Posted on 05/10/2013 7:18:11 AM PDT by surroundedbyblue
It’s the time for senior prom, the countdown to the last day of school and for graduation. But at Norwin High School, 33 students were told they won't be able to participate in those days because they weren’t vaccinated against chickenpox, or failed to provide a vaccination record.
Norwin High School Norwin High School
View Large Photos Norwin High School
Kayla Boscia, a senior, never had the chickenpox vaccine.
“Twenty hours before the biggest dance ever and it just so happened they told me I was no longer allowed to go,” she said.
A letter from Norwin School District spells out the details, citing the Pennsylvania Department of Health as the reason for the regulations.
For the 33 students not vaccinated, there is a 21-day incubation period. That means no classes and no extracurricular activities until May 28. The district said it’s “unfortunate” that the incubation period encompasses the dates for prom (May 10) and graduation (May 24).
There are two ways the students could attend and return to school. Students and parents have the option to get a blood test, which proves immunity to the disease, or to get the vaccination before May 12.
“I went to the health clinic and got blood tests done to show they're immune to it or they've been subjected to it in some way, which takes 48 hours to four days to get those back,” said Lisa Grudowski. She’s a parent to a sophomore and a senior. The results of immunity won’t be back in time before the prom, and for personal reasons, she does not want her children vaccinated
(Excerpt) Read more at wtae.com ...
Ping
If all the rest of the students at the prom have been vaccinated why is there a threat??
The only people exposed who might come down with the chicken pox are those who weren’t vaccinated.
Educators are not very bright.
Just because you’ve had the chickenpox once doesn’t mean you can’t get it again. About 10% of the population can get it again. I’ve had it 4 times. Each time it was less severe.
Yes, which is why they are the ones being told to stay home which reduces their chances of getting chickenpox. Those who are vaccinated and who are therefore probably at no risk, are not being told to stay home.
The measures are targeted specifically at those at risk, and at risk of spreading the infection further.
Whatever happened to the days that mamas sent their kids to play with the kid who had chickenpox so they’d get it young and get it out of the way?
There's no perfect protection. But what there is, is pretty good.
Having to deal with a son who was at risk of serious consequences from diseases other people regarded as minor has made me very aware of these things. He's now a healthy young adult - and is fully vaccinated, as it finally became an option once he was in his twenties (or at least, by then, he was strong enough to make the risk worthwhile if things went wrong), but we almost lost him three times in his teens - and if everybody around him had been immunised, two of those occasions would almost certainly not have happened. Other peoples decisions not to immunise their children put my son's life at risk. Despite that, I support their right to make that decision - but I also think it's reasonable for them to accept the consequences of that decision if it means their child might have to miss school increases the chance they will infect other people's children.
We refused to get our kids this vaccination because aborted fetal tissue is used to produce it. The school will stomp and holler and claim that you don’t have an option. But once we presented them with an opt-out in writing they backed down and never mentioned it again.
Chicken pox is actually in the same family as the herpes virus , and like herpes, the virus never completely leaves the body. The antibodies help deter further outbreaks, but in adulthood the virus often reappears in the form of shingles. If you have had chicken pox as a child, you have a much higher chance of getting shingles as you get older.
Please ck FReepmail :)
A very full discussion of this issue can be found at Right-to-Life.
http://www.rtl.org/prolife_issues/LifeNotes/VaccinesAbortion_FetalTissue.html
When the shot was first introduced they just accepted the parents info on the records, but now that the shot has been out long enough for all kids to have been vaccinated and outbreaks are rare I think they require proof of immune status and would probably accept a doctor’s statement to that effect, or as in this article a blood test demonstrating immune status.
The shot was new when my kids were toddlers and I didn’t get them done because I have reservations about the basis for it since it doesn’t confer lifetime immunity but will require boosters every 10 years or so. Unfortunately, my kids didn’t get chickenpox and so I had them immunized for it with their other boosters at age 12 so they wouldn’t get it as teens.
It still seems massively stupid to me to immunized children for what is relatively mild in childhood, but much more severe and difficult in adults and then have to give boosters every decade because the vaccine doesn’t produce permanent immunity. I half expect that there will end up being some ugly outbreaks in a stressed out workforce in another decade or two.
I do advocate that older folks (of which I am rapidly becoming one) get the shingles vaccine. I have had to friends get shingles and have it settle in their optic nerve, causing severe pain and vision problems. One is still suffering from after effects because it takes a long time to recover and stress just sets it off again.
...yes, the chicken pox virus stays with you for life. I never even heard of shingles until 5 years ago. Then I got it last year, literally felt like my hair was on fire, could not touch my head to the pillow without lots of pain. Took about 3 weeks to fade away.
I don’t know if the shingles vaccine uses the same stem cell lines.
Yes, but zoster is quite different from the various other herpes.
The medical school textbooks haven’t caught up with the fact one can get the chicken pox multiple times. And there’s a very big difference between the pox and shingles. LOL
BTW every time I got the chicken pox (I got it as an adult) each physician diagnosed it and told me I had never really had it before because you can only get it once. LOL when you have it, you know it!
This problem would be solved by not having public school. Then everybody could pay to put their kids in whatever school environment suited them.
Because of public school, we have liberty-choking restrictions on a vast majority of our population, in order to cater to various minority populations. Immunization is one area, “offensive” t-shirts are another, “inciteful” hair coloring is another, and bag lunches with peanuts are yet another.
I’m kind of surprised that no school has yet banned all non-kosher meat products, to “protect” the jewish and muslim minority population. Maybe they have. Or they could just ban all meat, so that some random vegan kid doesn’t have to deal with the possibility of getting meat mixed in with the vegetables.
Frankly, while disability is not itself funny, I do find it hilarious when I visit my kid’s high school, and there is a dedicated full-time employee, whose sole job it is to push around some poor mentally-challenged kid who clearly gets nothing out of any of the normal classes and activities at school. When they say the “average cost per kid” is $12,000, what they really mean is most normal kids costs a few thousand each, and then we spend millions meeting the requirements of the various disabilities laws, just so those few kids aren’t “left out”.
I think when it comes to diseases that are not generally life-threatening, I have to draw the line at forced vaccinations. There used to be a few “bubble kids” — I don;’t think the answer is to create a nationwide bubble so those kids don’t have to be in one alone.
We debated the chickenpox vaccine for our kids, because getting the disease is just annoying, not usually threatening, and then you are safe, but there was no evidence yet that the vaccine would last a lifetime, and so by vaccinating we were taking a risk that they could get the disease at adulthood.
I think we ended up vaccinating anyway. Although I think one of them actually got a mild case FROM the vaccination or something.
I had it when I was a kid.
Petty vengeance for someone not kowtowing seems likely. “Do what we demand, or else!”
Except — are the police going to stake out the homes to make sure those kids don’t go visit their friends, and therefore spread the disease anyway?
No - it’s up to the parents to act responsibly. I hope they will.
I guess I was never vaccinated against chicken pox since I contracted the disease from a roommate while I was in the Army.........
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.