Reply to Is Councilmember Mary Cheh trying to have DCPS track HPV vaccines administer w/o consent

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Reply to "Is Councilmember Mary Cheh trying to have DCPS track HPV vaccines administer w/o consent"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The proposal would still require consent, just consent from the child not the parent. It would also bring the rules for vaccines in line with the laws for other medical procedures such as birth control or mental health care. It probably won't increase vaccination rates much if at all, but if a competent kid wants to be vaccinated, I'd prefer that they were.

The record reference is to documentation of the vaccine being provided to the school directly if the parent claims an exemption, but the student chooses to get vaccinated on their own. In those cases, rather than alert the parent that child is making their own vaccination decisions, the school gets the information from the physician. That seems reasonable to me, given the threat to students who make choices other than what their parents want.

All in all seems like a good law to me.[/quote]

If it is not impacting vaccination rates, it is hard to justify. Why not within the current laws simply impress upon parents the importance of this vaccine. I remember the bus stop ads years ago, but have not seen any recently.[/quote]

I said that because I think kids that age are competent to make those decisions in consultation with their doctors. I don't really think you need to "justify" giving bodily autonomy to someone by showing that it'll make a number go up in an appreciable way. Our law already recognizes that there are certain health decisions that are reasonable to let a minor make a decision about without parental permission. Currently it's services related mental health, substance abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, and pregnancy. I think because vaccination (especially the HPV vaccine, but really any vaccination) presents the same types of conflict between what a child's best interests are and what certain parents will consent to, it makes sense to make the choice the child's.[/quote]

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