More kids skip school shots in 8 states

[Blue_Tires]

ATLANTA (AP) — More parents are opting out of school shots for their kids. In eight states now, more than 1 in 20 public school kindergartners aren't getting all the vaccines required for attendance, an Associated Press analysis found.

That growing trend among parents seeking vaccine exemptions has health officials worried about outbreaks of diseases that once were all but stamped out.

The AP analysis found more than half of states have seen at least a slight rise in the rate of exemptions over the past five years. States with the highest exemption rates are in the West and Upper Midwest.

It's "really gotten much worse," said Mary Selecky, secretary of health for Washington state, where 6 percent of public school parents have opted out.

Reasons for skipping some school shots vary. Some parents are skeptical that vaccines are essential. Others fear vaccines carry their own risks. Some find it easier to check a box opting out than the effort to get the shots and required paperwork schools demand. Still others are ambivalent, believing in older vaccines but questioning newer shots against, say, chickenpox.

http://news.yahoo.com/ap-impact-more-kids-skip-school-shots-8-085128437.html

[shraby]

1. Those parents should go to their local library and read the

microfilm from the 1800s newspapers. Then go from there to the cemeteries. They would then begin to think about the consequences of what they are doing.
Families with 3,4,5 children had all chairs full one week at the dining table, and the next week could find all but the parent's chairs empty.

[MattBaggins]

3. People don't believe that either

There is a fantasy world before modern times don't you know, when no one died of diseases; cancer didn't exist and everyone drank raw milk and lived to be 100 years old.

Long ago... In the before time.

[The Genealogist]

7. I doubt some of them would take the time to do so

Mary Selecky says: "Some find it easier to check a box opting out than the effort to get the shots and required paperwork schools demand."

Somehow, I doubt if such people are so lazy that they can't be bothered to take the relatively minor effort to keep their kids from getting utterly heinous diseases, that they are going to go look up anything on microfilm at the library.

Good medicine eradicated, or nearly so, a host of illnesses through vaccines. With people turning their backs on these lifesavers, I fear for their coming back to haunt ever larger numbers of people.

[drm604]

2. This is tragic.

The voices of ignorance win.

[MattBaggins]

4. Don't discount plain old laziness

I would suspect the largest share of folks fit in that "easier to check a box than take the kids to the Doctor"category.

[Missy Vixen]

5. Those who refuse vaccines should have to publicly identify as such.

I understand the above is fairly offensive, but to say that I am tired of those who think it's just fine to expose EVERYONE to whatever it is their kids will contract as a result of refusing vaccinations is an understatement. They infect others.

A case of mumps in an adult male, for instance, isn't a joke. We all had the vaccines as kids, but I am wondering if my husband needs a booster.

[McCamy Taylor]

6. Opt-outers should be forced to go to a doctor, wait to be seen, pay a bill as if their

kids got the shots. If they had to go through the same bother, they would get the shots. Bet a bunch of "opt out" is laziness or lack of funds.

[jmowreader]

8. In Idaho it's neither

Neither lack of funds nor laziness is a sufficient excuse in this state, because one of the things we actually do right here is vaccinations. You can go to the public health office and get your kids every shot they need for a very low cost because it's subsidized (and not even the farthest-right person in our state legislature would dream of fucking with the program, because when you buy vaccine in bulk you get a really good price), and we've got annual school shot clinics so you don't even have to get off your lazy butt to get your kid vaccinated--just fill in the form the school sends home, put a couple bucks in an envelope and call it good.

The reason for all out opt-outers is we've got a BUNCH of people who make General Jack T. Ripper out of "Dr. Strangelove" look sane. Hell, they took the fluoride out of the water systems in Bonner County for a list of reasons that came down to no one wanted their precious bodily fluids fucked with.

[dtexdem]

9. Allowing philosophical objections to school vaccinations is a luxury ...

allowed by herd immunity -- if most kids are vaccinated, a few unvaccinated neither pose a threat nor are in great danger of contracting the diseases.

But if too many parents opt out, the luxury must come to an end: the risks rise to the level that universal vaccination needs to be required.

Of course, that is only the reality of the situation, not its politics. The politics will likely lead to school-spread pandemics.

[Major Nikon]

10. When my kids were in primary school it was pretty simple

Your kids got vaccinated or they got sent home and didn't come back until they got vaccinated. It's a real simple system that works beautifully. If you want to play BS libertarian games or believe some pseudo-scientific nonsense, homeschool them or see if you can find any private schools dumb enough to take them.