The Catholic school that my kids attended did not permit religious exemptions for vaccinations. Just medical ones. Still 20% of the kids were not vaccinated, just that was known. People also lie on the questionairres and fake the immunization records too, when they just don’t want to deal with it. Few places check every single record, or anyof them for that matter.
This is simply because the issue has recently become a political hot potato. B.O.E. (Before Obama Era) it made perfect sense to put science over ideology, even in states like Mississippi. A.O.E. it is important to do the opposite. It’s too bad for the people of the state, many of whom obviously live in poverty and can’t afford to be sick, take time off work to tend to infected kids, etc.
And who decides what is a “religion”? In the Australian census, more than 70,000 people identified their religion as “Jedi”.
From the article I linked in # 2079
Right, which is why call it what you want it’s not a mandate and enough people need to fear the disease enough to want a vaccination. For instance, acollegestudent would get a flu shot if he was worried at all about the flu. He’s not.
"You aren’t immune; you’ve just been lucky.
Not lucky.It’s called healthy. Some people are heathier than others and can fight off. Last time, my kid missed school due to illness was in the first grade about 15 years ago."
Oh please. I’m one of those with a very strong immune system. I never catch colds even when they are going around my community; my husband can have a cold, he can kiss me and we sleep in the same bed and I still won’t catch it; and if and when I do, I get the sniffles for a day and then I’m done. And I’ve only had the flu (the real flu, not just a bad cold) once, about 15 years ago. Nonetheless, it still makes total sense to get the flu vaccine. Because I’m not magically immune to the flu; I just happen to be lucky.
“Even a medical exemption can be had from an anti-vax or pro-choice pediatrician.”
A bit OT, but I remember when the Terri Schiavo case happened and there was a neurologist who testified X which was in complete contradiction to what the mainstream neurology community had to say in this situation, which was Y. It so happened he went to medical school at my alma mater. The med school issued some kind of public statement to the effect that “while indeed Dr. H is a graduate of our medical school, what he has said completely flies in the face of all the known science we believe in and teach here at XYZ Medical School and we do not stand behind his point of view.”
I wish more medical schools, hospitals, etc. would publicly repudiate those obvious quacks such as anti-vax docs.
I’ve not had the luxury of much choice with the flu vaccine as I have been in contact with people in fragile health for a long time, as well as being in high risk situations (groups of children). So I take more precautions than I like to have to take, including the flu shot each year.
I have a number of friends close to my age who enjoyed long periods of not catching colds and flus…until grandchildren came into the picture. Grandchildren who went to day care or nursery school or wherever among lots of kids and bringing home those nasties. All of the sudden that great immune system failed. Nothing like getting a germ filled kiss from a lovey, or when they touch your face with fingers that carry, whatever.
I went to a wedding last year of a friend’s child, and was helping out. The great grandmother was there, well in her 80s, a robust woman who hadn’t been sick in years. I made some noises about the runny nosed babies at the house that I kept away from my face, and I washed my hands often, having no desire to bring home a cold to my home with my fragile mother there. Sure enough, in few days, great grandma, and another elderly wedding guest had a cold, their first one in over 10 years, and it landed both in the hospital with complications.
You can get influenza vaccine as a nasal spray or a single dose prefilled syringe to avoid the thimerosal preservative that you are concerned about (it is used in multidose vials to resist bacterial contamination of a partially used vial; the Novartis prefilled syringe has a trace amount, but the others have none).
The mercury in thimerosal is different than the mercury that causes neurologic problems. Ethyl mercury vs methylmercury. The difference is important and significant. Again, science. This is tiresome.
I absolutely despise when people are so stupid that they don’t realize that everything is “chemical.” Or they think that the name is meaningful. The same people who would be horrified at ingesting the chemical ®-3,4-dihydroxy-5-((S)- 1,2-dihydroxyethyl)furan-2(5H)-one (a chemical, so unnatural, eek!) would feel really good about themselves if they took vitamin C, even though it’s the exact same thing. The fuss over “mercury” is a perfectly good example of that. I have very little science knowledge; last time I took chemistry was high school, but I know enough to know that it’s just stupidity to take “mercury” or “formaldehyde” and assume it’s the same Big Bad Thing everywhere.
I am extremely pro-vaccination, but I will admit to some concerns about flu shots. A person I knew some years ago developed guillaume barre syndrome, and his physicians told his family it was the result of the flu shot he took. He lost permanent use of every single muscle in his body. He couldn’t even open his eyes on his own. He was written up in JAMA because of how extreme his reaction was.
Did they diagnose the relationship between the flu shot and the GB correctly? If there was a relationship, have they solv d the problem?
If you google nytimes and “Study Finds No Vaccine Link to Guillain-Barre” (author: Nicholas Bakalar) you’ll find an article from July 2013 suggesting that there is not a link. I don’t know why it won’t let me copy/paste; I think it’s a conspiracy 
There is the argument made frequently now that babies are given too many vaccines in too short of a period, which will “overwhelm their immune system.” It’s simply not true. These parents apparently completely discount the antigens that their children are exposed to EVERY SINGLE DAY.
This information is easily found in multiple sources. I just liked the way it was worded in this link.
I think it’s extremely naïve that all the proponents of ‘science’ don’t see that science advances. Many vaccines/drugs/substances that were eventually deemed unsafe by science were at one point considered safe. That process is going on even as we speak - new discoveries, new studies, and there is nothing wrong with that. THAT’S science, not assuming that everything we see as safe now will always be seen that way.
That being said, what’s my point? Well, my point is that most vaccines or drugs you use are a potential risk - to think otherwise is naïve. The mercury is different in the flu vaccine - fine. But are there studies of long-term effects of that mercury, even if it’s not linked to neurological problems? Can you say that about all the other substances (and there are a few others) found in the flu vaccine? Do you really know the potential adverse reactions or why some real-life people (like the kids of one of the posters above) developed them)? If it’s a vaccine against a deadly disease or if you are high-risk, yes, absolutely, I would vaccinate and take my risks. Flu, for my risk-group? For me, the answer is no. And I feel entitled to that choice.
The vaccines were almost never unsafe. The mercury you find in vaccines does not hurt you, and literally no legitimate scientific study proves otherwise. There is formaldehyde in apples - are they lethal?
If vaccines affected you and only you I would be fine with your decision. But they don’t. They affect those allergic to vaccines and those who are immune comprised(AIDS). Not vaccinating does not only affect you.
Yes, science advances. But you can’t ‘advance’ science that never existed; that is, if no null hypothesis was ever made or supported or investigated or proved or disproved, then it wasn’t science, it never will be science. In other words, a wild claim grabbed out of the sky (“mercury sounds bad!”) can not be advanced if there was never anything to study in the first place.
So, you are saying, unlike every single drug out there, including something so mild as Tylenol, flu vaccines never have negative side effects? That is simply untrue.
I think an agreement will never be reached on this. Plain and simple. I think vaccines are great. I support most of them, but I will not be getting the flu vaccine. I prefer not to take medications, when I can avoid it (yes, I know vaccines are not the same as medications). If I have an infection? Do I take antibiotics? Sure. But if I can safely solve a problem without a medication, I prefer not to take it. If you think forcing people to get flu vaccines is what we should aspire to? Well…
The Neurotic Parent has a poem out today about vaccinations. It is in HuffPost Healthy Living.
“I think it’s extremely naïve that all the proponents of ‘science’ don’t see that science advances.”
Au contraire - that’s precisely the point. Science is rigorous and stands up to inquiry and if new inquiry proves something different, then consensus changes. Unlike decisions based solely on the feels. “There’s mercury in a thermometer so why would I put that in my baybee? It just FEELS wrong!”