<p>"Actually, the 1st amendment of the US constitution says that the government can’t restrict people based on their religion. "</p>
<p>but requiring vaccinations is not explicitly restricting religion. Its more analogous to banning peyote, or requiring soldiers to remove their hats, which the govt can do under the first amendment, though IIUC not under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (act name?) The latter is a statute though, and not how SCOTUS has interpreted the 1st amendment.</p>
<p>I think the societal benefit argument for requiring vaccinations of college students is actually rather stronger than for banning peyote or requiring bareheaded soldiers.</p>
<p>I support vaccinations and believe all should use them. However, I feel it is always important to understand the other argument.</p>
<p>The Florida website has information on why people cite religion as preventing them from using vaccines. </p>
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<p>Clearly, requiring someone to mix blood of man with blood of animals in order to go to college (when their religious beliefs prohibit that) is restricting religion.</p>
<p>Since there are have been legal cases made that policies like banning peyote are against the first amendment, I cannot deny that some lawyers would agree with you. However that is not how SCOTUS has held, IIUC.</p>
<p>It would seem to me that the ‘good for the many’ should override the ‘good for the few’. I guess the answer is that there will be unvaccinated students at most colleges…</p>
<p>I wasn’t allowed to get my dorm room key on move-in day because I was missing the last shot in a series (I believe it was for hepatitis). I had to go to the health center and get the shot then and there. This was at a small private school. I would expect, and demand, the same from a college that was housing my child.</p>
<p>Public Health should always trump religion. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are our primary rights. An unvaccinated dorm resident endangers the lives everyone, not just themself. Even at public colleges, requiring vaccinations for dorm residents is not akin to denying religious freedom if off campus living facilities are available. </p>
<p>However, I would also argue that many vaccines are now given for diseases that are not life threatening in their contagiousness. Chicken pox, Hepatitis B, Human Papilloma, and Rotavirus fit into this category. Technically, Tetanus does too but it’s fatality rate is so much higher that it’s a bit different.</p>
<p>Not sure how the court would interpret 1st amendment protection here, in light of the jeopardy it imposes on others. After all, free speech notwithstanding, you can’t yell, “Fire!” in a crowded theater.</p>
<p>Interesting side-note: we don’t always have the immunities/antibodies we think we do.</p>
<p>When I was pregnant with songbird, at one of my first visits, my OB said, "I hate to tell you this, but your blood work shows you have no immunity to Rubella (German Measles). I called my mom, who still had all my childhood medical records, which showed I’d had the required vaccinations. The doc then said, by any chance did you live in Metropolitan Big-city-X and get vaccinated in the year 19XX? I said yes. Turns out there was a bad batch of rubella vaccine and women in my age cohort, vaccinated in this region, got ineffective vaccine.</p>
<p>I said, “Ok, what do we do now?”. She said, “You’re almost 3 months pregnant…we can’t vaccinate you now, and you’re at risk, so stay away from kids as much as possible to avoid exposure. As soon as your baby’s born, we’ll get you vaccinated so this can’t happen with future pregnancies.”</p>
<p>And she wasn’t kidding; I swear songbird wasn’t more than 15 mins old when a nurse came in and said, “I’ve got your rubella vaccine!”</p>
<p>As a nurse who has seen the consequences of meningitis you should do anything to avoid it. My D just finished her first year of college and was sick all the time. late nights and studying do not always equal great immune system. her school was not going to let her register for classes second semester because of needing a chicken pox booster. She had a titer drawn and has immunity. (I did not want her to get the shot as she had just recieved two flu vaccinations pretty close together) thats the one thing I dont like -stacking up vaccinations all at once. My youngest will get her vaccine ahead of time. I have also seen chicken pox not go so well, especially when you are older . and its hard enough being in school without getting sick on top of it.</p>
<p>I did not stack vacinations when the kids were born either. The nurses at the hosptal gave me a hard time, but my doctor backed me up. I got all the required ones at that time done but spread them out. I did give the kids the Hep B vacine until they were junior/seniors in high school. All three had chickenpox the old fashioned way from other kids so no need for that one. I do believe that requiring certain vacines from college students living in a dorm is appropriate.</p>
<p>Immunizations are only about 85-90% effective. Ever. But HERD immunity helps make up for that. More and more folks are declining immunizations on “religious” grounds over fears. There is less and less herd immunity. Which is why on college campuses there are problems with outbreaks, and why your child can still get sick even if their immunizations are complete. Your child could be the 15%, exposed because of lack of herd immunity. It is a big problem. There was a huge thread about this in the last year or so, lots of scientific references and all. </p>
<p>And for those of you who think chicken pox is not a big deal, look at the STATs of what happens if you are an adult and get it. Varicella pneumonia kills a lot of adults. I treated one so sick she went into DIC, threw multiple clots, and had to have fingers and parts of their toes/foot amputated. It was horrible.</p>
<p>A person considering this should also consider that there may be people living with them who couldn’t get vaccines for other (read: legitimate) reasons, especially if it’s a live vaccination and the person’s immune system is too compromised to receive the shot. By not being vaccinated one is putting these people (who already are too compromised for even the vaccine) at even more risk.</p>
<p>There was a Law and Order (SVU or original I believe) episode on this. A baby who was too young for a vaccine, was playing with a four year old child who hadn’t been vaccinated against something (don’t remember what it was, but it was very common) and while the four year old was fine, the infant died. I can’t remember if that is one of the episodes based on a real even or not.</p>
That’s what happened to me 40 years ago and I’ve lived with the consequences ever since. Nowadays, people may have had cancer, HIV, transplants, whatever. I don’t think they should be endangered carelessly. Other people do matter in this world.</p>
<p>My son contracted chicken pox in preschool. However, he had very few blisters (under ten) and so I worried that he didn’t gain immunity. I had a blood test titer run at the doctor’s office, and his level WAS high enough. </p>
<p>My son gets all the recommended immunizations. I am scared of meningitis.</p>