Students told: get vaccinations or get suspended:

[Praxius]

Students told: get vaccinations or get suspended

WINDSOR, Ont. - More than 1,400 Ontario students are facing suspension from school for keeping incomplete immunization records. The Municipality of Chatham-Kent's acting medical officer of health issued suspension orders Wednesday, warning parents in this community near Windsor, that if the students don't get their shots or update their vaccine records this month, they will be barred from returning to school May 31. "We're looking at keeping our students immunized and up-to-date so that in the event of an outbreak we have the most current and up-to-date information," said Betty Schepens, manager of the Chatham-Kent Health Unit Communicable Disease Control Programs. The warning and subsequent suspension is standard procedure for the Chatham-Kent Health Unit. In 2006, about 800 students in the Chatham region received the mailed suspension order. Most of those students evaded suspension by getting their missing inoculations or simply updating their incomplete records with the health unit. "And then within the suspension month, the month of June basically, we were able to clear up all but 10, less than 10 that were still suspended," Schepens said. "This system seems to work well." Schepens said several health units have seen an increase in the number of incomplete immunization records this year compared to last; though she couldn't attribute the hike to any specific reason. Public health units are required by law to keep current inoculation records of students. Many times parents mistakenly believe their children's doctors or schools will forward the inoculation information to their local health units, Schepens said. "So, it's up to the parent to forward that information to us." The provincial Immunization of Schools Pupils Act also requires students to have diphtheria, tetanus, polio, measles and mumps shots up-to-date in order to continue attending school. In neigbouring Windsor-Essex County, the medical officer of health will resort to suspensions of students with incomplete records only as "a last resort," said Dr. G. Allen Heimann. "We do it on an individual case basis," Heimann said. "And we have not had the necessity for suspending large groups." To date, more than 90 per cent of Windsor-Essex County's elementary school children have current vaccine records. A review of local high school records is still underway, Heimann said. "We've got good immunization records and we're not facing any outbreaks in Windsor-Essex right now," Heimann said. Most vaccines are administered to students in their infancy. But, between the ages of four and six, the kids are poked with doses of diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus and polio immunizations. If they hadn't yet caught chicken pox, they can get the vaccine at age five. A last set of diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus shots is issued to teenagers between the ages of 14 and 16. Parents can opt their children out of the immunization schedule on medical, religious or philosophical grounds by completing an exemption form at their local health unit. Jane Bryce, who is the chair of the Lambton Kent District School Board, said the annual suspension can be frustrating, but it was not heavy-handed. "A lot of them receive several notices ahead of time, so it's not as though they don't understand," Bryce said. "I just think that sometimes we just have such busy lives that it's something that we just don't think about immediately. And they just don't get that done."

I'm sorry, I don't see a need for most vacinations.... if anything they make you sick to begin with.... they are injecting you with a neutralized virus so your body can adapt to it and become so-called immune.... but you're body still detects the virus and you still get the symtoms and the sickness for a few days.... so what's the point of getting a shot that does the exact same thing as having the virus to begin with?

And I don't see a need to force people to take them if they don't believe in them. If an outbreak happens, then those who go their shots will be fine.... those who didn't, well tough.... but that's the decision they should make themselves, not someone else. At least in the bottom there they say you can write up a form to exempt you from having to take the shots.... but this should also mean you shouldn't get suspended from school if this is the case.

[Osborn F Enready]

Welcome to the police state.

[ladyphoenix]

Amen, Osborn, Amen... I'm dreading it. I was disgusted by the governor of Texas trying to force 9 year old girls to get that HPV Vaccine... It's coming.

[Osborn F Enready]

Scary stuff to say the least. Not only do they want to right to prohibit you from medicating yourself, but they want to be able to force you to "take your medicine" not having a single damn reason to trust them.

Some doctor patient relationship the state expects, eh?

Next thing you know we'll be getting state approved "showers"........hey, whats that taste, and why can't I breathe.........

[Praxius]

lol... a bit extreme, but point taken.

[Mia]

I disagree. Vaccines have all but eradicated many diseases, namely polio, that used to kill and maim. They don't do the exact same thing as the illness they protect from - sometimes a fraction of the symptoms.

You can exempt your children if you want with that form. I don't know what the big fuss over the HPV vaccine is - HPV is incredibly common - if you've slept with 2 or more people you likely have it, whether you're showing symptoms or not.

Symptoms like warts are disgusting....cervical cancer is much worse.

[Kamehameha34]

I see the point in doing this.

Eliminating the number of possible carriers, compounded with their immunization would completely eliminate the disease from the face of the planet. Two unvaccinated students could pose a threat to eachother.

On second thought, those the parents of those two students accept the risk of a lack of immunization at the point where they refuse it, so never mind :)

[Slevin57]

They are not requiring that you get every vaccination available.

They require, like most schools, that you get a set of basic vaccinations.

I have had alot of vaccinations from traveling, and I have never been sick.

Vaccinations are here to help people, not to encourage a "Police State."

I would think that people would be more outraged if we just quarantined everyone that got sick, because people didn't want vaccinations.

Vaccinations are definitely a better alternative to quarantine.

[The Dunedan]

The problems are these:

1: Numerous vaccines, including the oral vaccine for Polio, have been found to use Mercury (nasty stuff, that) as one of their ingrediants. Such vaccines have been linked, though not definitively, to Autism.

2: People with underdeveloped, suppressed, or compromised immune systems can have serious adverse reactions to live/weakened vaccines and even (rarely) dead vaccines, up to and including potentially lethal allergic reactions.

3: A real risk of contracting the disease being vaccinated for exists. When I recieved my MMR shot (back before I had the good sense to ask questions about such things), I developed Rubella (aka German Measles) which kept me out of school for a week.

4: As for "opting out;" I dunno how it is in Canada, but in the US it has become routine for parents who "opt out" of vaccination programmes to get a "visit" from the baby-thieves at Social Services and lose their "parental rights." At least one State lists (or was preparing to list as of last year; this may have been shot down) refusal of vaccinations (along with not obtaining a Socialist Security Number) as child abuse and will take your children away for such. Even if such is not codified, refusal of vaccinations is an excellent way to call very unwelcome attention to yourself. "Child Protective Services" in the US are notorious for their ability to find violations where none can reasonably be said to exist and subsequently kidnap people's children under colour of law.

[Le GoogelGuRu]

I think vaccines shouldn't be mandatory. I think it should be the parent/child's choice over whether or not they wish to become vaccinated.

Around here we get a form a few months (or a month before) the vaccine is given and the parent and/or guardian has to sign to either approve or disapprove the vaccine. People don't get it if they don't want to. That brings in the I'm too scared factor too, but if parents and children work out whether or not they think they should have it I don't see a problem in skipping them.

Personally I get all mine. I've had MMR, without problems.