Group items tagged

Should kids be required to get vaccinations? This website talks about how there are now fewer kids getting vaccines because of a number of reasons. some of the reasons are that the parents are simply opting out because of fears or paranoia or just laziness. The article says that the reasons that parents use for kids to skip shots vary, some are related to religion. 

Hi all, I am a parent of three. All of my kids are current on all vaccines recommended by their PCP. I am a true believer. That being said I do think something could be changed for the vaccine requirements. I have spoken to many people about this in my area. I'm actually scared for the un-vaccinated kids so it always sparks curious conversations for me. The common denominator I found with everyone I have spoken to about not vaccinating their kids is, they don't want to vaccinate all at once, they want to spread it out. I feel it's a greater risk to wait or not get a child vaccinated period, but I'm wondering for those who are just not educated on the facts of vaccines or those who are afraid of all of them at once maybe they can have a different vaccine protocol. While it won't be what the CDC recommends initially, I feel that it would still be better than not vaccinating period.

I agree with my colleagues above, the ignorance about vaccines is becoming widespread. We are in an age of refined medical practices and innovation based on factual evidence and research. Parents in doubt should consider two words. (Herd Immunity) for those unfamiliar with its meaning I'll leave you with its definition - the resistance to the spread of a contagious disease within a population that results if a sufficiently high proportion of individuals are immune to the disease, especially through vaccination. "the level of vaccination needed to achieve herd immunity varies by disease but ranges from 83 to 94 percent" We all have a stake in this.

California bill making way through Senate requireing parents must speak to a health care professional before signing personal immunization exemption form for their child. The article raises questions about the rights of all children, those immunized and those not immunized.

This article shows the perspective of parents that opt out for child vaccinations. However, professionals suggest that non-vaccinated children are at health risks.

This is an article that discusses how parents are refusing to get required immunizations. However, professionals argue that it is not good for a child's health.

When I first heard the definition of this international law I was shocked to say the least. The definition states that foreign government officials are above judges and officers. With deeper research I learned there's more to the story.

I had never heard of Diplomatic Immunity until now. Thank you for sharing! I, as well, found it to be very surprising that foreign diplomats are, to some extent, "above the law."

Wow, it never occurred to me that such a thing like Diplomatic Immunity exists. This article is definitely eye-opening and helped me gain a better understanding if what it means. Had you not provided this information, I may have never known about it.

Today, children in the United States routinely get vaccines that protect them from more than a dozen diseases such as measles, polio, and tetanus. Most of these diseases are now at their lowest levels in history, thanks to years of immunization. Children must get at least some vaccines before they may attend school.

What is a vaccine? When germs enter the body, the immune system recognizes them as foreign substances (antigens). The immune system then produces the right antibodies to fight the antigens. Vaccines contain weakened or dead versions of the antigens that cause diseases.

Vaccines put weakened versions of the disease in the body to strengthen the immune system. They are called antibodies, and help the body from catching future diseases.

Vaccinations are used to strengthen a child's immune system. Even getting a mixture of different vaccinations at once is not harmful to a child.

Churchgoers that have declined to receive vaccination for religious reasons have been linked to a small outbreak of measles. This example of a concentrated area of people with lowered immunity to certain diseases may be presented as evidence for future proposals to require citizens to receive vaccinations.

Original: Younger children are also at risk for polio, rubella, and mumps until they are old enough to be vaccinated. Considering that there are about 4,000,000 births a year in the United States, that puts a lot of infants at risk for measles, pertussis, and other vaccine-preventable diseases. For measles, as kids aren't fully protected until they get their second dose of the MMR vaccine when they are about 4-years-old, that means an additional 12,000,000 toddlers and preschoolers are potentially at risk. Paraphrase: Parents who choose not to vaccinate their children are putting other young children who are not old enough to be vaccinated in danger of getting polio, mumps, and rubella. In the United States, there are around four million births every year. Taking this into consideration that means infants everywhere are being put at risk for many vaccine-preventable diseases every day. In addition, twelve million children under the age of four are not completely protected from measles until they get there second MMR immunization at about the age of four years old.

Getting your child vaccinated not only helps them, but everyone around them. Vaccinations are not only made so your child doesn't get the disease, but also so they don't spread it.