck. |
My experience is people sometimes claim to have had the flu when they just had bad cold symptoms. I had the flu (diagnosed) as a healthy active mid 20s and it was terrible. I didn't end up hospitalized but I lost 15 pounds (put me well into underweight category) and wasn't fully recovered for over a month. I haven't missed a flu shot since. |
Mind boggling that NHS only introduced the varicella vaccine (via mmrv) as routine this year. |
I’ve had the flu 5 times. Four of the times, I was working long hours as an internist. And once since I retired. I was vaccinated every time and flu was confirmed by testing. Flu vaccines reduce hospitalizations and deaths overall, but they really shine when it comes to preventing deaths of the vulnerable - the elderly and the immunocompromised. In Japan, it used to be mandated for all school children to receive the flu vaccine. The mandate was dropped after many years and scientists looked at the data and found that flu deaths rose among the elderly once the mandate was dropped. About 40,000 excess deaths were attributable to dropping the mandate. https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJM200103223441204 I didn’t have severe cases of the flu because I was vaccinated, but it was a pain and I was working in cancer units and around immunocompromised patients, so that’s obviously not great. Add to the fact that grandma and grandpa are being endangered makes it even more compelling just to get the jab. |
Same. Our practice will not take patients who don't vaccinate children on their schedule. No spacing allowed. Vaccinate on their schedule or you're out. I love them. *I assume they will take immunocompromised children who cannot get vaccinated but I've never asked. |
People die of all kinds of things, including the common cold you give them. |