Should Any Vaccines Be Required For Children?

[Gregb]

What do you think?

 

I see so many debates on Facebook over this. Generally I'm for vaccines. The modern world has wiped out many diseases because of them.

 

Here is a good pro/con run down

http://vaccines.procon.org/

[Buffy]

I put the Anti-Vaxers right up there with the Creationists and Climate Change Deniers. 

 

I'm sorry, but I don't see any PhDs or MDs after Jenny McCarthy's name. Yet people point her out as an authority that they use to justify their choices. But even she has started saying she never said anything she's been quoted on.

 

And there are quacks like Dr. Joseph Mercola (I won't link because I don't want to up his Google rank, look him up yourself), who are out to make money off of fake statistics, but who are considered "world-renowned experts" on the topic.

 

Now we have large statistical increases in outbreaks of Polio worldwide--a disease that is almost eradicated--and specific cases of measles outbreaks tied to anti-vax advocacy.

 

Insofar as the anti-vaxers might only be making themselves candidates for the Darwin Awards, it might be fine, but it's their kids who they are making decisions for, and much much more importantly, anyone in a population being a possible carrier puts even those who have been vaccinated at risk because their immunity may be weak.

 

So it's a public health problem of major proportions.

 

We put Christian Scientists in jail for not giving their kids proper medical treatment. We in most places prevent kids who have not been vaccinated from attending public schools. In most states we prevent drunks from carrying guns into bars.

 

"Freedom and liberty" don't mean "I can do whatever I want or choose believe in," you only have rights up to the point where it starts to infringe on other people's rights. And it's pretty clear with infectious diseases that you don't have the right to put my kid at risk because you believe some quack who says vaccines are dangerous.

 

 

The fight against avoidable misery should be a recognized aim of public policy, while the increase of happiness should be left, in the main, to private initiative, :phones:

Buffy

[sanctus]

Not much to add to what you say Buffy.

Just another example, the pediatrian of my son said she got pertussis or whooping cough (if google translate is right) from a friend who came to visit and did not vaccinate her kids (what is worse not even because she was against, she just did not care). For the pediatrician it meant around 2 years at home...and think if she did not notice it right away how many infants she would have infected (and I do not know what the dead rate is for this cough for small kids, but I would guess high since they get this vaccine early)

[Mercedes Benzene]

Yeah, there's really not too much else to say here. Anti-vaxers are just about as loony as they come, in my opinion. I think that most would probably change their minds if they saw a video of a newborn with whooping cough. It's almost too much to bear. 

[Excei]

Nicely put Buffy. I do think that children should get immunizations. I was hesitant in letting my child get the chicken pox vaccine. I put it off and put it off. All of the kids that we associated with had gotten the immunization. I finally decided that I would go ahead and let my child. Studies show that getting chicken pox as an adult can be horrible.

[Buffy]

Thank you anti-vaxers:

 

 

Interesting article that this came from at Business Insider.

 

 

Do not listen to those who weep and complain, for their disease is contagious, :phones:

Buffy

[Deboer13]

I'm always tempted to say if you take health advice from a celebrity you get what you deserve but children don't have a choice. And it's not just your own children, but every child that comes into contact with your child who is at risk.

[arissa]

I am not a Creationist or a Climate Change Denier but we did delay vaccinations for our youngest, we went back and forth about the issue many times too. It was not because we are against good health for our kids but actually because of the fact that most doctors just want to load the kids up on so many things at such a young age. I personally had issues with this (and so did my oldest) which played part of a factor into the choice to delay them with my second child. Does that make me a bad person? Is there any truth that those parents who delay vaccines are bad parents?

I don't put all of my eggs into one basket (faith in doctors). Yes I understand how science works but at the same time before my second child received any vaccinations she was sick once. Once in five years. After that we get a cold about every other month and really sick at least four times a year. The more we pump into our bodies (and a kids little body) the more our bodies can not do what they should be doing in the first place). This is one of those topics that while it fascinates me, it also annoys me since I teeter on both sides of it.

[Eclogite]

It was not because we are against good health for our kids but actually because of the fact that most doctors just want to load the kids up on so many things at such a young age.

Seriously? Do you genuinely think that doctors want to do that? Or is it not more accurate to say that doctors wish to give the protection to children at as early a stage as possible in a manner that has been demonstrated to be beneficial by extensive studies?

 

I don't put all of my eggs into one basket (faith in doctors).

What does it have to do with faith? Faith involves believing in something for which there is little or no evidence. The evidential base for the benefits of vaccines is huge. It does not require faith.

 

I personally had issues with this (and so did my oldest) which played part of a factor into the choice to delay them with my second child. Does that make me a bad person? Is there any truth that those parents who delay vaccines are bad parents?

Honest answer. Almost certainly. I do not know how serious a risk you create by delaying their vaccination, but it is a finite risk. So, yes, you are in this regard a bad parent. You have allowed suspicions based on anecdote and ill-informed "common sense" lead you to a decision that is potentially bad for your child and for other children. I understand and respect the fact that you have done it for the best of motives, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

 

before my second child received any vaccinations she was sick once. Once in five years. After that we get a cold about every other month and really sick at least four times a year.

Anecdotes are not science.