@dietz199,There’s a big difference between basic and premium insurance. One of the shots I had to boost my white blood count and prevent neutropenia when on chemotherapy cost $8,000 for each weekly shot. I was lucky my insurance covered the $32,000 it took to keep me healthy and out of the hospital. Many insurance policies didn’t and still don’t cover it.
It seems a bit cruel to me to require a kid who has missed months of school and social interaction because of a life-threatening illness to quarantine his or herself simply because other families choose to ignore sound medical practice in favor of junk science.
No one if forcing the child to be homeschooled. A prudent parent might make that decision.
Yes, Romani the ADA requires accommodation. And, the personal exemption to vaccinations requires exemptions, and just about anyone can make a case for an exemption for just about anything. And therein lies the problem. Like I’ve said we are ALL special and we ALL deserve our desired exemptions. The non-vaccinators have just as much of a right to exercise their legal right to their exemption as anyone who demands an any other ADA exemption. Both are permitted by law. And, the non vaccinators shouldn’t miss out on a school experience because of the stupidity of other parents who will not take their child out of harms way. Nope.
I’ll see your exemption excuse and raise you my exemption excuse. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Either we make exceptions when demanded by a vocal and forceful group, or we do not. You can’t just pick and choose your favorite exemption poster child.
Well, you can never be sure that everyone around you is immunized. This outbreak began at Disneyland which is in Southern California which is very close to a southern border and several airports. I mean, worldwide mandated vaccinations is not going to happen. So, I would just stay home, personally.
But we can choose to lobby for changes…if your special need can KILL my kid with one sneeze or cough, , well then my non-life threatening special need WINS.
There was a special needs kid in our local middle school who had such violent tendencies that they needed a full time personal aide to make sure they didn’t take a baseball bat to some kids head during recess! So, let’s just assigned personal aides to anyone who can’t be sneezed upon. Kids play rough, blood happens, but…we don’t ban kids with AID’s now do we! Or are you suggesting we should?
The fact is the whole system of individual accommodation has gotten so out of hand that this particular instance is just not that special. So no…your special needs kid is no more special than any other special needs kid. Special is special…and we are all special
My point is we have made accommodations for so many things that there is no logical place to stop. The flood gates are open.
The aide could ensure no one comes within a certain radius. And, why can’t the immunocompromised wear a filtration mask? Really, the absurdity of our exemption system has just been brought to a head. I’d bet those most vocal about making sure every one is mainstreamed…and to heck with the effect on the overall classroom/school environment…are also those lambasting the non-vaccinators. And that’s just priceless.
@dietz199- the funny thing is that when you first posted about people thinking their own kids are more “special” than everyone else and need to be catered to I assumed you were referring to the families who think their kids are too special to go along with the vaccination schedule and instead rely on the protection provided by all the families who do get the shots.
Sue, my point is we have so many classifications of special that we are in the end all special and get to demand what accommodations we want. This is what happens when reason is overtaken by PC.
Herd immunity requires a cohesive herd…we haven’t had cohesiveness in our public school classrooms in a long long time. Kid A can’t sit still so we accommodate, kid B can’t control vocalization - so we accommodate, kid C can’t eat what the cafeteria serves so we accommodate, kid D can’t control their temper so they get assigned a personal aid - kid E can’t understand the language so we accommodate - kid F has parents who won’t vaccinate so we accommodate. All these families rely on those other kids who are just plugging along, sitting still, not yelling out of turn, playing peacefully on the playground, speaking the native language to protect and subsequently educate their special kids. There is no end to the list of accommodations one can request. We do not want to stigmatize any of these kids…why would one suggest stigmatizing the non-vaccinated???
Your AIDS argument is weak. The likelihood of transmission in school is miniscule. Not zero…kids can get cuts/bumps etc, but it is FAR more likely for a sneeze/cough produce droplets which can linger for hours and cause the spread of airborne diseases.
As a teacher I would not worry nearly as much about an HIV student, as opposed to an unvaccinated one. One can be managed, one is a loose cannon with a high level of unpredictability.
As for having an aid for a violent kid…in my years in the classroom I have NEVER seen an administration that would tolerate an overtly dangerous (ie, your example) child in a mainstream classroom. The liability is just too high. I have seen kids who require help in controlling their verbal outbursts, and managing their physical movements, but those do not pose an inherent risk to those around them.
Just my .02. I believe we need change, and accountability.
Oh goody we’ve gone (again) from Measles- one of the most infectious diseases that ever existed to HIV/AIDS- a disease that is actually incredibly difficult to transmit.
To put this in perspective: I’m an HIV test counselor. We’re not even required to wear gloves and we are in close proximity to a potentially HIV positive individual and working with instrument that has their body fluids on it. Measles, on the other hand, can be caught by using an elevator (several hours later) that an infected person breathed in.
I did notice that dentists and dental hygienists started using gloves and masks many years ago. Of course, they probably see a lot of bleeding gums and the like, because people with oral problems are likely to be more frequent visitors to the dental office.
I used to work with bodily fluids in a lab, including saliva. We always wore gloves - because there often is blood in saliva even if it is not readily apparent, and no one wants to be the first person to catch anything that way.
But yeah, mouths can be pretty gross. Even if they were documented healthy, I would still wear the gloves.
dietz, I think we all get your point about the absurdity of some types of accommodations (i.e., the service pig…haha). But as others have pointed out there is a huge difference between an accommodation someone needs through no fault of their own versus one that stems from willful ignorance and stupidity. Actually, the more I think about it, the more I wonder why these people want their kids in public schools anyway. In California, at least, they will be taught real science and will probably come home one day to challenge their parents’ misguided beliefs. If there is such critical mass in these areas, and the anti-vax population is so wealthy, why don’t they just start their own school?
My father was a dentist. He was more worried about catching hepatitis from his patients than he was about HIV and was so relieved when the Hepatitis B vaccine came out.
But yeah - working in peoples’ mouths would have creeped me out. My dad said that working on people’s teeth was like fixing a fine watch with someone spitting on your fingers.
I was just reading a thread about “Nurse anti-vaxxers” on another board, and you would absolutely be appalled at what some of these “educated” nurses have to say about vaccines.
Here was a particularly notable gem. On the subject of giving too many vaccines too early, which this poster declares to be “nuts,” he/she states:
This is apparently a nurse who is out in the community or a hospital or other health care setting educating others.
