Opinion: Vaccinations - Let parents make the choice

[mhatrw]

http://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/vandervalk_020911.html

THE YOUNG DAUGHTER of the woman calling my office had been given her shots for school, had a reaction, and then spent months in the hospital recovering from paralysis. Now, her son was to get the same shots or he wouldn’t be allowed in school. Despite the family history, the son couldn’t get a medical exemption because New Jersey’s law is extremely narrow. The son was terrified. The mother was traumatized and angry that the state was giving her no options. The family was still recovering financially from the daughter’s hospitalization and didn’t want to risk having the same thing happen to their son.

We know that some children have adverse reactions to vaccines. We just don’t know why. Acknowledging the inherent risk, the federal government established a National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and has awarded more than $2 billion dollars in claims since 1990. No one knows how many other children were injured by vaccines and did not submit claims to the NVICP program.

New Jersey mandates more vaccinations than any other state in the United States — 60 doses of vaccine by the age of 6 — and allows for only two types of exemptions, medical and religious.

Parents of a child whom I personally know submitted a hand-written letter from their physician, extensively detailing the risks that vaccines posed for their child and recommending a medical exemption be granted. The physician was overruled by the local Board of Health. Many such medical-exemption requests are similarly thrown out. ...

[trotsky]

1. Let parents make the choice...

and watch horrible diseases come storming back.

The risks from vaccination are ridiculously small. Do some people get injured from them? Absolutely. And that's terrible and something we should work to prevent as much as we can. But it's nothing - NOTHING - like we would face if we didn't have enough people vaccinated to build herd immunity. How about kids back in iron lungs? Deaf and/or mentally handicapped from the measles? Disfigured or autistic from their mother contracting rubella during pregnancy? (How's that for irony - the one time vaccination and autism are connected, vaccination PREVENTS autism.)

The fearmongers and misinformers should be recognized as the danger they are - they are PRO-DISEASE.

[Tesha]

2. Don't you wish you could send the anti-vaccination people back into the past briefly...

...so that they could personally encounter the Hell they're
proposing to return us to?

Tesha

[trotsky]

3. The brave new world of parental choice in vaccination...

That is, if "choice" is defined as "giving credence to the whacked out nonsense that anti-vaxers spread":

[mhatrw]

6. Yeah! And if we had another 9/11, we wouldn't hear anyone complaining about torture! n/t

[LeftishBrit]

7. False analogy

Vaccinations do prevent disease. Torture doesn't prevent terrorism.

Also, vaccinations simply aren't torture!

[trotsky]

9. Why can't you just state facts instead of ridiculous non sequiturs,

hyperbole, personal attacks, or strawmen?

Clearly your case is pretty damn weak when you have to fall back to those silly tactics over and over and over.

[ZombieHorde]

12. Don't you think the diseases are worse than the vaccinations? nt

[kerouac2]

15. as opposed to the hell of having your child paralyzed...

Please direct us to some information from the past "hell" of a contagious tetanus outbreak? Parents are being forced to accept a vaccine for a non-contagious disease as part of a bundle. If all vaccines were provided individually, then perhaps families like the one in the OP could determine which shot resulted in serious reactions for their family. In the case posted here, they could opt to have their 2nd child have all the other vaccines except for the one that resulted in such an life-threatening reaction for child 1. For all we know, it was the tetanus component of a shot received and, as such, it's absence would have absolutely no affect on anyone else.

Quote:

Don't you wish you could send the anti-vaccination people back into the past briefly...

...so that they could personally encounter the Hell they're
proposing to return us to?

Tesha

[uppityperson]

16. are you seriously saying getting paralyzed/dead from tetanus is ok since it isn't contagious?

Do you have any idea what tetanus is, how it is spread, why we vaccinate against it, what it does?

Seriously?

[kerouac2]

17. that's not what I'm saying.

Their child was paralyzed after getting the shots.

I'm saying that tetanus isn't contagious from one person to another. If the vaccines were given individually and the tetanus vaccine was the one that caused their first child's paralysis, then it would be reasonable to let the parents opt-out of giving the tetanus vaccine to child 2 -- as opting out of a tetanus vaccine would not pose a risk to anyone else. As it is now, the vaccines are bundled leaving no option to opt-out of the one that targets a non-contagious disease like tetanus.

[Warren Stupidity]

4. google herd immunity.

vaccination programs save lives. Should we also make keeping your shit out of the drinking water a choice?

[mhatrw]

8. google informed consent. n/t

[trotsky]

10. Some people think that means showing pregnant women seeking an abortion...

ultrasound pictures of their fetus, or even graphic photos of abortions.

Funny how you borrow right-wing terminology, quote right-wing politicians, and use right-wing sources to support your agenda.

[Warren Stupidity]

13. so dumping your shit in the drinking water...

choice or mandated sewage regulations?

[LeftishBrit]

5. I don't support a government mandate for MOST vaccinations...

universal free medical care and active encouragement of vaccinations should achieve sufficient coverage, without getting into legal enforcement.

On the other hand, 'conscientious objection' to vaccinations is not something commendable -it's like Jehovah's Witnesses refusing lifesaving blood transfusions, which they should have a right to do so for themselves but not their children IMO.

And why is this Republican politician being given space on DU?

[Warren Stupidity]

14. The reason why many school systems require vaccinations

is that without such a requirement people just can't be bothered in sufficient quantities to achieve the required immunization levels.

[tinrobot]

11. Shall we also let Christian Science parents refuse treatment for their kids?

[SidDithers]

18. So, what happened to the family?...

did the son get the shot? Did he have a reaction? Did he refuse and get tossed out of school?

Sid

[trotsky]

20. I am pretty sure he got autism, an auto-immune disease, and probably cervical cancer. n/t

[Warpy]

19. If parents choose not to vaccinate,

parents can keep their speshul snowflaykes at home and home school them so they won't put kids who can't be vaccinated due to health problems at risk.

You don't want to vaccinate your kids, be prepared to school them at home.

That's how herd immunity works, healthy people are vaccinated to protect those of us with health problems.

That's why the laws requiring vaccination were written and passed. If you can't cope, opt out. Just be prepared to put in the effort at home.