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Bill To Require Vaccination of Children Advances In California
mpicpp sends the latest news on California legislation that would eliminate exemptions for vaccinating school children. A bill that would require nearly all children in California to be vaccinated by eliminating "personal belief" exemptions advanced through the State Legislature on Wednesday, though it still has several hurdles to clear. If approved, California would become one of only three states that require all parents to vaccinate their children as a condition of going to school, unless there is a medical reason not to do so. Under the bill, introduced after a measles outbreak that began at Disneyland, parents who refuse vaccines for philosophical or religious reasons would have to educate their children at home. The legislation prompted a roiling debate in Sacramento, and last week hundreds of people protested at the Capitol, arguing that it infringed on their rights and that it would unfairly shut their children out of schools. Last Wednesday, the legislation stalled in the Senate Education Committee as lawmakers said they were concerned that too many students would be forced into home schooling. This Wednesday, however, the bill passed that committee after its authors tweaked it, adding amendments that would expand the definition of home schooling to allow multiple families to join together to teach their children or participate in independent study programs run by public school systems.
I hate to say it, but maybe this is for the best. Unfortunately, what may be needed to kill the anti-vaxxer mindset once and for all is for a whole classroom of unvaccinated children to come down with measles or polio or smallpox or whooping cough, and for several of them to die.
Horrible? Yes, but the parents who have bought into this insanity are endangering everyone, not just their own children. Some of these people are quite literally proclaiming that vaccines have never worked, and that it is only improvements in hygiene that have resulted in the elimination of most deadly childhood diseases. A good cold dash of reality is the only cure. It is just a damned shame that some innocent kids will have to pay the price.
What about the rights of the children? Is it okay for patents to force their views on their children and stop them being vaccinated? Parents can't deny their children an education, so why should they be able to deny them this protection?
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
That being said, why should parents be allowed to force anything on their children? We should come up with a long list of everything that it is okay for your children to know and learn and you are required as a parent to teach them only those things. Every year all the scientists and politicians can get together and determine what our children can learn and believe and what they cannot. And any parents that "force" beliefs or ideas on their children different from the approved ones can be locked up and the children sent to better families.
That said... I fail to see what exactly their problem or complaint actually is.
In this last week an anti-vaxxer group in Australia put out a post on their FB page likening forced vaccination to rape (penetration without consent). They even illustrated it with a photo of a guy standing over a women in a menacing pose and holding his hand over her mouth.
So at this point I have no clue what some of them are thinking, and wouldn't even know how to communicate with them. (Although this particular message was so off that even a lot of the anti-vaxxers who were members of that group were decrying how bad it was.)
But what is even scarier is that I saw on CNN yesterday that even ISIS is keeping up vaccinations in the territory that it controls.
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using the R0 value for measles and pertussis (the two most highly infectious diseases presently known), the threshold of herd immunity requires about 95% compliance in the population. polio is less contagious and the herd immunity threshold is at about 83% compliance.
the student immunization compliance rate for the 2014-2015 school year in CA is 87% at private schools and 91% at public schools.
the good news here is the funds to accommodate iron lungs, add wheelchair ramps and crutch stands in the wake of a polio outbreak will be needed first at private schools. they're nearly at the threshold - cheer them on ...
Yes, but the part you're missing is that it is not my job to provide you with herd immunity.
And that's why, under the law, you and your spawn are free to continue your miserable existences in your own parallel world, ostracized and isolated from the rest of us.
#4 is why the anti-vaccine movement was able to grow. The anti-vaxxers said "You don't really need the vaccines. Just wash your hands real well or take HOMEOPATHIC REMEDY and you'll never get whooping cough," Sure enough, they didn't get whooping cough, but the reason wasn't washing hands (though that is important) or homeopathic remedies (which isn't good for anything). It was because the anti-vaxxers were few enough that they were protected by herd immunity. Even though they weren't getting the vaccines, they were still enjoying vaccines' protection.
But then the anti-vaxxer ranks grew and herd immunity began to break down. Now we're starting to see outbreaks of diseases that, by all rights, should be lining up behind smallpox for inclusion in the "wiped out" club.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Parents of kids in group 1 are making smart choices and doing their best to participate in a social society. They deserve to be protected, despite their body's immunity-compromised state. Parents of kids in Group 2 have made a selfish, uneducated choice that puts society at risk and that must be dis-incentivized. This proposed law is an excellent way to better align the interests of the parent with the interests of the child.