9 ms·

When I was a youth, most public schools mandated a variety of vaccinations. If you didn't get them, you couldn't go to school. Is that no longer the case?

• julianlam 5y ago
  There are many exemptions that apply. Religious exemptions are one example.
  • astura 5y ago
    Some states (including big ones like California and NY and conservative ones like Mississippi and West Virginia) have no exemptions to school vaccine requirements other than medical exemptions. https://www.ncsl.org/research/health/school-immunization-exemption-state-laws.aspx https://www.ncsl.org/research/health/school-immunization-exe...
    • khuey 5y ago
      California used to have more exemptions and they were used heavily by new age/hippie types (i.e. not conservatives) to skirt vaccination requirements so the laws were changed recently.
    • BackBlast 5y ago
      Since the change there have been a number of doctors willing to grant medical exemptions to any who want them. [0] It isn't as much of an impediment as it appears. [0] https://calmatters.org/health/2020/09/california-doctor-school-vaccination-exemptions/ https://calmatters.org/health/2020/09/california-doctor-scho...
      • frumper 5y ago
        The article you linked talks about a new law that invalidated those exemptions from that doctor because they were not supported by clinical guidelines.
        • BackBlast 5y ago
          It's just an example. There are lots more doctors who will give exemptions just to make parents happy. There is clearly friction between parents/doctors/state over this policy.
          • frumper 5y ago
            It's an example that you provided a source that says the exact opposite of your example. In California there is a new law designed to specifically combat your example and it's been quite effective.
• kevindong 5y ago
  It's still the case in most (all?) of the US. However, it's generally pretty well accepted that the documentation requirements are lax and that parents can opt out for a variety of reasons. When I was in school (both K-12 and college), my schools just accepted a paper document (trivially forgeable) that stated what vaccines I had received and when.
• md_ 5y ago
  In the US, all 50 states have some type of mandatory vaccination for public schools (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccination_policy_in_the_United_States#School_children https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccination_policy_in_the_Unit...). Most, but not all, allow religious or similar exemptions; some (including California) only allow medical exemptions. I think your point--which is spot-on--is that a lot of the outraged reactions appear to be from people who are unaware (or unwilling to acknowledge) the very long history of compulsory vaccination (and who probably had such vaccines themselves as children). That's not to say that any mandatory medical intervention shouldn't be treated with serious consideration, but the unwillingness to acknowledge precedent is bizarre and, I suspect, to some degree dishonest.
  • giantg2 5y ago
    It's also possible that the dissenters are aware and knowledgeable of the history of compulsory vaccines. The question in their minds might be how society determines which vaccines should fall into that mandatory category and what level of force the government and others should use to enforce it. For example, should flu vaccines be mandatory to attend school? Historically they have not been in any large degree (to my knowledge). If you look at the IFR for those age groups for flu (varies somewhat by strain) and covid, then you'll see that they are generally very close. So we have to ask what changed, because it doesn't appear to be the value proposition.
    • md_ 5y ago
      I don't see the necessary nuance for this debate to be meaningful. As a case in point: the OSHA regulations are for vaccination _or_ weekly testing. There's probably a reasonable debate to be had about requiring people to disclose vaccination status (but, again, significant precedent)--but I do think the hysterical reactions sound a bit funny when viewed as a reaction to being forced to spit into a cup once a week.
      • giantg2 5y ago
        My comment was mostly about the parent stereotyping dissenters as being uninformed. That sort of stereotyping makes tricky topics even worse.
• pandaman 5y ago
  When I was a youth vaccines gave immunity to their recipients, that doesn't seem to be a case now.
  • HWR_14 5y ago
    No, when you were a youth enough people were vaccinated that the RE dropped to almost nothing, meaning there were no breakouts. They never gave 100% immunity. They were also more numerically effective at keeping people from turning into a carrier, but they had the benefits of decades of tuning.
    • pandaman 5y ago
      If vaccines never gave immunity how come people who had the natural immunity from having the disease naturally were not required to be vaccinated? Actually even in my older years all I had to present as a proof of vaccination to the US government was my blood with antibodies.
      • HWR_14 5y ago
        Your blood with antibodies also doesn't supply 100% immunity.
        • pandaman 5y ago
          I am not sure where did you get the 100% thing but for the record I am not claiming that. What I am noticing is that it used to be an objective criterion for the inoculation, seemingly based on the concept of immunity.
          • HWR_14 5y ago
            I got the "100% thing" when I said it in the first post, and you started responding "if vaccines don't give immunity", yada yada. In response to me saying tehy don't give 100% immunity.