Posted on 11/17/2007 1:45:09 PM PST by Baladas
Hundreds of grumbling parents facing a threat of jail lined up at a courthouse Saturday to either prove that their school-age kids already had their required vaccinations or see that the youngsters submitted to the needle.
The get-tough policy in the Washington suburbs of Prince George's County was one of the strongest efforts made by any U.S. school system to ensure its youngsters receive their required immunizations.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
I have such mixed feelings about this. My kids were all vaccinated, and they are all fine. Then again, I they vaccinate for many more things (chicken pox....why? we all had it and we’re fine...at least I think we are).
I admit, I think we over vaccinate dogs. Rabies makes sense, but are adult dogs really at risk if they don’t get a yearly parvo, distemper etc? Before anyone jumps on me, I worked for a vet for several years. We RARELY (if ever) saw adult dogs with those diseases, whether they had been vaccinated or not.
susie
Live vaccines always carry a risk, and it's not rare when you get it, as they say. That's why the U.S. has switched to the killed vaccine. But I think most people would consider that 150 total cases in the twenty years from 1980 to 1999 is a big improvement over 400,000 cases for the same period preceding 1955.
I'm sure you've heard of "crazy checks" - SSI moneys received by enterprising parents who have had their children diagnosed with some mental disorder or other. It's a strong incentive to exaggeration or even outright fraud.
Some friends of mine have a child who suffers from what used to be called autism. There is no mistaking it, and those children are, thankfully, still rare. But autism and Asperger's and autism spectrum disorder are diagnosed now in what used to be considered kids who were just a little odd. My entire family, which consists largely of rather geekish and socially awkward individuals, could probably get a diagnosis if we wanted the money badly enough.
Thank you Emily. I appreciate the comments.
What is your opinion of cat vaccinations?
The state gone absolutely overboard. I realize this is about absenteeism and state money for the schools. However, this is a civil rights violation as well. This is truly another reason to get the children out of public education!
Please accept my apology.
(us census) (schoolmatters.com)
county population (%) public school enrollment (%)
Prince George's Co MD
non-hispanic white 19 6
black 66 76
hispanic 11 14
asian 4 3
Montgomery Co MD
non-hispanic white 56 41
black 16 23
hispanic 14 21
asian 13 15
Fairfax Co VA
non-hispanic white 61 55
black 9 11
hispanic 13 16
asian 15 18
Arlington Co VA
non-hispanic white 65 45
black 9 14
hispanic 16 30
asian 9 10
Choosing to carry easily preventable transmittable diseases in public is not a right, nor reasonable, nor responsible. If Hillary agrees with me on that, that's the one silver lining of 2009-2017.
“Looking at county population demographics doesn’t show the demographics of school age children.”
That’s true, but from what you've cited, one notes that Prince George’s County, of the jurisdictions listed, still has the lowest school-aged Hispanic population. The proportions remain roughly the same.
sitetest
“the school systems are not allowed to ask for any ID so shot records would not be asked for either...”
Maybe where you live. Here in Oklahoma you must show ID, birth certificate, a rental agreement or mortgage papers, two different utility bills, and shot records. The school photocopies all the above, and keeps copies in their records.
“Can you be too old to receive the HPV vaccine?”
Apparently, yes. The poster at the base immunization clinic said ages 9 - 26. Both of my daughters got it, as their grandmothers both had cervical cancer.
We've got a few more years to go with daughter, then!
“if the vaccine were invented today it probably wouldn’t be marketed”
Not necessarily. The dead polio vaccine is one of the safer ones out there, plus when it was given there only a few vaccine shots normally given instead of the 30+ given today.
“It sucks”
Translation: well, it’s okay with me if some people get harmed through mandated use of a vaccine as long as I’m protected.
“Yes, I had a friend with a child who contracted polio from the live vaccine, and another whose child developed juvenile rheumatism after the alternative pertussis.”
The people on FR will just say that it’s the cost of preventive care.
I say that they should develop a vaccine that doesn’t harm people or find a way to screen for people who will have a severe reaction.
“But I think most people would consider that 150 total cases in the twenty years from 1980 to 1999 is a big improvement over 400,000 cases for the same period preceding 1955.”
The live oral vaccine was used for most of the years you are describing. It was only the live injected vaccine that caused so many problems.
So it’s okay to mandate a vaccine to everyone (at the risk of jail time for non-compliance) and not let people decide for themselves?
“Choosing to carry easily preventable transmittable diseases in public is not a right, nor reasonable, nor responsible. “
Chickenpox is not a health threat no matter how you try to say it is. Chickpox vaccine carries significant risks, especially for certain individuals. You can’t make the case that it should be mandated. Same is true of Hep B for kids that age; they are not even at risk and the vaccine carries significant risk.
“If Hillary agrees with me on that, that’s the one silver lining of 2009-2017.”
Good luck in your task of helping with her campaign. You and she seem to agree on the role of gov’t in people’s lives.
I have a relative who saw a pediatric cardiologist until 21+ because he was most familiar with her case.
I have not paid much attention to them (don’t have any cats, sorry!) altho I do recall that there was talk of cancer at the site of some cat vaccination or other. Sorry I don’t know more about it.
susie
I don't think it's true for every vaccination, especially the new ones that are just getting rung in -- but given the public health dangers involved, mandated vaccines for deadly and crippling diseases are a reasonable role of government.
Without government supervision, you are always going to have the lazy, the incompetent, and even the malevolent contributing to epidemics. Typhoid Mary was just the tip of the iceberg, and few communities are as selfless as the village of Eyam in England (you can look 'em up.)
There are a lot of ways of getting compliance short of heaving the parents in jail. A religious grounds exemption has always been provided for (of course, the Amish had a very bad polio epidemic a number of years ago -- large number of unvaccinated people together = mass infection if the virus gets a toehold). And either billing the parents for the necessary isolation classroom, or refusing to register the kids unless the parents come up with the certificate or exemption letter, should usually do the trick.
In any event, 150 beats the heck out of 400,000, don't you agree? Since I knew somebody well who contracted polio a couple of years before the vaccine became available, and he suffered with all the difficulties, sequelae and pain for 50 plus years, it's no contest for me.
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