<p>What religion prohibits vaccinations? I have never heard of that.</p>
<p>A sophomore at DS1’s college just died of bacterial meningitis. I’m told that happens pretty much every year. The vaccination is required for on-campus students, but not for off-campus. His dad was just on the news calling for it to be required for everyone.</p>
<p>I don’t think it has to be required, but there should definitely be some kind of public awareness programs. He sounded like a great kid. I feel bad for his parents.</p>
<p>Our district allows personal objections for vaccinations.
I appreciate being able to select which vaccinations my kids receive & when.</p>
<p>For instance, oldest was 10 weeks premature. I did not follow the stated schedule for her shots under dr recommendations, additionally if she was ill- i waited until she was healthy again.</p>
<p>I have had chicken pox- so I was concerned about getting shingles- however I see the risk is only about 20%.
whew.</p>
The exemptions don’t require membership in any particular religion, just an affirmation that you hold that religious belief.</p>
<p>The Catholic Church, though, as an example, allows members to refuse vaccines that are derived from aborted fetal tissue. Christian Scientists are against all medical interventions, including vaccinations.</p>
<p>Yes, my family has Aetna health insurance that covers vaccines. So I paid very little out-of-pocket to protect my kids. And I would bet that Aetna paid much less than $83.77 per dose. (Aetna doesn’t pay list price.)</p>
<p>But you are missing my point. Even if it did cost me $400 to protect my kid from getting chicken pox, I consider that money well spent. For the more serious diseases (whooping cough, cervical cancer, hepatitis), a vaccine is worth even more money.</p>
<p>Immunizations are always going to be a huge debate. Luckily there are Public Health Departments that will provide immunizations for $15/$16 per shot. Not very expensive. I had chicken pox when I was 25 years old and it was horrific. I know I was exposed several times as a child and apparently never got the chicken pox. Pregnant women are told not to come into contact with anyone that has chicken pox because it could hurt or kill the unborn baby.
I believe people should be able to choose to immunize their children but what happens when an outbreak occurs. Whooping Cough or Pertussis is now prevalent in certain areas of the country. They are recommending that adults have a Tdap booster because if an infant is exposed to whooping Cough that infant could die, and we have had infants die in my city due to whooping cough. Sad!! These diseases are preventable but babies and children are dying because of the lack of immunizations.</p>
<p>My best friend in grade school and through adulthood is a member of the Christian Science faith. They objected to vaccines on religious grounds and were given no hassles about it. They filled out a piece of paper, and they were exempt.</p>
<p>As long as grounds for refusal of vaccines like religious grounds or health implications are respected, I do believe vaccinations for life threatening illnesses should be required. Others, like chicken pox, flu, Gardisil, etc. and the like should be optional. We don’t ever want to see another epidemic of polio, measles, whooping cough, or God forbid, smallpox. We can probably handle the chicken pox (although if I were an adult who had never had CP as a child, I’d definitely get the vaccine because adult CP is much, much more severe).</p>
<p>I think vaccinations for serious diseases spread through casual contact should be required. Frankly, families who don’t vaccinate should have a tattoo on their kids’ foreheads. Ok, not really, but there has to be some way of notifying others. I was a micro-premie back in the day when few of us survived. At the time it was believed that kids like me couldn’t be vaccinated at all. I contracted measles, suffered the complication of encephalitis and have had permanent difficulties. We all have an obligation to do our part for herd immunity because one never knows who absolutely can not be vaccinated. In my area, childhood HIV is not uncommon, and there are several cancer treatment facilities. I can respect religious exemptions, although I don’t agree with them, but I’ve known many parents over the years for whom the refusal to vaccinate was about being trendy. I don’t respect that at all and I do believe that if people don’t vaccinate, there should be an obligation to let other parents know either in social situations, team situations, and educational situations. I also think they then have to face the consequences of their actions. Absent a true religious reason or other serious reason, I think I would likely not choose to continue to maintain contact with people who choose not to vaccinate for less compelling reasons.</p>
<p>I know a lot of people who put their infants on “delayed” vaccination schedules which translates to maybe getting most of them eventually. Do you think babies should be getting the vaccinations right whenever the ped says or do you support delayed schedules (assuming the vaccinations are actually performed and not put off indefinitely like my friends) ?</p>
<p>Just curious. Vaccinations are a very touchy subject in our family. We were all vaccinated on schedule, but my sister is the black sheep here. One of her kids is allergic to eggs and didn’t get some of the vaccines because of that, but her oldest has autism and she is convinced it’s vaccine related so she has all her kids on a “delayed” schedule-- not sure what PRECISELY that means but all four of hers had mumps a few years ago and the eldest two were already like 8 and 7. When I asked about delayed schedules above, I didn’t mean situations like hers where she apparently never means to get them all. I don’t consider that “delayed.”</p>
I think parents, in consultation with their healthcare professional, should decide what is the best schedule for each individual child. However, I do think that once the child has reached school age, the parents should be very open about any missing vaccinations. Like I said, you just never know who absolutely can’t be vaccinated. That’s particularly important in my opinion, if an unvaccinated child travels abroad. I really respect parental choice, but if your choice could kill someone, there have to be some restraints.</p>
And I am hoping that only those who really need the exemptions choose not to vaccinate to protect children like yours whose lives may depend on herd immunity.</p>
<p>As for religious reasons, I have no problem with them, but I don’t understand why those kids should be allowed to mix with other kids who they might kill.</p>
<p>Do you think that the HPV vacine debate will change now that the numbers show that many more men have the virus than women? It’s not only about “allowing” daughters to have sex, but about keeping sons from getting and passing on a virus. Hmmm, I feel a wind change.</p>
<p>Getting a vaccine for both sexes only makes getting HomeRuns easier and faster.
However, getting the vaccine for both sexes is a good measure of preventive insurance. </p>
<p>why do you think I’m trying to get DS more interested in your DDs. I’m trying to minimize his and your’s risk profiles.</p>
<p>re #58, yes the issue is that some of these vaccines use cell lines descended from aborted tissue from the 60’s. Even though the Vatican has said that these can be used absent an alternative, the final decision derives from the individual’s own morality.</p>
<p>
Any kid, even a totally healthy kid, could be carrying some kind of bug which could seriously harm someone whose immune system is suppressed. Going to school with a sniffle could kill that kid too.</p>
<p>Besides, no vaccine is 100% effective, and the CP vaccine is particularly poor as vaccines go, its protection drops as the years go by, so severely that now you need a booster after only 5 years. </p>
<p>So even if everyone is vaccinated, the immuno-suppressed kid could still get CP.</p>