Just went to the county clinic, H and I got the MMR. Our doc suspects we have immunity just because of our age. However, it’s too late to do a titer and still eventually get the vaccine before our upcoming trip. Now I wait…info sheet says 1 in 4 women will develop muscle pains…and 1 in 6 gets a fever…hmmm…
Hallelujah!
^It makes me so angry that that father has to wage this battle. No patience for this ignorance!
“I’m sorry, but I really just don’t give a !@#% about the kid that you’ve just watched fight for his life. So, because I’m ignorant and can’t be bothered to learn the truth, I’m not only going to potentially kill mine but yours as well. Sorry not sorry!” -Every anti-vaxx parent ever.
(Sorry that just made my blood boil so sarcasm is the best I can do right now.)
We have encouraged a society where every one is ‘special’. I’m special and need to be accommodated, you’re special and need to be accommodated. This kid needs this assistance/exemption/special accommodation. That kid needs a different sort of assistance/exemption/accommodation. Saying no to anyone’s demand for special treatment results in cries of discriminations, racism, sexism, classism…name your 'ism…Or…your ‘insert adjective here’ privilege. The kid with social issues who beats up the other kids on the playground, the one who yells out randomly whenever the ‘issue’ strikes, the one who can’t eat peanuts, the one who can’t sit still etc. are all special and need to be mainstreamed. And, all the other special kids need to accommodate that special kid who in turn will need to accommodate all the other special kids. The kid allergic to grass/plastics etc will eventually need a special playground surface. We are ALL SPECIAL, we all deserve accommodation based on our unique specialness! Of course, I am more special than you and therefore my specialness needs to be accommodated before your specialness…because…well…I’m more special.
Guys, if everyone wants to be special and accommodated THIS is what we wind up with.
And as for the Marin parents…guess this is what happens when you spend the 80’s in a redwood hot tub gazing upon peacock feathers.
From the NPR link:
"Krawitt has been speaking up about vaccination for a long time now. He told me about going to a parent meeting at his daughter’s school just before the start of the school year, where a staff member reminded parents not to send peanut products to school, since a child or children had an allergy. “It’s really important your kids don’t bring peanuts, because kids can die,” Krawitt recalls the group being told.
The irony was not lost on him. He told me he immediately responded, “In the interest of the health and safety of our children, can we have the assurance that all the kids at our school are immunized?”
He found out later from a friend that other parents who were present were “mad that you asked the question, because they don’t immunize their kids.”"
So no PB & J because Joey can die, but here’s some whooping cough and measles for your kid? Yikes.
People don’t get their kids vaccinated because it is a religious belief. Not from any actual religion, rather it is a counter-scientific attempt to understand and take control of a world that is scary and trying to hurt them. They want to believe that vaccines cause autism because then they can prevent it. That’s all it is.
If there is a kid in the school with a genuine peanut allergy, it is a serious and life-threatening issue, and not at all like many of the other specious claims for privilege or entitlement.
And even for those who get these illnesses in childhood and survive with no apparent problems, some of them can come back with vengeful aftereffects decades down the line. I ran into someone in the past few months who was dealing with post-polio syndrome. That’s nothing to sneeze at, but none of the anti-vaxxers are thinking that far ahead, apparently.
Long before anyone made any claims about vaccines causing autism, there were people who refused vaccines for religious reasons. My best friend and a couple of kids who went to her church refused vaccines (and were given a waiver), never went to doctors, and refused medicines. I don’t know what that Church preaches nowadays regarding vaccines, but back in the 70’s, this was in fact a religious thing vs. fear of autism.
I’ve read a little bit about my friend’s church, and I kind of think the parents or their particular church was misinterpreting what their literature said about vaccines, but that is neither here nor there.
My friend has never been vaccinated to my knowledge, and she has been lucky to be very healthy. She does occasionally go to a doctor if something starts to interfere in her life, but in general she doesn’t, and she rarely ever takes any medicines for any problem. Her mom refused medical care, went to a kind of “nursing home” to be prayed over when she became ill, and subsequently died of heart failure, which could have been treated and given her many more years.
This is the advantage of herd immunity - if the overall vaccination rate is high enough, small numbers of unvaccinated people can get by just fine because they have minimal exposure to anyone with the disease. Remove that herd immunity and your friend might have had a very different outcome!
^^^Oh, I know. I love my friend dearly, but I never had much respect for some of the beliefs of her church. Of course, I never expressed my thoughts and she never asked for my opinion. There were 6 kids in her family and a few of them eventually rejected at least parts of their religion. One even went on to become a pharmacist!
Interesting map
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/02/vaccine-exemptions-states-pertussis-map
California is a prime example of rampant personal-belief exemptions. Of course one could consider it religious to make a Hollywood actress, a rock musician or anyone else in the entertainment industry their personal health guru. Remember, we are ALL SPECIAL, we ALL are entitled to have others accept our specialness and adapt their lives to accommodate our unique specialness. I’m special and can make an institution install a whole new classification of bathrooms because…well…I’m special. I’m special so I can get you to stop wearing perfume because it bothers me (but you can not as of yet make me take a shower because I stink, guess that makes the stinky EXTRA special). I can ask the restaurant to make their chicken lasagna served vegan and then cry out at the discrimination and oppressiveness when they refuse.
Really, this is just happens to be the news worthy item of the day…where once again…someone demands that their RIGHT to uniqueness be acknowledged and accommodated.
We had a really sad case in Wisconsin a few years ago–a young girl who was allowed to die because her parents refused medical attention for her (very treatable) diabetes. The parents are pentecostal Christians. They were convicted of homicide and their convictions were upheld on appeal.
http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1877352,00.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/03/madeline-kara-neumann-prayer-death_n_3539974.html
So scary. I had Chicken Pox at age 32. It was very frightening and very serious. Like watching a runaway train that you have no control over. About three months later the vaccine came out. Any adult who has not had Chicken Pox should get vaccinated. it is no joke for an adult.
My mom is still in the hospital with flu and now pneumonia. Yesterday she was moved to the ICU with breathing difficulties. Thank goodness she is a bit better today. My sister was exposed to my mom over the weekend, as was I. My sister in now sick with the flu. Unfortunate that this years vaccine has been so ineffective.
Have been following the effects of enterovirus D-68 seeming to be the culprit causing paralysis in kids. Described by the CDC as similar to polio. Scary http://www.cdc.gov/ncird/investigation/viral/sep2014/investigation.html
@jym626 - Is there a vaccine for that disease?
No, because it is not a common nor epidemic-level disease. I was pretty sure there might be some neurologic issues with that virus, since polio is also an enterovirus.
Lots of questions in the office yesterday about measles (we had our first Disneyland-related case here a couple of weeks ago). Also lots of bad flu. Luckily no Tamiflu shortage this year. Loved the sick-as-**** kid whose parents wanted drugs to treat him, but were proud that they “never get the flu vaccine”. Wha??? (btw-- the flu vaccine is not a great match this year, but is not “so ineffective”. Two strains are a good match, the third strain is about a 40-60% match. Not as good as usual–which is clear from the numbers we’re seeing–but I would still always vaccinate.)