Reply To This Post         Return to Posts Index           VegSource Home

From:	ellie (199.90.157.4)
Subject:	Re: Vaccination
Date:	August 3, 2009 at 12:42 pm PST

In Reply to: Vaccination posted by Jana on July 27, 2009 at 8:05 am:

I am not sure what health department codes are in Michigan, but all public schools require vaccination (with some loopholes for religious exceptions) and private schools can require whatever they wish. Regardless of what the school does or does not require, health department rules are separate. They were not requiring you to accept vaccination, from what I gather; but they were requiring acknowledgment of the risks involved in not vaccinating - and those are real. One reason is that health departments are now hearing howls of litiginous rage from parents of older kids, up through college, now getting permanant brain damage from encephalitis stemming from measles. I work in a facility for profoundly mentally disabled adults, many of whom are here as a result of early childhood measles. Many more are here because their moms were exposed to rubella (German measles) during pregnancy. Polio is once again surging through India, and as fast as viruses travel nowadays, it is likely going to make a comeback here as well in the next ten years. So the health departments are trying to educate parents so that those who elect to skip vaccination are fully aware of what they are choosing. I don't see what you are objecting to; they are not making you vaccinate your child, only acknowledge that you are aware of the risks and have been offered vaccination and are freely choosing to refuse vaccination and accept whatever risk of infection may later come up if your child catches something from another child. Those risks are yours to take if you wish. They just don't want to get sued later.
incidentally - whatever you decide for your child - if you are not completely finished having your family, if there could possibly be another child in your future, and you yourself have not had or been immunized for measles, rubella, chicken pox...get YOURSELF vaccinated. Any of those during pregnancy can be disastrous for the unborn child.

Reply To This Post         Return to Posts Index           VegSource Home