Parents Fake Religion to Avoid Vaccines

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/17/health/main3379334.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_3379334

Religious Or Not, Growing Numbers Say They Are To Get Out Of Vaccinating Their Kids
BOSTON, Oct. 17, 2007

(AP) Sabrina Rahim doesn't practice any particular faith, but she had no problem signing a letter declaring that because of her deeply held religious beliefs, her 4-year-old son should be exempt from the vaccinations required to enter preschool.

She is among a small but growing number of parents around the country who are claiming religious exemptions to avoid vaccinating their children when the real reason may be skepticism of the shots or concern they can cause other illnesses. Some of these parents say they are being forced to lie because of the way the vaccination laws are written in their states.

“It's misleading,” Rahim admitted, but she said she fears that earlier vaccinations may be to blame for her son's autism. “I find it very troubling, but for my son's safety, I feel this is the only option we have.”

An Associated Press examination of states' vaccination records and data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that many states are seeing increases in the rate of religious exemptions claimed for kindergartners.

“Do I think that religious exemptions have become the default? Absolutely,” said Dr. Paul Offit, head of infectious diseases at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia and one of the harshest critics of the anti-vaccine movement. He said the resistance to vaccines is “an irrational, fear-based decision.”

The number of exemptions is extremely small in percentage terms and represents just a few thousand of the 3.7 million children entering kindergarten in 2005, the most recent figure available.

But public health officials say it takes only a few people to cause an outbreak that can put large numbers of lives at risk.

“When you choose not to get a vaccine, you're not just making a choice for yourself, you're making a choice for the person sitting next to you,” said Dr. Lance Rodewald, director of the CDC's Immunization Services Division.

All states have some requirement that youngsters be immunized against such childhood diseases as measles, mumps, chickenpox, diphtheria and whooping cough.

Twenty-eight states, including Florida, Massachusetts and New York, allow parents to opt out for medical or religious reasons only. Twenty other states, among them California, Pennsylvania, Texas and Ohio, also allow parents to cite personal or philosophical reasons. Mississippi and West Virginia allow exemptions for medical reasons only.

From 2003 to 2007, religious exemptions for kindergartners increased, in some cases doubled or tripled, in 20 of the 28 states that allow only medical or religious exemptions, the AP found. Religious exemptions decreased in three of these states - Nebraska, Wyoming, South Carolina - and were unchanged in five others.

The rate of exemption requests is also increasing.
(more at link)

Taximom said:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/17/health/main3379334.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_3379334

<snipped>

“When you choose not to get a vaccine, you're not just making a choice for yourself, you're making a choice for the person sitting next to you,” said Dr. Lance Rodewald, director of the CDC's Immunization Services Division.<snipped>

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If "the person sitting next to you" is vaccinated, how are you making a choice for them?

accordn2me said:

If "the person sitting next to you" is vaccinated, how are you making a choice for them?

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Well if there is a resurgence of childhood diseases due to non vaccination, what happens to the baby or toddler that is exposed to something they haven't been vaccinated for yet?
Some vaccines do not provide lifelong immunity. that is why we are seeing an outbreak of measles and mumps on some of our college campuses. One of the reasons their is a resurgence of m&m is failure of some to vaccinate.What about the seniors whose immune systems are weak?

I don't understand why she has to lie???

I feel the same way about vaccinations and have a medical override so that Richie could go to school without further vaccinations.

Every pediatrician I have had since he was 4 has agreed with me.
Not one has ever even tried to talk me into further vaccinating him.
One pediatrician even ran a series of tests testing our youngest for titer levels before giving him vaccines.

The bottom line is that no one KNOWS what causes autism so vaccines cannot be ruled out..
Since Richie is already autistic and his loss of skills coincide with his receiving vaccines (granted it could have happened anyways but there is no way to know) his Dr's have always agreed that to further vaccinate him could potentially make it worse.

I don't understand why these parents need to lie... Although I would do the same thing if I needed to.

I am going to add something here after reading that article....

It is illegal for the schools to ask what religion you are. You can site that it is against your religion to vaccinate and they cannot legally ask you ...
If they do you do not have to tell them.

We've had reoccurence of whooping cough around here.

I think it's a shame if innocent children get sick, and possibly die, because their parents have listened to "hocus pocus", still not justified by research; or just plain neglect to get the shots.

accordn2me said:

If "the person sitting next to you" is vaccinated, how are you making a choice for them?

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In my case the MMR did not "take." I ended up with measles and the mumps which I caught from non-vaccinated students. My "adult" doctor finally figured out my pediatrician vaccinated me too early for it to "take." I was re-vaccinated at that time. The non-vaccinated students were not vaccinated for "religious" reasons, but there parents weren't religious, just aging hippies convinced "the man" was trying to control their children and wouldn't allow it. (IIRC, one of the non-vaccinated kids ended up with brain damage from a high fever during the measles.)

Marthatex said:

We've had reoccurence of whooping cough around here.

I think it's a shame if innocent children get sick, and possibly die, because their parents have listened to "hocus pocus", still not justified by research; or just plain neglect to get the shots.

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Its NOT hocus pocus.

When someone can prove to me that my son is not autistic due to vaccines I will rally like hell to ensure everyone has them.
I have talked to renowned Dr's in their field and even they cannot claim vaccines are totally safe.
The facts are that people do sometimes have reactions ... and until someone can figure out how to avoid that there will be a problem.
Did you know that there is a fund to pay people who have a reaction to vaccines? In my mind that is the government admitting a problem.
I suppose we can all sit back and say "its only one in 10K that have a reaction"
Guess how much your life sucks if your that one?

Well I understand the autism factor, but my dd has Cystic Fibrosis and an immune deficiency. When I find out that there are children not vaccinated around her it turns me into a nervous wreck. She was in the hospital a few weeks ago with whooping cough. There are vaccinations against that, but somewhere, someone decided they didn't want their kid to have it and they are seeing an outbreak of it. There are different vaccination's she has to get because of the "whole live virus thing" but at times I want to wrap her in bubble wrap every time we go out. I just think all kids should be vaccinated. If not to protect themselves, but to help protect my daughter.

No one knows what causes autism, so why aren't beets being blamed? Maybe it's schoolyard asphalt? Maybe it's sidewalks?

Unvaccinated kids get autism too, just as much. But unvaccinated kids also catch these deadly diseases, then carry them around to all the vaccinated kids, getting some of them sick (vaccines reduce the risk, they don't eliminate it). I don't want to have to have my daughter sitting next to an unvaccinated child, exposed to the diseases that killed so many children in my grandmother's day.

Unless you homeschool, and isolate yourself entirely, choosing not to vaccinate is not only your choice, your child's risk. It's my child's health you risk as well.



Talk to doctors in the field, and ask them if Asprin is completely safe. They'll say No. Ask them if water is completely safe - they'll say no. Nothing is completely safe. In science, "never", "always", "completely" are pretty much excluded from the vocabulary. No reputable scientist will ever say it's impossible there's a link between Autism and anything at all, because that's not something that can be said scientifically. But they can and have said that there does not appear to be any link, the largest studies comparing autism in vaccinated versus unvaccinated does not show any statistical link.

Females who are vaccinated are unable to pass the antibodies to their children. In the past a woman's body would produce antibodies after becoming ill, and she would eventually pass those on to her newborn. Those antibodies would then help protect the child until they were old enough to deal with the illness on their own. Vaccinations work differently because your body is not producing the antibody on its own its not passed on leaving the very young unprotected.

I would have used that reason if I had to. My oldest daughter had a BAD reaction to one of her vaccines. It's been over 20 years... but I think it was the P in the DPT one?

She got so sick, I thought she was going to die. I refused to let them ever give it to her again. Had to fight tooth and nail, but she never had it again.

Spazkat9696 said:

Females who are vaccinated are unable to pass the antibodies to their children. In the past a woman's body would produce antibodies after becoming ill, and she would eventually pass those on to her newborn. Those antibodies would then help protect the child until they were old enough to deal with the illness on their own. Vaccinations work differently because your body is not producing the antibody on its own its not passed on leaving the very young unprotected.

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In the past huge numbers of children died from these diseases. Many others were horribly disfigured or injured.

when i became pregnant the first time test showed the mmr shot did not last on me. i spent the whole time scared i would run into one of these children. my doctor game me the shot before i left the hospital. these kids are pretty safe because most parents have their child taken care of. a rare child not given the shot is not a large risk to the public. as more children grow up with out the shots the risk grows.

Details said:

No one knows what causes autism, so why aren't beets being blamed? Maybe it's schoolyard asphalt? Maybe it's sidewalks?

Unvaccinated kids get autism too, just as much. But unvaccinated kids also catch these deadly diseases, then carry them around to all the vaccinated kids, getting some of them sick (vaccines reduce the risk, they don't eliminate it). I don't want to have to have my daughter sitting next to an unvaccinated child, exposed to the diseases that killed so many children in my grandmother's day.

Unless you homeschool, and isolate yourself entirely, choosing not to vaccinate is not only your choice, your child's risk. It's my child's health you risk as well.


Talk to doctors in the field, and ask them if Asprin is completely safe. They'll say No. Ask them if water is completely safe - they'll say no. Nothing is completely safe. In science, "never", "always", "completely" are pretty much excluded from the vocabulary. No reputable scientist will ever say it's impossible there's a link between Autism and anything at all, because that's not something that can be said scientifically. But they can and have said that there does not appear to be any link, the largest studies comparing autism in vaccinated versus unvaccinated does not show any statistical link.

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UMMM who are these unvaccinated kids?? They receive vaccines at 2 days old...
For the record Richie is home schooled.
And our dr's did not just simply agree to not say "OH he will be safe 100%"
They STATED point blank that vaccines could further harm him.
I am not even talking about pediatricians who know each other... I mean over 13 years and several different specialist and peds.

Amraann said:

UMMM who are these unvaccinated kids?? They receive vaccines at 2 days old...
For the record Richie is home schooled.
And our dr's did not just simply agree to not say "OH he will be safe 100&#37;"
They STATED point blank that vaccines could further harm him.
I am not even talking about pediatricians who know each other... I mean over 13 years and several different specialist and peds.

Click to expand...

All depends on the study, but there always are some unvaccinated kids. People who can't afford doctors, those with religous objections, Amish, etc. In a large enough study, there are enough to be statistically relevant. Heck with 2 days old though - my daughter was vaccinated before she was 2 hours old.

I'm glad he's home schooled. You have your choice, but your choice could seriously hurt other kids. Vaccines can hurt people - but the diseases they prevent are far worse. The link to autism simply isn't proven at all, the biggest and best study done so far (largest number of kids, tracked over the longest time - did research on it a year ago, I'd have to do some looking to find the link again) showed the rate of autism identical. Online, I know someone whose friend had an autistic child. They blamed vaccines, didn't let their next child be vaccinated at all. The second child has severe autism (the first has relatively mild autism).


From all I've seen, and I did research it, look at websites on both sides, everything - this is one of those spots where coincidence (autism usually shows up at the same age as we are giving vaccines) is scaring people - including some doctors. Much like the breast implant scare - remember the huge lawsuit? All the poor women with connective tissue diseases? The company nearly bankrupted, product removed from the market? And in the end, when the data was in - no link at all between silicone breast implants, leaky or not, and any disease at all (they had an ideal population, used nurses - generally healthy people, all similar exposure to disease and such).


Now, I can believe vaccines might be a unique problem to an autistic child - that I didn't look into. But causing autism - everything I read says no. The better the study, the more clear it was there was no link.

With the first quote of this thread I would like to add:

As for autism, one theory is that the child "has a pre-disposition" to immunization and how it affects this person "in a genetic" manner. But again, so many, theories. But if you ask a person who has a child who has autism, some "reliable" rule is that it is genetic. I new a family who had two son's both who have autism. One needs a helper and full time care. The other is not as severe. They are different ages. So I feel there is a genetic factor in play here, but who knows what further study will bring. But on the off chance that vacines cause autism, that has been around sooooo long and long discounted. If that is why these parents are doing this, then they are risking the health of the entire population, based on myth and theory.

When a society as a whole has the ability to prevent diseases for the entire society and keep it members well, through vacines, it is called "protection from the heard" methold.

Don't kid yourself, these diseases are still in society, but most of the people have been vacinated, so they protect society as a whole.

Our son was suspended from school, because he missed his 15 year old shot when he was 15 and 6 months.

So a parent may feel they are doing their child a service by not getting their child vacinates\d, but just imagine if more and more people started doing that as this article states. That is a fair precentage of children all in kindergarden and starting school. All of these children have no protection from disease, so lets just say one kid catches a "disease" and it spreads all through the class ans school.

People who have young kids should ask someone what life was life before there were vacines, or ask a polilo survivor.

Or if you have ever been on a cruise when a virus spread, you know that it can hit hundreds of people, becaause there is no vacine. This particular virus or bacteria is common and it makes people very ill. So they clean the ship and "hope" that people do not get sick when the next cruise sails.

A few years ago, an entire school and "religious" community up north had an outbreak of German Measels. This was a major event, because kids get shots to prevent this and is very dangerous to an pregnant women. We are talking about a community of about 500 and a school of about 200.

Someone from this "religious" school and community, came to the community from German of all place, hence German Measels.

This cost the province a lot of money, so there was a crack down on vacines records for all school kids. Out of date records, suspended from school until proof of updated records.

Teenagers are catching Whooping Cough in some parts. There is only a vacine for kids which could wear off by the time they are teenagers and or young adults.

There was another "widespread" incident in Nova Scotia, Eastern States with college students and a disease which could be prevented with the proper vacines. It affected a lot of people also, as the two "ground zero students" were at a pub and a school which is close to the USA.

So the quote from the first post on this tread is correct, because you cannot catch a disease from a person who has been immunized.

But I can catch the flu from you if I do not the current shot, that is why if you have the flu you made a choice not to get the shot, thereby spreading it to your family and friends. So you made that choice for them.

I for one am getting a flu shot, because the flu is not a nice thing to have, and if this shot can save me from being miserable, because the flu is not going away, then the whole family will be getting the shot.

Plus I am looking into the four type of menigitis shots because they are not covered by the provincial health system unless "medicallly" necessary and not by choice.

I am all for preventing diseases, the people who do not immunize their kids are just rolling the dice. Depending on the rest of society to protect their child, through immunizations, but more and more people in the rest of society is depending on this particular child to be vacinated. So two people "who must" depend on each other to make the opposite choice, make the "same" choice, but they just don't know it.

.

snvoigt said:

Well I understand the autism factor, but my dd has Cystic Fibrosis and an immune deficiency. When I find out that there are children not vaccinated around her it turns me into a nervous wreck. She was in the hospital a few weeks ago with whooping cough. There are vaccinations against that, but somewhere, someone decided they didn't want their kid to have it and they are seeing an outbreak of it. There are different vaccination's she has to get because of the "whole live virus thing" but at times I want to wrap her in bubble wrap every time we go out. I just think all kids should be vaccinated. If not to protect themselves, but to help protect my daughter.

Click to expand...

Then you can certainly understand why some people are uncertain about vaccinations and want to protect their children from the prospect of autism. Vaccinations don't always "protect" you from the disease. They are live bacteria of the disease. The vaccinations are supposed to help you build up an immunity by giving you a small dose. A child can still get some of the symptoms of the disease, just not as severe. I would think if you are that protective of your daughter you might want to protect her from the children who have been recently vaccinated too as they are carrying the disease for a short time.

Until I can see proof of the things the vaccinations definitely cause my kids are getting them. At least I know if they dont get them they can for sure get some bad stuff. I just wanna add that I am not downing on anyone who chooses not to, this is my personal opinion.

I have been battling against mandatory vaccinations for over 20 years. Let me tell you why.

Most of the vaccines given are the same as were given 40 years ago. In my generation, we did not see autism except in a very rare circumstance. Over the years, they added and added to the list of mandatory vaccinations...but they have also added serious risks. If you would do your research on the side effects associated with the vaccines, you would soon realize what you are truly risking is your child's life by taking them.

I was in an ER 18 years ago and a screaming, sobbing mother came in carrying her baby and his head was at least 2 times the normal size. Her child had just received his vaccinations only hours earlier. The child had developed encephalomyelitis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encephalomyelitis). This is the reality of being in the percentage of the children adversely affected by vaccines. This could be YOUR child next! Is your child the ONE out of so many thousands?!

Until they provide SAFE vaccinations for our children...they should NOT be mandatory and should be up to the parent to put their child at such risk. Children are not supposed to be used for medical experiments, but this is exactly what they are doing. The shots being given have proven not to be totally safe and yet they prefer to rely on their statistics.

To harm ONE child is not acceptable! To say ONE child should die because it is for the greater good is not acceptable!

I totally agree with everything that Am has said about Autism. My grandson is autistic and I do believe they will find a definite link to vaccinations eventually. We have to look at the number of children being affected by Autism today vs. children from my generation. We also have to look at what is being done differently as a possible cause and what I see universally are the vaccinations. They are used worldwide and the incidence of Autism is skyrocketing.

http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/vaccines.htm