Posted on 11/14/2007 8:32:37 AM PST by my3centseuro
The parents of more than 2,300 Prince George's County students who failed to get needed vaccinations could face fines of $50 a day and up to 10 days in jail if their children do not meet the state's immunization requirements, county officials said yesterday.
The threat of legal action is a last resort after months in which Prince George's has struggled to get its 131,000 students immunized for chicken pox and hepatitis B, as mandated by the state.
More than 2,300 students have not been immunized and have been barred from attending schools, almost two months after a Sept. 20 deadline for meeting the requirement.
"We can do this the easy way or the hard way, but it's got to get done," Prince George's State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey (D) said at a news conference in Upper Marlboro.
"I'm willing to move forward with legal action." School officials have made calls, sent letters and conducted home visits to make arrangements for free appointments for the needed shots.
But often the students' addresses and phone numbers have been outdated, making contacting them difficult. Other students have received the vaccines but failed to get the necessary booster shots.
The school system turned to the justice system as a final option and received the backing of Circuit Judge William D. Missouri, the county's administrative judge, and Circuit Judge C. Philip Nichols Jr., who handles juvenile matters.
"This is an educational crisis," said R. Owen Johnson Jr., chairman of the school board. "This is a public health and a children's rights issue."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
My son caught chicken pox when he was 4. Worst case the doctor had seen in his 30 years of practice. There’s still a couple of scars on his face that are visible up close, 12 years later.
That said, I think mandatory chicken pox vaccinations are silly, and are probably pushed by the schools as they lose grant/funding money every day when a seat is empty. Vaccinations prevent outbreaks that could deprive them of bodies in the classrooms which translates into money.
This is something I am for. A lady I know asked her doctor why the vaccines were given at such a young age to children. He said it was only so they could all be squeezed in before school age.
our new pediatrician just told me last week that she hasn’t seen a case of chicken pox in a very long time, because of the vaccine. she also goes months without seeing any ear infections, because of the newer vaccine, which she used to see every day. She said something interesting — that she gets concerned about irradicating so many diseases, that new, more potent ones will crop up, because of the “necessary bacterial / viral balance needed on the earth”. I had never heard that philosophy before from a doctor.
I homeschool four, and I have no issue with vaccines. I probably lean toward believing it is irresponsible NOT to do whatever you can to protect your child.
>>>Is the chicken pox shot mandated in most states now?
That caught my eye too.
This is called the ‘Hygiene Hypothesis’ and has shown to be protective against some autoimmune diseases.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_hypothesis
“’The goal is to get kids in school, not to put parents in jail,’ Ivey said.”
Telling. It’s not really about the vaccines, it’s about a too-powerful government imposing its will on the individual. The article says that these are students that parents have removed from school in order to avoid vaccines. If they’ve been removed from school, the school district’s authority over them should be terminated. But instead, the school district has turned to the legal power of the state to hunt these children down, and impose fines and prison sentences on their parents. It’s brave new world out there if you send your kids to government schools.
The Nub of it:
The old friends hypothesis is a further refinement of the hygiene hypothesis. T regulator cells can only become fully effective if they are stimulated by exposure to several particular varieties of microorganisms and parasites. These consist of pathogens that present only low levels of pathogenicity, and which have coexisted universally with human beings throughout our evolutionary history—that is, at least until recent times, as the development of hygienic practices and effective medical care have diminished or eliminated such traditional fauna from the populace. For example, proper development of T regulator cells in individuals may depend on exposure to organisms such as lactobacilli, various mycobacteria, and, albeit unpalatable, certain harmless helminths. The T regulatory cells learn to respond to harmless or beneficial invaders by damping down the aggressive reaction of the helper T cells and other immune system components to the antigens presented by the harmless symbiotes. As a result, a properly developed immune system is unlikely to aggressively attack harmless allergens or self cells. In this light, not only a virulent environment but also a sterile environment are both detrimental to optimal immune system development.
Recent research has demonstrated even more remarkable beneficial effects for sufferers of multiple sclerosis[6] and Crohn’s Disease[7] The reasoning is that our immune systems evolved under constant assault from a variety of parasites, most of which have to modulate our immune response to succeed. That is, they have to down regulate the response that would otherwise attack them. Evolving with a down-regulated immune system means that in the absence of those down-regulating parasites our immune systems often attack our own tissues, leading to asthma, hay fever, IBD, colitis, Crohn’s, multiple sclerosis and perhaps other autoimmune diseases. Hence the increase in autoimmune diseases in the relatively clean and sterile industrialized world.
Why vaccinate a child for a non lethal disease with a vaccine that is only 70% effective at best (chicken pox). Or for a disease that is next to impossible to contract unless you are engaging in anal sex or shooting drugs? (HEP B) Not only that but that most people who are infected with HEP B will be fine within 6 months and have life long immunity from it?
Mandating such vaccines at the threat of jail is insanity!
You’ve hit the nail on the head. All the vaccines in the world aren’t going to help the child seated next to the illegal — pardon, “undocumented” — with TB.
Chicken Pox Vaccine is worthless all it does is ensure that most kids will now get it when they are older and males in particular will risk sterility because of it.
Its only 70% effective at best, and its not lifetime immunity.
I opted out for my kids even though they had (what I considered) the necessary vaccinations and didn’t get those that I thought were dangerous or unneccessary.
Of course that was back in the 80’s. I had to claim “relgious exemption.”
SOMEone is paying for those shots. They're not free.
every parent has the option of signing a religious waiver for medical immunizations ...and the schools aren’t allowed to ask why...
Except they have been asked why in NYC in recent. Parents where interrogated in hearings and where not allow to bring lawyers.
My understanding is that this practice has been curtailed after an outcry.
You were perfectly clear - I just pinged you to my more complete response to the other poster.
By the way thread, you can get the good stuff mentioned in post 107 by eating yogurt with those bacteria mentioned above in the culture.
Edit:
Except they have been asked why in NYC in recent years. Parents were interrogated in hearings and where not allow to bring lawyers.
My understanding is that this practice has been curtailed after an outcry.
Another reason for pushing the chicken pox vaccine is that it reduces work absenteeism among adults.
I got several of my middle children the chicken pox vaccine because I didn’t want them catching chicken pox at Sunday School or dance class and bringing it home to the baby. I have scars from when I was under a year old and caught it from my older brother.
I just took my kids to a new doctor for a checkup recently, and the chicken pox vaccine was really being pushed. When I told the medical assistant, No, they haven't had chicken pox shots, she said: "They haven't had their chicken pox shots? We're really pushing that now. The chicken pox are really getting bad now. So bad that we're giving two shots." (????)
Medical assistant is pushing it or the pharmaceutical co.?
Sorry, I’m cynical.
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