Contact the schools. See what they say about waivers. It will likely vary from school to,school or state to state. Some of these are state requirements.
And because your student will be living in a dorm…I would suggest tuition insurance…just in case he does get sick.
^^Zing.
I have permanent hearing damage from contracting measles at a time when I couldn’t be vaccinated. I was able to be later. This is insane. There is a resurgence of many of these diseases, including drug resistant TB. I would do everything in my power to protect my kids. I can’t comprehend not loving the that much.
If my son, the recent MD with degrees in biochem and microbiology and genetics with his AIs in Infectious Disease decided to not vaccinate his kiddos, why yes I would be horrified. And from the the big pharm’s making a bundle he would disagree as well based on his senior health care economics thesis from princeton and his also new issued MBA in healthcare.
It sure would knock me for a loop if he decided to not vaccinate his children. His work on the peds floor with infectious disease was heart-breaking. Every day. Every night. Many did not go home.
Horrified is an understatement.
Kat
It varies by school. I’m making a check list for younger D right now, to take to the doctor and make sure she’s up-to-date.
Her college has vaxs separated into “strongly recommended” and “required”.
I don’t remember how it was for older D. Meningitis, for sure, required.
On top of being very ill and immune compromised, I also happen to be a medical historian of the 20th century. I work in the US pre vaccines. The pictures and stories make me want to puke and I don’t even have kids. I cannot fathom knowingly putting your child and others through potentially fatal and disfiguring diseases.
There are enough diseases out there that we can’t protect against. Why on earth wouldn’t you protect your child against those that we can?
@katwkittens if I knew that my doctor didn’t vaccinate his/her children for anything other than a necessary medical reason, that would be the end of my relationship with that doctor. I want a doctor that believes in sound science and that would break my trust in their judgment beyond repair.
I was born in the fifties. I had measles. I had mumps. I had scarlet fever. I missed 91 days of kindergarten catching everything (yup and chickenpox that year) I was happy to keep my children from catching mumps, measles, polio and such. It’s a pity younger parents don’t realize how horrible it can be especially for adults to catch these diseases. I certainly wasn’t going to risk sterility for my three sons.
My grandmother and her sisters and brother all caught diphtheria, and her brother almost died.
In the next generation, children were vaccinated against diphtheria. But my father and his sister caught whooping cough, and my father missed more than a month of school as a result.
In the next generation, children were vaccinated against diphtheria and whooping cough. But my sister and I caught measles – and although we did not have any serious complications, I knew kids who did.
In the next generation, children were vaccinated against diphtheria, whooping cough, and measles – as well as a variety of other diseases. And there are even more vaccines now than there were when my children (now 30 and 26) were little.
Why wouldn’t we want this progression to continue?
I don’t get vaccinated against flu.
Why not, @Iglooo?
DH doesn’t get the flu vaccine because he is allergic to neomycin. However I don’t see the flu vaccine in the same category as other vaccines…
I think it is going to depend on the college. DS had the chicken pox when he was little. Before he went to college he had to either show immunity or have the shots. He chose the shots. Then some how after he had been at college for over a year they misplaced his chicken pox shot documentation. He was flagged and they would not let him register for the next semesters classes until I faxed in a copy of the documentation. So I know some colleges are going to be very strict about the vaccinations.
I started poking around various university websites and was surprised by just how much the requirements vary. As @Midwest67 says above, often some immunizations are required while others are recommended/encouraged.
At the public school two of my kids attended, the policy doesn’t mention any accepted exemption to vaccine requirements other than religion. Those students must submit a certificate of religious exemption. The school also requires the immunization record to be signed by a practitioner who is not a member of the student’s family (presumably to insure authenticity). The website states that “Omission or misrepresentation of pertinent medical information is a violation of the honor system,” which is a big deal at this school. I don’t know what happens if a student hasn’t been immunized for “personal reasons,” as stated in the OP; it might require a call to the Dean of Students to find out.
At the private school my other kid attended, the immunization policy refers to both university- and state-mandated vaccines. It states that waivers are granted only for religious or medical reasons and that students who aren’t in compliance with the state requirements won’t be allowed to register.
@romanigypsyeyes I agree. In fact, my DS is about to travel to China. We had an appointment with the ID specialist/travel clinic for his typhoid vaccine. I happened to mention it to the pediatrician (not ours) in passing when he was there for his regular checkup and was stunned when the pediatrician said she did not think it was necessary for him to have it (despite the fact that it’s a CDC recommendation for where he’s traveling.) She herself had not vaccinated her kids against typhoid when they traveled to China because in her mind the risk was too low.
In discussing it with her, I also uncovered that she would have recommended against my DD getting the rabies vaccine a few summers ago when she was exposed to bats. Again, we went with the CDC recommendations at the ER and DD did have the series. When an illness like rabies is 100% fatal and 100% preventable, I will go with what the CDC says over a pediatrician who apparently sees nothing worse than regular childhood illnesses in her practice.
I’ve been appalled ever since. Given that my DS has only a few years left before he leaves for college, I am staying with the current practice but will be sure to seek a specialist’s opinion on anything more complex than pinkeye or an ear infection. But I am still fuming over her bad judgment.
My son teaches music lessons at a high school. He was not given his clearance to do so until he could verify all his childhood immunizations…no waivers allowed. Luckily I had all of the documentation to fax to him.
Re: flu
People call all kinds of relatively minor illnesses “the flu” even when they are not. That probably tends to cause people to think that “the flu” is no big deal and not worth getting the vaccine for, even though the real flu is a big deal.
Because there are some who cannot be vaccinated due to autoimmune issues, age, and other factors, I strongly feel it is VERY selfish NOT to vaccinate if you are healthy and just “choosing” not to do so. Our kids cannot vaccinate against the flu as each injection makes them ill for over a month, even when the dose is split like it is for very young kids. It’s really bad for the unvaccinated person AND the many people that the person comes in contact with, including the young, old, and those who can’t be vaccinated.
For many food service jobs in HI and many state and federal jobs, your vaccination record is checked and you CANNOT get hired until that is up to date and you have TB clearance.
Paranoia and feeling that you know more than the medical establishment are not grounds for an exemption.
There were several cases of schools this year in NJ in which faculty were suspended because they were not compliant with vaccinations that required. There was a serious meningitis outbreak in Princeton and not too recently a Mumps situation at Harvard and another school.
I know that a friend of mine caught the measles from an unvaccinated child early in his teaching career because we all grew up pre-MMR and he was seriously ill, missed two if not more weeks of work.
@GnocchiB it really defies belief that these people can successfully get through medical school, doesn’t it?
Though there have been studies showing the alarmingly low level of understanding of statistics among physicians- but that’s a whole other issue!
And there are parents who deliberately expose their children to chicken pox to “get it over with” rather than get the vaccine not realizing that they have increased the likelihood of the child having shingles later in life by threefold.