Wealthy L.A. Schools' Vaccination Rates Are as Low as South Sudan's

As a society in 2014, education Rule No. 1 should be: you don't vaccinate, your kid stays home.

Why we let a select few fucking bozos dictate the welfare of the greater population is beyond me.

 

That IS a rule. In public schools.

A vast majority of the anti-vaxx crowd enrolls their kids in private schools, which, "coincidentally," are where most of these outbreaks start.

Google "infant whooping cough" and show some of those videos to anyone who thinks vaccines aren't worth it.

 

I have an aunt who has polio because her dad — my step-grandfather, who was born in 1902 — didn't think the kids needed to be vaccinated.

Yeah, my kids are getting the shots, every shot they need.

 

Aren't there religious and other exemptions?

 

It's a rule in public schools but it doesn't stop the districts from extending the deadlines for the vaccinations and allowing the kids to stay in school.

 

It isn't a rule everywhere -- our public schools (Bay Area) grant a Personal Belief Exemption.

As whooping cough exposure has increased, the initial impulse was to blame all those damn immigrant children. Turns out they get vaccinated at a very high rate. It's all the Earth Mothers who are doing parenting better than the rest of us who don't take the vaccines.

 

In some places, yes. In some places, no. As LTL cited, the "personal belief exemption" is what everyone actually wants. That was essentially conjured out of thin air after almost every religious entity said there's no reason for them to prohibit vaccines.

There are medical exemptions, of course, and there is careful pre-vaccination screening catches most of those.

 

Here's a database that carries PBE rates by school (2013 version). Some private and charter schools have PBE rates above 70 percent. Even some public schools are into the 30s and 40s. Marin County as a whole has a 7.8 percent PBE rate.

http://blogs.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2013/09/06/more-california-parents-opting-out-of-vaccines-look-up-your-school-online/

 

I took a picture of a Toyota Carolla the other day that had bumper stickers that said:

"Pro-science. Pro-health.
ANTI-VACCINE."

"Vaccines cause ALL autoimmune diseases"

"The autism epidemic:
Environmental or 36 shots?"

"CALLOUS DISREGARD: I support Dr. Wakefield
Autism and vaccines: The truth behind a tragedy"

"Proud family of someone with AUTISM"

As a father of a child with autism, this kind of stupidness pisses me off.

 

Really feel sorry for that kid with a family like that.

 

Anti-vaxers are dumb and dangerous.
Hopefully the raw water movement doesn't catch on. People can go back to dying from cholera and typhoid, too.

Bring back all of the diseases largely controlled in the US for the past 100 years!