Mandatory Flu Vaccines For Children
Posted by preparedcitizens on October 17, 2008
Mandatory vaccination, a touchy subject if there ever was one. The idea of the state forcing anything on our children makes us bristle. Yet, the “state” does compel some of our parenting decisions, more often than we care to admit. There are times that it is necessary for the state to step in an enforce what we as parents sometimes fail to do. The mandatory use of car seats is a good example of this.
Public and private school attendance requires proof of vaccination for a variety of illnesses from tetanus and diphtheria to mumps and rubella has been on the books for more years than I can remember. Parents could opt out but few did. Sports teams and camps require physicals to be done – they don’t just take our word as parents that we are looking after the health of our children. For a variety of good reasons, proof is required and if we want our children to be able to participate, we comply.
My parents knew the value and worth of vaccines. They could remember the days when there were few to be had. They could remember when polio devastated lives, and diseases like diphtheria and German measles were common place and devastating. When vaccines against these traditional childhood illnesses were first introduced they were like miracles to the parents who knew what life was like living in fear of paralytic polio. Louis Pasteur and Edward Jenner were the modern day conquistadors of infectious disease and their names invoked a special awe and deep gratitude among the vaccinated masses.
Not so today. The pendulum has swung backward for some parents.
It is hard for parents today to fully comprehend the real threat behind diseases like diphtheria, mumps and hepatitis B. Herd immunity and vaccination keep these diseases at bay so we have no experience to relate to them wreaking havoc in a community.
Herd immunity is the type of immunity that occurs when the vaccinated population breaks the chain of transmission or at least slows down the spread of infectious diseases allowing those who remain unvaccinated in a population to also be protected. If the numbers of unvaccinated people in a given population becomes too large then this “firebreak” is lost.
from wikipedia:
Estimated Herd Immunity thresholds for vaccine preventable diseases
Disease Transmission R0 Herd Immunity Threshold Diphtheria Saliva 6-7 85% Measles Airborne 12-18 83-94% Mumps Airborne Droplet 4-7 75-86% Pertussis Airborne Droplet 12-17 92-94% Polio Fecal-Oral Route 5-7 80-86% Rubella Airborne Droplet 5-7 80-85% Smallpox Social Contact 6-7 83-85% [R0 is the basic reproduction number, or the average number of secondary infectious cases that are produced by a single index case in completely susceptible population]
Table of Vaccines
and the date of their first introduction for use in humans
1798
Smallpox 1885 Rabies 1897 Plague 1923 Diphtheria 1926 Pertussis 1927 Tuberculosis (BCG) 1927 Tetanus 1935 Yellow Fever 1955 Injectable Polio Vaccine (IPV) 1962 Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) 1964 Measles 1967 Mumps 1970 Rubella 1981 Hepatitis B
When these vaccines were first introduced it was the “at risk” population and the affluent who most benefited from them. The poor, who could not afford vaccine, continued to be devastated by these illnesses.
The national vaccine campaign was born.
Vaccines target for use in a national immunization program
| Smallpox |
| BCG |
| Diphtheria Toxoid |
| Tetanus Toxoid |
| Pertussis |
| IPV the OPV |
| Measles |
from Wikipedia: Adjuvants are pharmaceutical or immunological agents that enhance the efficacy of vaccines while having few direct side effects when given by themselves.
How do we sort through myth, fact, the common good, the welfare of our children, and agendas on both sides of the issue….prayerfully and with diligence.
Because of attention devoted to the issue of vaccine safety by different parent groups and individuals, parents rightfully began to question the safety of vaccines. No fault can be found with becoming educated and asking questions.
But with no experiential memory of the severity of the diseases that we vaccinate against the pendulum is allowed to swing back and some are choosing to not vaccinate their children as an over-reaction, putting the general public health at risk.
Because voluntary vaccination with informed consent became the standard approach we had reached that balance where we have herd immunity. Now public opinion is being swayed once again. Unfortunately, many parents do not take the time to educate themselves about the pros and cons to vaccination. Along with herd immunity there is a herd mentality, and that does not have the same benefits. More education and awareness if the deadliness of the diseases themselves is needed.
There is an imbalance of power when those whom parents trust to give us good advice, doctors and government officials in particular, fail to educate and be transparent about the issues that effect us most, especially when these issues involve our children.
Yes, there is an agenda to eradicate diseases, childhood illnesses and HIV/AIDS in particular. Agendas are not always bad. It is a noble ideal to reduce pain and suffering. But failure to educate and inform our consent as parents leads to suspicion and the very situation that we have today where parents cannot properly weigh all of the pros and cons of vaccination. When given proper guidance and education forced vaccination would not be necessary. Parents themselves would see and understand the merit of vaccination. Forcing vaccination leads to more mistrust. More mistrust leads to non-compliance in other areas of public health and safety – all for the want of some information and a balanced approach to the guidance that parents receive.
As a parent I vaccinated my children and they did not suffer any side effects at all. One child had one reaction to pertussis vaccine and the vaccination protocol for that one particular infectious disease was abandoned. In her early teen years she became ill with pertussis and was very ill for a long time. She contracted pertussis from a non-vaccinated individual. I saw first hand how devastating these diseases can truly be and she at least had some immunity from the one vaccination attempt. To be honest, rightly or wrongly, I was a bit angry, perhaps misguidedly, at the unknown parent who chose not to vaccinate their child.
As parents we do a disservice to our children and to society when we choose to not vaccinate because of our fears alone. We must balance genetics and the likelihood of adverse reactions with the threat of these illnesses themselves and the benefit to society. No man is an island, what we do and don’t do has an impact on others.
However, in my very humble opinion, compelling vaccination must be reserved for dire threats to the health of the population as a whole. And we must be made aware of ALL if the adjuvants and ingredients in vaccines with the utmost transparency and candor. Which leads me to reason for this post.
It is worthwhile to read the following well written article in its entirety for other points which further elucidate the problem.
NJ flu-shot mandate for preschoolers draws outcry
Oct 16, 4:34 PM (ET)
By DAVID CRARY
As flu season approaches, many New Jersey parents are furious over a first-in-the-nation requirement that children get a flu shot in order to attend preschools and day-care centers. The decision should be the parents’, not the state’s, they contend.
Hundreds of parents and other activists rallied outside the New Jersey Statehouse on Thursday, decrying the policy and voicing support for a bill that would allow parents to opt out of mandatory vaccinations for their children.
<snip>
The argument for:
“Vaccines not only protect the child being vaccinated but also the general community and the most vulnerable individuals within the community,” New Jersey’s Health Department said in a statement. It has depicted young children as “particularly efficient” in transmitting the flu to others.
The argument against:
“The right to informed consent is so basic,” she said in an interview. “Parents have a right to decide for their own children what is injected in their bodies.”
And the mis-education causing the problem:
“The flu is not a deadly disease,” said Barbara Majeski of Princeton, N.J., who does not want her two preschooler sons to get the vaccination.
<snip>
“Mother Nature designed our bodies to be able to fight off infections through natural means – you need to be exposed and develop immunity,” Majeski said. “We’ve just gotten a little too overprotective with our children.”
Influenza is a deadly disease. The viral world is an ever-changing one. True seasonal influenza, and not the stomach bug that some mislabel as flu, can be and very often is deadly. The bacterial pneumonia that causes a secondary infection also is deadly and a direct result of influenza. This is especially true for the very young, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems. Pandemic Influenza, conversely, strikes those with robust immune systems – our children and the young adults in our population. The bacterial pneumonia that frequent occurs is also a deadly threat.
see: Seasonal flu vaccine may help in fight against H5N1
Admittedly this protection may be small or even non-existent because there may not be a pandemic vaccine for a very long time. But priming the immune system may help us when a pandemic vaccine is developed.
Seasonal influenza vaccine is effective and this years choice is a good match to fight H3N2 and H1N1, which have also changed into deadlier forms, as viruses do in order to survive.
Vaccination against the prevailing Influenza B virus is also included in the vaccine. Influenza B viruses are nothing to overlook. They cause widespread outbreaks causing attendance problems at school and work.
As for H5N1, the virus thought to be the prime candidate to cause the next pandemic, I would take any and all protective measures that I could get my hands on (with a thorough awareness of what is in the vaccine).
H5N1 is becoming more adapted to the human respiratory tract and this could be the year that a pandemic begins, although no one can know what the timetable of a virus is. It truly is impossible to know, although the changes may be tracked over time. We move closer and closer to the brink and many experts are quite worried. This year, next year or the next, a pandemic is coming. And there are other viruses out there that could cause a pandemic.
So what’s a parent to do?
What are public health officials to do?
When balancing the rights of the individual against the rights of society as a whole who wins out?
Or do we all win when herd immunity is achieved?
If one community is forcing vaccination and the neighboring community, state, country, is not, what has been achieved?
These are all questions which will become critical in the days ahead. Much more education is needed, not the strong arm of the government demanding compliance. Honest and transparent public debate that informs consent, and that will encourage compliance is what is needed. Assuming the public will panic at hard facts and information is selling the citizens short, selling parents short. Keeping the issues at hand from the public eye will encourage mistrust, something that will work against us during a pandemic.
I understand the heart of the public officials who are forcing vaccination in New Jersey. They truly seem to desire to reduce illness and to protect those who they are pledged to safeguard. Not an easy decision to make, I am sure.
Forcing vaccination of children rather than workers in the workplace, does not seem prudent and it certainly should not have been a first step. Massive education campaigns would have been the right approach. Allowing the public to reach its own conclusion about the necessity of vaccination and the positive effects would have been a positive and productive way to urge compliance.
There truly seems to be little difference between how children spread influenza and how adults out in public spread the disease. I have witnessed some pretty horrendous hygienic techniques among adults even as receptionists at doctors offices and in hospitals themselves.
More education and public debate is needed.
Now that I am on a roll, lets talk about vaccines « Prepared Citizens said
[...] did a vaccine post here and mentioned pneumonia vaccine in a post about this report [...]