Dad To School: Ban Unvaccinated Kids To Protect My Sick Son

[Cleopatra7]

Six-year old Rhett Krawitt is in remission from leukemia, but is immune compromised and unable to get the measles vaccine. His father wants his school, which is in the California district that has the most vaccination opt-outs to require all children to be vaccinated because of Rhett's compromised immune system.

https://www.yahoo.com/parenting/dads-pl ... 11947.html

(Link not broken because it's Yahoo News)

I'm really not a fan of vaccination opt-outs in general. While there are some people who are allergic to vaccines or have some other disorder that prevents them from having them, this population is relatively small. I don't think that just saying that you think that vaccines cause autism is a valid reason to expose vulnerable people to the pestilence of you and your child, especially when there is no scientific proof that this is a realistic fear.

[bluebird]

I agree with you 100%. I have seen tragic outcomes from childhood diseases more times than I can remember having worked with disabilities for over 40 years. Most of those cases were due to vaccines not being available to the public. My oldest son had bacterial meningitis when he was 14 months old..he could have died! No vax available back then..he was a healthy robust little kid, no health problems that caused him to be vulnerable to bacteria/viruses. 30% of my dau's school is unvaxed. My immune system is compromised. While I have had some childhood diseases such as measles or been vaxed..(except for mumps, vax not available nor did I ever get them)because of my immune system I have been told I am slightly at risk. But forget about me..there are babies, the elderly, sick kids etc that need to be protected. Where I live whopping cough is a problem..it can kill babies. I think the unvaxed kids should have to wear face masks. I know that sounds horrible as it would make them stick out and that is certainly not the intent..if I have to wear one because of them, hey join the party. Make cool kid masks. I know I sound so harsh but these diseases are preventable there is simply no point for anyone ever becoming ill with one. Anyone remember polio? When I was small we had a neighbor lady who was in an iron lung. My mother used to take us to visit her..it was awful. Polio was every mothers nightmare. Herd control that the non-vaxers have depended on is wearing thin in some areas. Little kids are at risk. Two cousins of mine had polio..one is o.k. But the other has suffered his entire life with the post effects of this disease. Neither one would have ever gone through this had a vax been available back then. I have read, read and read articles and have attended several seminars on this topic. I made the decision to vax my kids based on real life experiences and hours of research through the years. Everything you put in or on your body has some risk attached to it. Not denying the right of parents to make THE choice of what they are most comfortable with..we all dearly love our children the same...that is first and foremost. Peace....Sorry for the choppy sounding post. Got a migraine and do not want to go back and fix it...

[Alexa]

A few questions about this. What if parents are opting out of the Hepatitis B vaccine, or HPV vaccine which aren't spread as easily? My other question is are people able to access other's medical records and find out who is opting out? That seems like a breach of one's personal medical records, or is that different? I understand the frustration of not everyone vaccinating, I feel it too, but suing is a bit much in my opinion. Can I sue my cousin's wife who gave my grandmother the flu that killed her, where does it end? Okay, one more question, have people successfully sued the person who gave them an STD?

Public schools would have a heck of a time banning anyone from attending, I see a lawsuit just for that.

[Reverend Ladypants]

All of this is taking place in my county, which has the highest rate of "opt out for personal reasons" in the entire country. These rich hippies have no idea what they're actually doing, and this guy is simply asking that all common vaccines for highly contagious illnesses be required so that his immunocompromised child can attend public school.

[calimojo]

another reason vaccines are so important is that we are running out of antibiotics to treat a lot of drug resistant bacteria. While many vaccines are for illnesses caused by a virus, many of these viral illnesses can lead to complications of a co-existing bacterial infection. For example, susceptible people can get a post-viral pneumonia that needs antibiotics.

TB, while not a huge issue in the US causes about 400, 000 deaths around the world per year. There is no vaccine yet, but if we could develop one, we would reduce antibiotics for TB and save tens of thousands of lives. Drug Resistant TB is on the rise, so again, anything we can do to reduce those antibiotics the better for everyone

If we can use vaccines to prevent diseases we will decrease the use of antibiotics directly and in directly.

[Ave Maria]

There is a TB vaccine, but it isn't effective in the way that we are used to vaccines being -- it reduces the chances of catching TB by a little, and makes it less severe if you do. It's only used in countries with a lot of TB -- my husband and children got this vaccine in their respective birth countries. It can cause a low grade positive on the TB skin test.

[DGayle]

My older girl had an extremely bad reaction to a vaccine, her very first, and only. It was bad enough she didn't come right home. It was a good thing her doctor's office was at the hospital. She can't get any more, per the doctor's orders, and this has been backed up by a couple other doctors. It's not surprising since I had bad reactions and had to stop also, and was medically fragile most of my childhood. Banning unvaxed kids means banning my kid because I won't risk her life to spare some risk to another kid's life.

That dad loves his son, but he really needs to know that he's talking about banning kids who can't get vaccines for medical reasons. When I was medically fragile and school because too risky for me, I was homeschooled. The district had to pay. It sucks, but those other kids have a right to go to school too.

And if something like this was done, where would it stop? Ban kids who don't have the Gardasil shots? If elementary school kids are at risk of a SEXUALLY-transmitted diseases, there's a MUCH bigger problem going on than shots.

Alexa, there have been successful STD lawsuits, but those required the defendant to have knowingly lied about their STD status.

[Cheetah]

A few questions about this. What if parents are opting out of the Hepatitis B vaccine, or HPV vaccine which aren't spread as easily? My other question is are people able to access other's medical records and find out who is opting out? That seems like a breach of one's personal medical records, or is that different? I understand the frustration of not everyone vaccinating, I feel it too, but suing is a bit much in my opinion. Can I sue my cousin's wife who gave my grandmother the flu that killed her, where does it end? Okay, one more question, have people successfully sued the person who gave them an STD?

Public schools would have a heck of a time banning anyone from attending, I see a lawsuit just for that.

Right now you have to submit either proof of vaccination or a personal belief exemption to enter public school in most US states (I am in CA). So it's not your entire medical history, but yes, the school district knows who has opted out.

[Cheetah]

My older girl had an extremely bad reaction to a vaccine, her very first, and only. It was bad enough she didn't come right home. It was a good thing her doctor's office was at the hospital. She can't get any more, per the doctor's orders, and this has been backed up by a couple other doctors. It's not surprising since I had bad reactions and had to stop also, and was medically fragile most of my childhood. Banning unvaxed kids means banning my kid because I won't risk her life to spare some risk to another kid's life.

That dad loves his son, but he really needs to know that he's talking about banning kids who can't get vaccines for medical reasons. When I was medically fragile and school because too risky for me, I was homeschooled. The district had to pay. It sucks, but those other kids have a right to go to school too.

And if something like this was done, where would it stop? Ban kids who don't have the Gardasil shots? If elementary school kids are at risk of a SEXUALLY-transmitted diseases, there's a MUCH bigger problem going on than shots.

Alexa, there have been successful STD lawsuits, but those required the defendant to have knowingly lied about their STD status.

Except he's not. The family is saying that his kid and other kids like your daughter who have a real medical reason not to be immunized should be able to go to school and rely on the rest of the class to have gotten immunized. They want to get rid of opting out for 'personal belief', not for medical reasons.

[SnazzyNazzy]

Truthfully, if I was in his shoes, I would be more concerned about things like colds, or one of the umpteen flu strains that are out there all willy-nilly. To be more truthful, if I was in his shoes, I would just keep my kid home, until his immune system was stronger.

[whoviana]

Truthfully, if I was in his shoes, I would be more concerned about things like colds, or one of the umpteen flu strains that are out there all willy-nilly. To be more truthful, if I was in his shoes, I would just keep my kid home, until his immune system was stronger.

Exactly... there are hundreds of everyday diseases that the kid can get from other children who's immune system isn't down. Besides outbanning unvaccinated kids from school what else is he planning to do? Wrapping up the remainder on the kids in sanitizing tissues? Put em all in a BIOHAZARD suit? Sanitize every inch and corner of the school every day? The diseases kids carry are usually more common than the ones most kids are vaccinating against.

How many kids are we talking about here? 3-600?

[2xx1xy1JD]

While I totally understand the parents' concern for their son, I'm not sure that the school can actually do what they are asking.

[whoviana]

Make the entire school revolve around the kid? They think the are entitled to do it at other people's expense and now they are taking steps towards having kids removed from that school.

[browncoatslytherin]

Truthfully, if I was in his shoes, I would be more concerned about things like colds, or one of the umpteen flu strains that are out there all willy-nilly. To be more truthful, if I was in his shoes, I would just keep my kid home, until his immune system was stronger.

this.

while i totally understand his concern for his son, and i myself can't stand the stereotypical anti-vaxxers who rail against science using unsupported theories and citing irrelevant and/or denounced studies, truthfully things like colds and other little viruses like that are far more common and can be just as bad for someone who has a compromised immune system like that. if i were him, i would be looking into homebound programs or just homeschooling the child, if possible, to limit the amount of potential sick contacts.

i hope his son gets better soon.

[BrownieMomma]

This father does not seem to fully understand the risks to his son.

If that boy is truly as immunocompromised as he is claiming, the child does not need to be in school, church, Walmart or any public place until his immune system strengthens.

There is no vaccine against enterovirus, my son caught a mild form of it earlier this school year, not the D68, but D68 has killed kids. Why is he is risking his son catching anything that doesn't have a vaccine?

Heck, you get the flu shot every season but its always a crap shoot as to whether the shot is going to be effective to whatever strain ends up going around.

The kid more than qualifies for homebound, in my state the local school district would have to provide it.

TBH the father looks foolish waging this war when his kid is more likely to catch the flu or some virus, and he is not taking true preventive steps to protect his child.

[DGayle]

Except he's not. The family is saying that his kid and other kids like your daughter who have a real medical reason not to be immunized should be able to go to school and rely on the rest of the class to have gotten immunized. They want to get rid of opting out for 'personal belief', not for medical reasons.

I haven't seen any articles where he's okay with other kids with medical reasons.

What I've found is the boy was purposefully put in a classroom where 19 of 22 kids were vaccinate. This boy, 1 who is medically fragile, and 1 who has allergies preventing shots. But the dad is still trying to get unvaccinated kids banned.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/29/us/fa ... .html?_r=0

I really think it would set a dangerous precedent to start requiring vaccines. I don't trust our politicians. We've got too many crooked ones who have been bought. In 2007, Rick Perry mandated Gardasil, claiming a woman in tears begged him to force all young girls to get it. Then it came out he had a $5,000-campaign contribution from the manufacturer. Suspicious? Yes. (I've said before, and I'll say again, something is direly wrong if there's enough of a risk of 8-year-olds getting sexually transmitted diseased that they should be getting shots.) What would it take to mandate untested shots? I don't trust our politicians to be the ones to decide what we MUST inject into our bodies and into our kids' bodies. That's another way we don't own our bodies, and turns us into potential guinea pigs.

If that boy is really so fragile that any unvacced kids around him are dangerous, then he shouldn't be in school. The common cold and other bugs go around all the time. There aren't shots against them. What's the proposed solution, to ban all other kids since being contagious usually starts before symptoms?

I'm sympathetic to the kid. I didn't like homeschooling, but other kids had the right to go to school too.

[DGayle]

This father does not seem to fully understand the risks to his son.

I think maybe he does, but is focusing on measles, which isn't a realistic threat by any means, to distract himself. It might be a strawman. It's still wrong though.

[Delilah]

Assemblyman Richard Pan (Democrat - Sacramento) is working on making parents who opt out for personal beliefs to have to get brief parental counseling about the immunizations . All he wants is for parents to hear a bit about legitimate science regarding vaccines as opposed to the pseudoscience they may have heard from Facebook or their neighbor or whatever. He knows the die hard anti-vax crowd won't change their opinions, but he hopes the less militant ones will be open to a bit of education. Parents will still be allowed to take the personal belief exemption, but they would have to get a form signed saying they got the counseling. Richard Pan is a pediatrician, so I think this issue is of special importance to him.

[Lissa1481]

I live in Colorado where there are tons of people who don't vaccinate. In the last four months we have been exposed to pertussis and possibly measles. Last year over 100 kids were exposed to TB and tested positive. I was exposed to TB in college and tested positive. 9 months of daily medicine and a chest x-ray every year the rest of my life. I wish we had a vaccine available regularly, I wouldn't want anyone to develop active t.b.

If I were the parent, I wouldn't send the kid to public school. Even a cold could be deadly.

[Mama Mia]

Assemblyman Richard Pan (Democrat - Sacramento) is working on making parents who opt out for personal beliefs to have to get brief parental counseling about the immunizations . All he wants is for parents to hear a bit about legitimate science regarding vaccines as opposed to the pseudoscience they may have heard from Facebook or their neighbor or whatever. He knows the die hard anti-vax crowd won't change their opinions, but he hopes the less militant ones will be open to a bit of education. Parents will still be allowed to take the personal belief exemption, but they would have to get a form signed saying they got the counseling. Richard Pan is a pediatrician, so I think this issue is of special importance to him.

I think that is going to backfire in a major, major way. Truly.

* You'll have the fundamentalist/Waco/ militia /off-grid/naturalists ( because far left and far right do circle in on each other) completely wiggins out with paranoia about the required government indoctrination session - aimed at only people like them.

* you"'ll have people who are 100% militantly anti-vax fighting tooth and nail about it - if it's a group workshop they'll probably actually convert people who were on the fence.

* and you'll have people who are against it for reasons stated above, either a bad experience in their family or a family close to them. Or concerns about specific vaccines. Or worries about specific issues --- and they'll all find the whole thing so annoying and patronizing that they will dig in their heels and might refus more vaccines than they originally planned.

[ADoyle90815]

I live in Colorado where there are tons of people who don't vaccinate. In the last four months we have been exposed to pertussis and possibly measles. Last year over 100 kids were exposed to TB and tested positive. I was exposed to TB in college and tested positive. 9 months of daily medicine and a chest x-ray every year the rest of my life. I wish we had a vaccine available regularly, I wouldn't want anyone to develop active t.b.

If I were the parent, I wouldn't send the kid to public school. Even a cold could be deadly.

My step dad who is a retired firefighter/paramedic was actually exposed to TB while on a call, and the medication worked for him, but he still has to get a chest x-ray every year for the rest of his life.

I'm also one who if that were my kid, I'd keep them home for as long as possible, since this year's flu vaccine didn't protect against the strains that are actually going around, and if a virus is severe enough, healthy people with working immune systems sometimes die from complications. Someone who is immunocompromised is even more at risk of dying from the flu, especially in years like this one where the vaccine wasn't as effective as it could have been.

[crazyforkate]

Not to mention that the world is becoming so much smaller. Those of us in countries where vaccines are standard can pretend that this stuff doesn't exist anymore (even as it creeps back), but how easy is it to hop on a plane to an area that's, say, polio-endemic (or have someone come from there, or cross paths with them in an airport or something)? We live in a global age. You can't pretend you're in a bubble.

[MrsYoungie]

My older girl had an extremely bad reaction to a vaccine, her very first, and only. It was bad enough she didn't come right home. It was a good thing her doctor's office was at the hospital. She can't get any more, per the doctor's orders, and this has been backed up by a couple other doctors. It's not surprising since I had bad reactions and had to stop also, and was medically fragile most of my childhood. Banning unvaxed kids means banning my kid because I won't risk her life to spare some risk to another kid's life.

That dad loves his son, but he really needs to know that he's talking about banning kids who can't get vaccines for medical reasons. When I was medically fragile and school because too risky for me, I was homeschooled. The district had to pay. It sucks, but those other kids have a right to go to school too.

And if something like this was done, where would it stop? Ban kids who don't have the Gardasil shots? If elementary school kids are at risk of a SEXUALLY-transmitted diseases, there's a MUCH bigger problem going on than shots.

Alexa, there have been successful STD lawsuits, but those required the defendant to have knowingly lied about their STD status.

The whole point of give the Garasil shots so early is precisely because 8 year olds are not yet sexually active. If you had to wait until just before they became active, what age would you chose? 18? 16? 21? 13? Better too early than too late.

[BrownieMomma]

I just read a yahoo article about a 5yo girl who got the flu vaccine and still died of complications from the flu.

http://news.yahoo.com/5-old-girl-dies-c ... kAN.pXNyoA

I just would not risk my child by sending him to school. Who is vaxed and who is not has nothing to do with it. There are not vaccines for every ailment that exists.

Heck, keeping the child home is still no guarantee but I would not risk school or any public place.

[NotALoserLikeYou]

Assemblyman Richard Pan (Democrat - Sacramento) is working on making parents who opt out for personal beliefs to have to get brief parental counseling about the immunizations . All he wants is for parents to hear a bit about legitimate science regarding vaccines as opposed to the pseudoscience they may have heard from Facebook or their neighbor or whatever. He knows the die hard anti-vax crowd won't change their opinions, but he hopes the less militant ones will be open to a bit of education. Parents will still be allowed to take the personal belief exemption, but they would have to get a form signed saying they got the counseling. Richard Pan is a pediatrician, so I think this issue is of special importance to him.

Unless it's a new one, this actually passed. You have to have a doctor sign it saying they talked with you about it. Since this is a pain in the ass, now parents will just sign the religious box since it's no questions asked.