<p>Does this go too far?</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/13/AR2007111301408.html]washingtonpost.com[/url”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/13/AR2007111301408.html]washingtonpost.com[/url</a>]</p>
<p>This happens every year in various jurisdictions in the Washington, DC area. It is nothing new. I don’t have an opinion on whether it goes too far.</p>
<p>Prince George’s County is not an affluent area. There may be many families that face financial and transportation barriers to getting their children immunized. The need for the parent to take time off from work for the appointment and a long trip by public transportation from the home or school to the medical facility can be real problems for some families. Anything the “system” can do to minimize the barriers would probably go a long way toward solving the problem.</p>
<p>Not a good way to promote immunizations! They should be using all this money spent on lawyers, courts, etc. to provide immunization education and free shots to families who can not afford them or do not know where to go to get their kids immunized!</p>
<p>I completely agree with you BunsenBurner. I’m not positive, but I seem to remember kids getting pulled out of class for vaccinations back when I was in school (NYC public schools).</p>
<p>I was about to get on my soapbox about the need for vaccines, till I saw which ones. Chickenpox is not a health emergency/epidemic disease like many others (as we all know because we had it) and the vaccine is still questionable–people may get it later and more severely with the vaccine. And Hep B is not a school issue, unless they’re letting kids have sex in the hallways. My former pediatrician H was disgusted that this was mandated (and yes, we got it for our kids when they approached adolescence, because we didn’t want to fight about it with the school).</p>
<p>Some of the reasons we don’t have outbreaks of certain illness here is because of immunizations. We now have generations that don’t fear the same sickness that struck in our grandparents time because of these. In the same token we now have people who don’t feel the need because they grew up without the threat…</p>
<p>Yes, there is some risk involved with reactions but what percentage? </p>
<p>Anytime you place groups of people together, you risk infection. just ask a elementary school teacher how colds and flu spread through a classroom or the all time favorite headlice…</p>
<p>Sometimes the problem with prevention is it works and then some people don’t feel the need.</p>
<p>Right, Opie, in the aggegrate I agree. But for these two vaccines, I don’t think there really is a compelling state need. Chickenpox was never a disease whose outbreak was feared by our forefolks. And Hep B is not a disease spread through school activities, so should not bar a kid from school. It’s a vaccination that should be a parent/doctor decision.</p>
<p>Uh oh. The last couple of threads about forced vaccination ended… badly. ;)</p>
<p>leal: Should we maybe stay out of it this time around? :P</p>
<p>When the article says “children” I assume that it is referring to middle and high school children as well as little ones. Garland, the high school I went to was a slice of life. You’d be amazed at what went on at lunchtime, or during classtime if someone decided to cut class. A few of those activities certainly could have resulted in Hep B transmission.</p>
<p>As for chicken pox, while it isn’t life threatening for most children, it takes a child out of school for quite a while.</p>
<p>garland, Hep B is transmitted through contact with infected blood, which could be through blood transfusions (yes, blood is tested, but the test can miss Hep B virus), cuts, accidents, not just through that dreadful 3-lettered word. I got a mandatory seies of HBV vaccine shots at work, because we were handling human and primate blood samples. A splatter into your eye, a spill onto damaged skin… Chickenpox - I’m not sure that’s a vaccine that should be mandatory, however, I contracted it when I was 14, and it was a nightmare to live through. Lil’ sis who brought it home got away with just two “zits” on her butt.</p>
<p>BTW, this is fresh off the press today:</p>
<p>[Vaccines</a> cut disease deaths by 99 percent: study | Health | Reuters](<a href=“http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSN1359907220071113]Vaccines”>http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSN1359907220071113)</p>
<p>And here is the link to the original study:</p>
<p>[JAMA</a> – Abstract: Historical Comparisons of Morbidity and Mortality for Vaccine-Preventable Diseases in the United States, November 14, 2007, Roush et al. 298 (18): 2155](<a href=“Historical Comparisons of Morbidity and Mortality for Vaccine-Preventable Diseases in the United States”>Historical Comparisons of Morbidity and Mortality for Vaccine-Preventable Diseases in the United States)</p>
<p>Chicken pox is extremely dangerous for adults who never had it before/weren’t immunized and have some other health problem. Also dangerous for women to get it while pregnant.</p>
<p>Well, it is refering to little ones as well–which is part of my point. It is ludicrous to ban a 5 year old from school because of the Hep B vaccine.
And if a high school has sex going on in the building, I’d say first, they have deeper issues than vaccines to address; second, there are a many other equally or worse diseases not being prevented (AIDS, other STDs) so Hep B is hardly the big issue; and third, students could presumably choose to participate or not; unlike someone just sitting next to you sneezing germs (and if participation is forced, see point one–bigger issues.)</p>
<p>I don’t remember my kids missing much school for chickenpox, and again, it’s not considered a very reliable vaccine, especially in its longevity; for me, it’s a cost benefit question that is not at all settled.</p>
<p>If blood is being exchanged, then the school is not taking universal precautions and allowing the possible spread of other blood-borne diseases like AIDS.</p>
<p>It has worse problems than vaccination issues, in that case.</p>
<p>Again, I’m on the same page with the bulk of vaccinations; I’m questioning these specific ones.</p>
<p>garland:</p>
<p>Immunization against chickenpox is not just for the kid being immunized but other kids and adults who have not been immunized. With our population of immigrants, chances are that many adults are not. And as others have said, it is quite dangerous for adults.</p>
<p>I had chickenpox as a child and was quarantined for 3 weeks. I nearly climbed the walls of the hospital!</p>
<p>I am aware of these issues. It’s my pediatrician H, who worked in an area of many low income, often immigrant, families, who informed me about the lack of reason to require chickenpox vaccine (which many states don’t require–according to the NJ site I looked at, we do not.) It’s efficacy is poorly established, and it’s public health benefits are not strong.</p>
<p>But drug companies make a ton every time a new vaccine is required by law.</p>
<p>My sister-in-law contracted chicken pox as an adult – and the chicken pox was then followed by shingles, a common occurance in adult chicken pox cases. She was out of work for over two months. Since she was an elementary school teacher, she went on disability and the district hired substitutes. When you think about it – that was one heck of an expensive case of chicken pox which perhaps could have been prevented with a vaccination. And it certainly no fun for either her, or her pupils who had a string of substitutes since the school district was unable to find someone for such a length of time.</p>
<p>That may be true, or the converse may be true, and it might lead to more shingles.</p>
<p>but the major point is: school vaccination should not entail anything other than school public health issues of student to student transmission. Anything else is pretending to be a school issue when it’s not.</p>
<p>If we want a country where people, not students, are mandated to perform specific health-based actions, whether or not they pose a threat to others, then okay, we can say that. But then let’s not call it school vaccination. </p>
<p>Again, for truly dangerous, school-communicable diseases, I am totally in favor of mandated vaccines at appropriate ages, but my inner anarchist does not like the over-reaching programs, based on disputed facts, when every vaccine that can be invented suddenly becomes necessary.</p>
<p>Gar, here’s the rub, you don’t like two vacinations. Say another parent doesn’t like another and so on and so on… after a while nobody’s kid get vacinated because somebody has a problem with it or you have a hodge poge of kids with different vacinations. </p>
<p>All they are trying to do is shoot (or should I say shot) for consistency. While costs could be an issue, I think most states have offers of free or reduced costs. I know our health plans in WA cover vacinations 100% (for required vacs). Some people have religious differences, I think those can be taken into account, and I’m sure some homeschool for this reason. </p>
<p>As for HpB… well stranger things have happened in a school yard. And kids do the darnest things… so maybe it’s a cya situation. ounce of prevention vs. pound of cure or millions in lawsuit…?</p>
<p>I agree with garland. If grownups fear contracting chicken pox, let THEM get the vaccine! I can see hep B mandated for middle school, maybe, but not Kindergarten.</p>