Vaccination exemption in CA, personal down, medical up

[brewer]

Looks like parents are finding ways to avoid school age vaccinations with the help of spineless physicians. At least the new law cut the unvaccinated percent.

Medical Vaccination Exemptions on the Rise in California

Deborah Lehman, MD reviewing: Delamater PL et al. JAMA 2017 Sep 5.

In the year following elimination of personal belief exemptions, California's medical exemptions rose threefold. In 2015, California became the third state (joining West Virginia and Mississippi) to eliminate personal belief exemptions (PBEs) for vaccination requirements for kindergarten attendance. Starting in January 2016, only medical exemptions were acceptable for children to attend school without a complete set of immunizations.

Using publicly available kindergarten entry data, researchers examined exemptions for all children in California from 1996 to 2016. PBEs slowly increased from 0.46% in 1996 to 2.37% in 2015, and medical exemptions increased slightly from 0.06% to 0.17%. In the year following implementation of the law, PBEs decreased to 0.56%, whereas medical exemptions rose to 0.51% — a threefold increase from the previous year. Total exemptions (personal belief and medical) for immunizations for children entering kindergarten fell from 2.54% in 2015 to 1.06% in 2016. Counties with the highest PBEs prior to 2016 had the greatest increase in medical exemptions following implementation of the law.

COMMENT

Although overall exemptions in California decreased after implementation of a law eliminating PBEs, the rising number of medical exemptions, particularly in counties with previously high PBEs, suggests that parents are now finding physicians who will attest to a medical exemption to allow their unvaccinated children to attend school. Given that true medical exemptions for vaccination are few, it is likely that physicians are providing these exemptions in the absence of evidence-based data. Granting such exemptions, and allowing unvaccinated or undervaccinated children to attend school, puts all children at risk for vaccine preventable disease and is a dangerous practice.

[LadyForCamus]

Fucking idiots.

[Catholic_Lady]

I would plan to vaccinate my kids, but I feel like if someone doesn't want to for whatever reason they shouldn't be forced into it .

[Jackalope]

I would plan to vaccinate my kids, but I feel like if someone doesn't want to for whatever reason they shouldn't be forced into it .

Sure, don't force them, but I see no problem whatsoever keeping non-vaccinated kids out of public schools. Choice is great, but if your choice negatively impacts herd immunity, the herd should be able to protect itself.

Public anti-social behavior is not without public consequence.

[Whateverist]

^He said it better^

I would plan to vaccinate my kids, but I feel like if someone doesn't want to for whatever reason they shouldn't be forced into it .

No worries if they plan on home schooling but we don't want them mixing with the general population.

[Succubus]

I would plan to vaccinate my kids, but I feel like if someone doesn't want to for whatever reason they shouldn't be forced into it .

There should be a special level in hell for people who don't vaccinate their kids.

[brewer]

^He said it better^

I would plan to vaccinate my kids, but I feel like if someone doesn't want to for whatever reason they shouldn't be forced into it .

No worries if they plan on home schooling but we don't want them mixing with the general population.

Exactly. No places of public gatherings where potentially susceptible children can be found. (primarily the immunocompromised) 

We all have rules to abide by when we live in a society. If people choose to not comply then their access to areas of the society should be restricted.

[Ravenshire]

Sure, don't force them, but I see no problem whatsoever keeping non-vaccinated kids out of public schools. Choice is great, but if your choice negatively impacts herd immunity, the herd should be able to protect itself.

Public anti-social behavior is not without public consequence.

No worries if they plan on home schooling but we don't want them mixing with the general population.

But, they're going to. Home schooled or public, they're going to wind up in the work force. Imagine how much damage could an 22-year old, uneducated, walking petri dish do at the local 7-11, coughing on every sale.

[The Valkyrie]

It still amazes me, in this day and age, that people will listen to the ignorant ranting of "celebs" over that of medical professional, when it comes to the health of their kids.

There are people in the world who genuinely cannot get vaccinated for legitimate medical reasons, and those who choose not to for idiotic reasons are putting these peoples' health, as well as that of their own children, at risk.

Sorry, CL, but as far as I'm concerned it should be mandatory. And those who completely refuse to be a part of this part of modern medicine should also be denied access to all other aspects of modern medicine.

[Joods]

I would plan to vaccinate my kids, but I feel like if someone doesn't want to for whatever reason they shouldn't be forced into it .

So then let's say that the parents who don't vaccinate their kid, somehow manage to get their kid into the public school system. They are potentially putting other kids at risk because of their choices. My oldest has had numerous surgeries and because she has a heart condition, she's in a higher risk category for getting an infectious disease, especially from a child who's parents have chosen not to vaccinate. 

So let's also say that one of those anti-vaxer parents' kids comes down with meningitis and comes into contact with my child and my child gets sick and dies as a result. How fair is it that those parents shouldn't have to go to jail for essentially being reckless with their choices and causing the death of my child? They get to enjoy their child, who gets to live the rest of their life while mine is six feet under the ground. If that ever happens, I will absolutely push for life in prison and if they don't get convicted, I will be filing a wrongful death lawsuit against them. People like that are selfish and inconsiderate to those around them. 

The studies don't lie. Vaccinations help more than they hurt. And because of vaccinations, several diseases have already been eradicated or nearly eradicated. Take Polio, for example. 

Fact sheet from the WHO

Key facts

• Polio (poliomyelitis) mainly affects children under 5 years of age.
  
  
• 1 in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis. Among those paralysed, 5% to 10% die when their breathing muscles become immobilized.
  
  
• Polio cases have decreased by over 99% since 1988, from an estimated 350 000 cases then, to 37 reported cases in 2016. As a result of the global effort to eradicate the disease, more than 16 million people have been saved from paralysis.
  
  
• As long as a single child remains infected, children in all countries are at risk of contracting polio. Failure to eradicate polio from these last remaining strongholds could result in as many as 200 000 new cases every year, within 10 years, all over the world.
  
  
• In most countries, the global effort has expanded capacities to tackle other infectious diseases by building effective surveillance and immunization systems.
  

bold mine.

It's not so easy to say someone shouldn't be forced into vaxing their kids when the threat of death is a reality for thousands of kids like mine.  Any my child's life is just as important as any child belonging to an anti-vaxer.