Community Chat

[Shorty2U]

Unbelievable, what is wrong w people risking their children dying instead of getting vaccinated? At my grandkids schools here in PA, if you are not vaccinated you are not allowed in school. You MUST prove they have shots and not only that, you have to keep up with the shots as they age or the kids cant come to school.

[Puzzle Piece]

Many parents believe the vaccines themselves are dangerous. Some folks are just plain lazy and others just don't believe. I realize I have to take care of myself and my husband so we do what's right for us.

Caravaggio has the right perspective - it is a line of defense.

[Sushismom]

• From a study done by Philip J. Smith, PhD, MS,
• Susan Y. Chu, PhD, MSPH,
• Lawrence E. Barker, PhD

Participants. A total of 151,720 children sampled between 1995 and 2001, 795 of whom were unvaccinated.

Results. Undervaccinated children tended to be black, to have a younger mother who was not married and did not have a college degree, to live in a household near the poverty level, and to live in a central city. Unvaccinated children tended to be white, to have a mother who was married and had a college degree, to live in a household with an annual income exceeding $75 000, and to have parents who expressed concerns regarding the safety of vaccines and indicated that medical doctors have little influence over vaccination decisions for their children. Unvaccinated children were more likely to be male than female. Annually, ~17 000 children were unvaccinated. The largest numbers of unvaccinated children lived in counties in California, Illinois, New York, Washington, Pennsylvania, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Utah, and Michigan. States that allowed philosophical exemptions to laws mandating vaccinations for children as they entered school had significantly higher estimated rates of unvaccinated children.

[scotttie]

With this many unvaccinated and undervaccinated we are going to be seeing birth defects again from pregnant women contracting these diseases. Children born with mental retardation, blindness just to name 2.

I would support spreading out the vaccines and not give 5 at once like they do now. But if this trend continues, there are going to be these other issues.

[Financialgrl]

I worked in a HS for 3 years till about the year 2000 and while there we had 2 TB scares and 2 measles scare. TB scare was due to recent immigrants to the country but measles scare was a poor mother who said she had no money but she could have gotten her children immunized FREE thru the health department but too lazy to do so. She'd told us she didn't go there because they had to wait in a long line to get immunized. Instead, she signed the religious exemption clause so her kids didn't have to get them and well . . .we saw how that turned out.

Our local paper this year said kids missing their proof of shots were sent home the first day along with a note saying the next week the health department would be back to immunize those needing them if the kids had a signed parental form. Making it pretty easy for everyone.

[foundinlv]

In 2009 I had a tetanus shot and it was called Td meaning that it also contained the diphtheria vaccine. That's what was recommended for booster shots. It comes in these configurations: DTaP, Tdap, DT, and Td.

(Upper-case letters in these abbreviations denote full-strength doses of diphtheria (D) and tetanus (T) toxoids and pertussis (P) vaccine. Lower-case “d” and “p” denote reduced doses of diphtheria and pertussis used in the adolescent/adult-formulations. The “a” in DTaP and Tdap stands for “acellular,” meaning that the pertussis component contains only a part of the pertussis organism.)

So if DTaP and Tdap is recommended for kids, I find it odd that tetanus and diphtheria has not resurfaced. You cannot get just a pertussis vaccination.

[shesallthat]

On 9/17/2014 Sushismom said:

• From a study done by Philip J. Smith, PhD, MS,
• Susan Y. Chu, PhD, MSPH,
• Lawrence E. Barker, PhD

Participants. A total of 151,720 children sampled between 1995 and 2001, 795 of whom were unvaccinated.

Results. Undervaccinated children tended to be black, to have a younger mother who was not married and did not have a college degree, to live in a household near the poverty level, and to live in a central city. Unvaccinated children tended to be white, to have a mother who was married and had a college degree, to live in a household with an annual income exceeding $75 000, and to have parents who expressed concerns regarding the safety of vaccines and indicated that medical doctors have little influence over vaccination decisions for their children. Unvaccinated children were more likely to be male than female. Annually, ~17 000 children were unvaccinated. The largest numbers of unvaccinated children lived in counties in California, Illinois, New York, Washington, Pennsylvania, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Utah, and Michigan. States that allowed philosophical exemptions to laws mandating vaccinations for children as they entered school had significantly higher estimated rates of unvaccinated children.

they obviously need to go back and do another study! that was quite a few years ago.

[Sushismom]

Yes, but I'd bet the demographics haven't changed all that much.

[chrystaltree]

The level of ignorance in this country continues to astound me. We don't have the problem in my state because children must have the appropriate vaccincations before they begin school, even pre school. The only exemptions are for health or religious reasons. Parents can't refuse just because they don't like the idea. Measles has resurfaced but recent immigrants are the cause.

[occasionalrain]

Shouldn't women about to become pregnant be the ones responsible to get immunized not every man, woman, and child they may encounter?