OT Should Parents Have A Say In Whether Or Not They Vaccinate Their Children?

[SheCheers]

Another huge group of people who are put at risk by the unvaccinated are babies too young to be vaccinated. I am sorry, this might sound callous...but in general I don't give a fig what decisions parents may make for their own children as long as it doesn't impact mine. But I can guarantee you I would be out for blood if someone else's poor decision caused my 6 week old to contract whooping cough or any other of these dread diseases that used to routinely kill children. Out.For.Blood.
Good luck with your paper!

Back in the 1940s, when whooping cough was around...it had a 1% mortality rate, same with measles. would you call that "routinely killing children"?

No one likes to get sick, I get it. And no one likes to see their child sick. But a lot of this is based on fear, jumping straight to the worst case scenario and not really common sense.

it's your job and your job alone to protect your child. If you're that fearful that everywhere you turn there is an unvaccinated carrier monkey waiting to infect your child, then I would encourage you to sit down and take a deep breath. And then I would encourage you to really look at the facts and the reality of the world today.

 

[Cheerfun2]

Back in the 1940s, when whooping cough was around...it had a 1% mortality rate, same with measles. would you call that "routinely killing children"?

No one likes to get sick, I get it. And no one likes to see their child sick. But a lot of this is based on fear, jumping straight to the worst case scenario and not really common sense.

it's your job and your job alone to protect your child. If you're that fearful that everywhere you turn there is an unvaccinated carrier monkey waiting to infect your child, then I would encourage you to sit down and take a deep breath. And then I would encourage you to really look at the facts and the reality of the world today.

Wow. How incredibly insulting. Actually, the "facts and reality" of the world today are that diseases like measles are making a comeback because the percentages if people who are not receiving the vaccine. As I said, I do not care at all about what other parents do until it affects me and my family. Let your child suffer through measles which can have some pretty devastating effects, including blindness. And my friend who is a pediatric nurse told me that watching a tiny baby suffer through whooping cough is something you will never forget...but go ahead, calculate the risk. I know when I have to have my children's immunity levels titered for a trip to CA due to the measles outbreak it makes me angry because I did what I was supposed to do and other people are causing issues for me. So frankly, I don't need to sit down and take a deep breath. I am GLAD most states require immunizations for school, and I truly believe that in a public school, medical exemptions should be the ONLY exemptions allowed.

 

[catlady]

My oldest daughter has an auto-immune blood disorder, Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura, and she's chronic. There is research now (not when she was diagnosed) that says ITP can be linked to the MMR (see link below), she developed ITP after her second MMR. She had IVIg treatments every two weeks for six years and during that time she was not able to finish out her vaccines because of her titers being too high. Herd immunity is very important to people with weakened immune systems (auto immune, cancer, HIV, AIDS, etc), infants and the elderly. After oldest went through chemo (for the ITP), she was able to start up her immunizations, again. When she had the polio vaccine, she developed Henoch Schonlein Purpura, although again, they said the two aren't linked. If you were her parent, would you believe them?

I am a huge believer in vaccines, both my kids are fully vaccinated for all mandatory vaccines with the exception of meningitis (I just found out that one is mandatory for dorms). However, oldest, DH, and I are really struggling whether or not it is a good idea to vaccinate her for meningitis or just sign the waiver (unusual bleeding is a side effect). It always sounds great to mandate a law until someone you love falls into that "extremely rare" category. I am incredibly grateful to those that vaccinate, they keep those that can not in the safe zone, but no, I am not for mandating a law. Sometimes medical research comes after the laws being mandated. I am, however, for educating the population which they did a great job of 40-50 years ago.
Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura and MMR vaccine -- Miller et al. 84 (3): 227 -- Archives of Disease in Childhood

 

[caitlyn_the_camille]

All of this is really great, thanks everyone. Is there a way to cite Fierce Board in an academic paper?
But really, the only thing I really have to contribute is that my dad, like I said, is an ob/gyn, and he is 1000% against the Gardasil shot. He says it's a "load of crap" (his words) that's only purpose is profit. And the most well-respected of his colleagues agree strongly.
I saw where someone said the mortality rate of some of the now vaccinatable (not a word) diseases was pretty low even in their prime, which could be true. Does anyone know of any more that have long term risks after you contract them, such as with chicken pox to shingles?
And I've always wondered just how imminent the threat of a "super virus" is. Everyone always says it's really serious, always finish your prescription medicines, etc. I'm starting to find that they're very right.
How Far Are We From a Super-Pandemic? : Discovery News
This article is a little older, but I noticed articles like this popping up for just about every year. Every year there are numerous new threats for immunologists to worry about. Does anyone know where I can find more information about this? Not for my paper, really, just because I'm curious.

 

[SheCheers]

Wow. How incredibly insulting. Actually, the "facts and reality" of the world today are that diseases like measles are making a comeback because the percentages if people who are not receiving the vaccine. As I said, I do not care at all about what other parents do until it affects me and my family. Let your child suffer through measles which can have some pretty devastating effects, including blindness. And my friend who is a pediatric nurse told me that watching a tiny baby suffer through whooping cough is something you will never forget...but go ahead, calculate the risk. I know when I have to have my children's immunity levels titered for a trip to CA due to the measles outbreak it makes me angry because I did what I was supposed to do and other people are causing issues for me. So frankly, I don't need to sit down and take a deep breath. I am GLAD most states require immunizations for school, and I truly believe that in a public school, medical exemptions should be the ONLY exemptions allowed.

What I mean is there are literally risks on both sides. Nothing I said is anymore "incredibly insulting" than your thinking not vaccinating is affecting you so much. When my baby (who is now almost 15) had seizures both times after being vaccinated and each time progressively worse, we didn't have a medical exemption. We couldn't predict that would have happened to him. Now that I'm more educated on the risks, I'm not going to put the minute possibility that he will come into contact with any of these diseases ahead of the real possibility that the next time it happens it could very well be worse. Furthermore, my other 3 kids didn't have medical exemptions, but I'm also not going to risk something happening to them. It's insulting to me that you think my kids should be denied their right to public education, or risk being permanently harmed because you had the inconvenience of having to have titers checked.

 

[Mamarazzi]

There are definitely a lot of jobs that require you to be immunized. There is absolutely no way that anyone working in the healthcare sector in any capacity could get a job without proof of complete immunization, regardless of religious beliefs.

Not at all true.
I have worked in "the healthcare sector" (physicians offices, business offices and in-patient settings) for decades and have never been asked to submit any immunization paperwork. That paperwork wouldn't exist at this point anyway. Furthermore, no hospital requires staff to even get a flu shot, regardless of recommendations. Staff and vendors that choose not to receive the vaccination are required to wear a mask at all times, though, during the peak flu season months.

For the OP - my opinion as a parent is that it should work that way for all kids whose parents choose not to vaccinate. No immunization, wear a mask at all times. Pretty selfish, yes, selfish, to put others at risk for your personal belief and/or necessity.

 

[luv2cheer92]

Not at all true.
I have worked in "the healthcare sector" (physicians offices, business offices and in-patient settings) for decades and have never been asked to submit any immunization paperwork. That paperwork wouldn't exist at this point anyway. Furthermore, no hospital requires staff to even get a flu shot, regardless of recommendations. Staff and vendors that choose not to receive the vaccination are required to wear a mask at all times, though, during the peak flu season months.

For the OP - my opinion as a parent is that it should work that way for all kids whose parents choose not to vaccinate. No immunization, wear a mask at all times. Pretty selfish, yes, selfish, to put others at risk for your personal belief and/or necessity.

It's definitely not a universal law, but I've been required to get a flu shot and submit my immunization records at every health care facility that I've worked/interned at, including hospitals, in-patient, and outpatient offices.

 

[Just-a-Mom]

Not at all true.
I have worked in "the healthcare sector" (physicians offices, business offices and in-patient settings) for decades and have never been asked to submit any immunization paperwork. That paperwork wouldn't exist at this point anyway. Furthermore, no hospital requires staff to even get a flu shot, regardless of recommendations. Staff and vendors that choose not to receive the vaccination are required to wear a mask at all times, though, during the peak flu season months.

For the OP - my opinion as a parent is that it should work that way for all kids whose parents choose not to vaccinate. No immunization, wear a mask at all times. Pretty selfish, yes, selfish, to put others at risk for your personal belief and/or necessity.

You cannot set foot in an OR in Chicago without it. I didn't have my records so I had to go get all the titers drawn. I was not allowed to even go to orientation without it. The one girl in our class with a religious exemption from high school was told to change majors because she would never be allowed into the hospitals for clinicals. And yes, we were required to have the flu shot as well.

However I agree with you that it's not all jobs in the health care sector. But there are specific jobs that will require it - and strictly, with no exemptions.

ETA she wasn't required to change majors, as that would be illegal. She was merely told that literally no one was going to hire her to work in the OR or SPD without immunizations. Whether they informed her that that was the reason or not, she would not get work. And if you can't complete your clinicals, you can't graduate.

 

[luv2cheer92]

You cannot set foot in an OR in Chicago without it. I didn't have my records so I had to go get all the titers drawn. I was not allowed to even go to orientation without it. The one girl in our class with a religious exemption from high school was told to change majors because she would never be allowed into the hospitals for clinicals. And yes, we were required to have the flu shot as well.

However I agree with you that it's not all jobs in the health care sector. But there are specific jobs that will require it - and strictly, with no exemptions.

ETA she wasn't required to change majors, as that would be illegal. She was merely told that literally no one was going to hire her to work in the OR or SPD without immunizations. Whether they informed her that that was the reason or not, she would not get work. And if you can't complete your clinicals, you can't graduate.

Yea that's similar to how it is with my program currently. We start our clinic rotations in June, when there's pretty much no chance of getting a flu shot, so we were told to get our flu shots over the Winter when they are more likely to be available. They told us you may get lucky and be at one of the few places that don't require it, but most likely it will be required and you don't want to get screwed out of not being able to complete the internship (really 2 rotations, since we have another one in August as well).

 

[Mom Jeans]

My thoughts/questions - this may be a dumb question, but if the majority of kids are vaccinated, how are the ones who aren't putting other kids at risk? Aren't the only ones at risk those that willfully chose not to be vaccinated? Like if 95 kids are vacinnated against the measels, and 5 chose not to get the vaccine, then one of the 5 gets measles, wouldn't the 95 kids be safe and the only ones at risk 4 other non-vacinnated ones?

These parents that claim religious beliefs about why they refuse to vacinatte - do they still go ahead and give their kid penicillin when they get an ear infection? I just think there's got to be a lot of hypocrisy in making such a claim and I don't think I could lie about something like that (lying about my religious beliefs - just seems way too wrong to me). Personally, I think I'd just send my kids to a private school or homeschool before I'd lie for 12 years like that.

I vacinnated my kids, but I do understand both sides of the debate. Until they can fully explain the reasons behind the increase in autism diagnoses in recent years, I can see why people are nervous.

We had quite a few cases of measles here in So Cal and there were several stories about kids that couldn't get the vaccination, there was a toddler going through chemo, Infants too young to receive it they were all now fighting for their lives because someone else wasn't vaccinated, a daycare for infants had a couple of cases and had to shut down.

 

[gofriars610]

I've written a lot about this issue for work, feel free to PM me if you'd like links/info.

 

[Twinklestars]

We had quite a few cases of measles here in So Cal and there were several stories about kids that couldn't get the vaccination, there was a toddler going through chemo, Infants too young to receive it they were all now fighting for their lives because someone else wasn't vaccinated, a daycare for infants had a couple of cases and had to shut down.

It reminded me of the whooping cough/pertussis crisis back in 2010 (iirc). Always so sad when babies get sick.

My oldest got whooping cough about a month after she got her booster (required for 7th grade in TN). She continues to have problems from it almost five years later.

 

[seein_starz]

I don't think there should be a question on whether or not to get your kid vaccinated, you are putting your child and others at a great risk for getting deadly diseases, and if you choose to not get your child vaccinated for the measles, mumps, or any other kind of deadly disease and they happen to get it, there's no one else to blame but yourself. I know this sounds really harsh and all but people are dying because someone decided that they would rather their child not get vaccinated

 

[GreatWhite92]

It's definitely not a universal law, but I've been required to get a flu shot and submit my immunization records at every health care facility that I've worked/interned at, including hospitals, in-patient, and outpatient offices.

My friend is going to med school in the fall and just had to have blood work done to check for immunization. He found out that he wasn't fully vaccinated for hep b so is now getting all the shots for that. He is required to have all immunizations before stepping foot into med school. No religious exemption allowed. They basically said find another school because they don't want to risk their numbers of graduates with jobs statistic because no one will hire you without them.


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[CheerBank]

@SheCheers If I had had a child who had seizures directly after vaccinating on two occasions, I would feel the same way about not wanting my other children to have vaccinations. You have a valid reason for concern.