Measles returning

[Puppycow]

Why Bill Gates Is A Hero And Donald Trump Is A Zero

 

[marplots]

I did not know that. I was forced to wear a uniform at my public school with no option of exemption, but they apparently would have allowed me to come in without vaccinations? That is ridiculous. How long have they allowed this PBE?

I don't know. I ran across it in researching a piece from 2010, so at least that long.

 

[Visual Purple]

I haven't looked at the laws myself, but I've repeatedly seen it said that the only states that do not have some sort of religious or personal belief exemption are, curiously, Mississippi and West Virginia. My understanding is that some states' exemptions are quite narrow; the person claiming it has to show adherence to something like Christian Science, and not an idiosyncratic philosophy. Sorry for the generalizations; I ought to keep my links at hand, but don't.

 

[MarkCorrigan]

The problem here, MarkCorrigan, is that your question makes us confront whether we should license parenthood. No, I'm not kidding either. It's like diverse dystopian futures we have seen in science fiction.

I disagree. We take children away from parents if the parents chain their child up, or if they abuse their child, or if they force the child to live in unsanitary conditions. If living in unsanitary conditions is a big enough risk to warrant refusing to allow the parent to keep the child, why should refusing vaccinations (unless the child is medically unable to have them due to a compromised immune system or similar) be an acceptable thing?

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Each state varies a little from only documented medical exemptions to exemptions purely based on parental whim ('philosophical'). But the trend has been in a dangerous direction with the anti-vaxxers lobbying their state legislatures so that currently only West Virginia and Mississippi require vaccines or a medical exemption. The National Vaccine Information Center (a front group for the anti-vaxxers and NOT a source of scientific information at all) organizes campaigns against vaccine laws.

Unvaccinated kids can be excluded during outbreaks but that isn't being done to my knowledge here in WA with our current pertussis epidemic.

 

[catsmate]

The problem here, MarkCorrigan, is that your question makes us confront whether we should license parenthood. No, I'm not kidding either. It's like diverse dystopian futures we have seen in science fiction.

Determining whether to refuse your own children vaccines is going to turn into a legal battle. It is already a culture war.

I'm in favour.

 

[elipse]

I haven't looked at the laws myself, but I've repeatedly seen it said that the only states that do not have some sort of religious or personal belief exemption are, curiously, Mississippi and West Virginia. My understanding is that some states' exemptions are quite narrow; the person claiming it has to show adherence to something like Christian Science, and not an idiosyncratic philosophy. Sorry for the generalizations; I ought to keep my links at hand, but don't.

The exemption in CA, at least for religious grounds, has been around for as long as I've been alive. I don't know when it got expanded, but I can't imagine that it's very hard to present "adherence" to Christian Science if you want to use it as a loophole. I don't recall my parents ever having to go through many hurdles.

I never have gotten the MMR vaccine...now that it's making a comeback I should do that.

Whooping Cough I've gotten, with Tetnus included. Any others I should do as an adult? (I had chicken pox as a kid.)

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

The exemption in CA, at least for religious grounds, has been around for as long as I've been alive. I don't know when it got expanded, but I can't imagine that it's very hard to present "adherence" to Christian Science if you want to use it as a loophole. I don't recall my parents ever having to go through many hurdles.

I never have gotten the MMR vaccine...now that it's making a comeback I should do that.

Whooping Cough I've gotten, with Tetnus included. Any others I should do as an adult? (I had chicken pox as a kid.)

You can find your answers here on the CDC ACIP adult immunization page. Here's the page with the specifics.

If you are in a different country or going to travel to one, you should check the travel pages.

 

[LarianLeQuella]

Can we do something to get these anti-vaxer pro-disease nutters charged with involuntary manslaughter? They seriously piss me off!

 

[Ian]

Can we do something to get these anti-vaxer pro-disease nutters charged with involuntary manslaughter? They seriously piss me off!

No, we can't. Fighting pseudoscience is a slow, sometimes frustrating process. There is no quick fix. We must persevere.

 

[Deetee]

In the UK cases are up, especially in Liverpool.

Hence this cheeky little chap's song material.