Just want to repeat a point I made elsewhere:
It’s not haj pilgrims specifically that are the worry. It’s that a college campus draws OOS and int’l students who travel there from all over. One doesn’t have to be infected w something to be a carrier. At many colleges, 1 in 5 students are int’l.
Parents who are relying on herd protection should keep in mind that college is a different herd.
I exposed my younger kid to the chicken pox when she was little. The vaccine was very new…and she was under 6. Guess what…she never got the chicken pox…so I had her get the shots. Years later…like 22 years later…her chicken pox titer came back negative…so she had to get two shots…again.
It never dawned on me NOT to have her immunized…twice.
I had a friend with a very bad case of chicken pox as an adult. She actually needed to go to the ER.
I’m wondering if the OP realizes how serious these illnesses can be…and especially to adults.
This was the outcome of the outbreak at the college in Michigan in early May:
lovely to be isolated for the last 3 1/2 weeks of a college quarter or semester…exams, etc. Ugh.
And this from the college;
I ‘get’ that there are some people for various reasons that simply cannot have vaccinations, but this trend toward not vaccinating “just because” causes real harm and the “not me” mentality can be a dangerous position to take.
So OP – @herewelearn – whadya think?? Are you going to have your child vaccinated?
I live in an “enlightened” area, where many parents do not vaccinate. >:P I remember vividly one un-vaccinated kindergartner who came to school and said “My Dad said I had to go to school because he had to go to work and don’t show anyone my measles”. The newly pregnant teacher almost fainted and left quickly. Another mom and I looked–yep, measles. I can still hear the principal roaring at that dumb dad over the phone. Of course, about a dozen non-vaccinated kids got the measles. That poor teacher worried her whole pregnancy.
As citizens in today’s world, shouldn’t we really be thinking/acting more about “us and our needs” and not “me and my wants” …?
I’m another one born with hearing loss due to my mother’s exposure to rubella when she was pregnant with me. I was also born with a heart defect, again, the result of the exposure. And I worked with a woman who’d had polio as a child-a “mild” case that left her with permanent mobility issues-but at least she survived, unlike many of her peers. I also have 2 nieces who were hospitalized due to severe cases of chicken pox (born pre-vax). I could go on. You bet my kids have always had whatever the recommended vaccines were at the time. If my doc did not believe in them, I would change doctors so fast their head would spin.
My pediatrician believes in vaccines 100%, but it’s not like he rejects kids/parents who refuse them for religious or personal reasons.
Our first pediatrician made it clear that if we chose not to vaccinate, we could feel free to find another one. We were sad to lose him when we had to move cross-country.
More and more pediatricians and other doctors ARE turning away patients who refuse to vaccinate (and their children). They feel that they have a moral duty to protect the health of their patients who can’t receive vaccines (especially pediatricians who have patients who are too young to be vaccinated) and accepting patients who CHOOSE not to vaccinate is at odds with that moral duty.
At the health center where I used to volunteer as an HIV test counselor, after a certain point in the flu season, we wouldn’t be allowed to be in contact with patients and/or clients if we had not yet received a seasonal flu vaccine. I was only a volunteer and my fellow volunteers and I all got our vaccines but I’m not sure what they would’ve done to health professionals who didn’t get vaccinated (honestly, as far as I know, it never came up).
Ironically though, the chemo center where I get my infusion treatments doesn’t screen for illness or vaccinations… and we’re all immune compromised! You figure if they’re going to ask anywhere to wear protective gear to prevent germ spread it would be there… but I digress.
It wasn’t until I was an adult that I learned my kind and patient childhood pediatrician was the doctor who isolated the measles virus, leading to the development of the vaccine. I remember getting shots at his home office. The reward was getting to feed his goats!
He also figured out that fluoride added to vitamins prevented cavities and that the tetanus booster was good for 10 years, not the single year previously thought.
Shout out to Dr. Tom Peebles! (1921-2010)
Isn’t your son is going to UW-Madison?
My advice is “try using Google”.
http://www.uhs.wisc.edu/services/records/immunization-and-health-history.shtml
No vaccines are required so you don’t have to find a way around anything.
After such an incident, one would think that people would realize that it is in their own self interest to get vaccinated against measles and such, unless medically contraindicated.
Wow, it’s shocking that UW doesn’t require any vaccinations, but that’s what it shows on the link!
I’m in the camp that thinks people who don’t immunize their kids are guilty of child abuse. When I look at my family history, it’s shocking how many of the children died from diphtheria in the late 1800s.
I don’t mind that the number of vaccinations is increasing. In fact, I wish that babies were all given shots to guard against RSV. My son got it when he was 9 weeks old. It was really scary. He was on oxygen for five days. Hearing him try to breathe was agonizing. He couldn’t even nurse. There is a vaccine, but it’s given only to kids with other risk factors.
However, they are conveniently available at the campus health center:
http://www.uhs.wisc.edu/appointments/costs/prices.shtml#immunization
ucb, yes, one would think, but as I said, some “enlightened” ones feel they know more than the medical community. ugh…
I’m in the camp that believes NO student who has NOT received immunizations should be allowed to step foot on ANY college campus.
They can get their degree online as far as I’m concerned.
X(
Kids who have received immunizations pass on sicknesses too. Many people have moral issues, not medical, with certain vaccines.
And as for “me and my wants” here - well, anti-vaxxers have every right to see vaxxers as “me and my wants” - they are two different ways of thinking. Neither is invalid. Just because you disagree with something doesn’t make it child abuse.
Except that “you and your wants” may have devastating effects on others.
Aren’t the vaccinated kids supposed to be protected, anyway?
There are many cases where the “you and your wants” of vaxxers has had devastating effects on others - on kids who have been vaccinated and gotten disabled from them. True, it’s in the minority. It’s a large enough part of the population to make a difference, and to those families who have gone through it especially, they feel the selfishness of vaxxers. It’s present in both. Don’t pretend it isn’t.
Sure, anti-vaxxers have a right to their wants and desires… just as long as they’re prepared to look me and others in the eye and say that they recognize the fact that their anti-science paranoia can kill us and that their wants trump our right to live.
(Oh, and by the way, we have decided time and time again in this country that one’s wants and desires ends when they put the lives of others in danger. Think of drunk driving, withholding medical care from children, etc.)
ETA: And if it’s selfish of me to expect others not to kill me (and, again, millions of other vulnerable babies, children, and adults) because of a “want” then I wear that label proudly!