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To Protect His Son, a Father Asks School to Bar Unvaccinated Children

npr.org

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Re: To Protect His Son, a Father Asks School to Bar Unvaccinated Children

#11

Post by pzxc »

Some people view their right to not vaccinate, not circumcise, have a home birth of their son and then home-school him, to be an essential religious freedom protected by the first amendment, no different than their right to be a conscientious objector of military conscription.

This is a far more complex issue than it appears. Don't dismiss it derisively, as if only an idiot could disagree with you. (Not speaking to anyone in particular) (Also not saying I support this position)

Edit... ...I guess this is the last time I try to express an unpopular opinion in comments. Ironic that it's an opinion I don't even hold. Groupthink yay rah rah rah!! :)

Re: To Protect His Son, a Father Asks School to Bar Unvaccinated Children

#12

Post by WhitneyLand »

In the name of science and our wellbeing, please direct anyone you know who has good faith concerns to the NOVA episode Calling The Shots: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xm9mZ9j-oQ

It's very accessible, and doesn't simply dismiss those who are anti-vaccine. Of course as with many NOVA episodes this one is fascinating regardless of your viewpoint.

Re: To Protect His Son, a Father Asks School to Bar Unvaccinated Children

#13

Post by JoshTriplett »

pzxc wrote: post #11

Some people view their right to not vaccinate, not circumcise, have a home birth of their son and then home-school him, to be an essential religious freedom protected by the first amendment, no different than their right to be a conscientious objector of military conscription. This is a far more complex issue than it appears. Don't dismiss it derisively, as if only an idiot could disagree with you. (Not speaking to a…

Only one of those three behaviors affects other people.

Re: To Protect His Son, a Father Asks School to Bar Unvaccinated Children

#14

Post by bronson »

pzxc wrote: post #11

Some people view their right to not vaccinate, not circumcise, have a home birth of their son and then home-school him, to be an essential religious freedom protected by the first amendment, no different than their right to be a conscientious objector of military conscription. This is a far more complex issue than it appears. Don't dismiss it derisively, as if only an idiot could disagree with you. (Not speaking to a…

Your decisions on circumcision and home birth do not affect my infant child's ability to live. Your decision on vaccination does.

Re: To Protect His Son, a Father Asks School to Bar Unvaccinated Children

#15

Post by moultano »

pzxc wrote: post #11

Some people view their right to not vaccinate, not circumcise, have a home birth of their son and then home-school him, to be an essential religious freedom protected by the first amendment, no different than their right to be a conscientious objector of military conscription. This is a far more complex issue than it appears. Don't dismiss it derisively, as if only an idiot could disagree with you. (Not speaking to a…

If they viewed driving drunk as an essential religious freedom, we would rightly punish them for endangering the lives of others.

Having an unvaccinated child in public is endangering the lives of others and should be treated as such.

Re: To Protect His Son, a Father Asks School to Bar Unvaccinated Children

#16

Post by hayksaakian »

pzxc wrote: post #11

Some people view their right to not vaccinate, not circumcise, have a home birth of their son and then home-school him, to be an essential religious freedom protected by the first amendment, no different than their right to be a conscientious objector of military conscription. This is a far more complex issue than it appears. Don't dismiss it derisively, as if only an idiot could disagree with you. (Not speaking to a…

This seems perfectly fine in so far as your choices do not generally harm society directly.

Home schooling your child will not cause an epidemic.

Its really only vaccination or lack thereof which has far reaching consequences.

Re: To Protect His Son, a Father Asks School to Bar Unvaccinated Children

#17

Post by DanBC »

Iftheshoefits wrote: post #7
DanBC wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mockery and ridicule do not change people's minds. People who chose not to vaccinate their children only retreat further from vaccination if you use mockery or ridicule. If your aim is to protect children by increasing the numbers of vaccinated children it's important not to use mockery or ridicule. Those are the wrong tools.

People who choose not to vaccinate their children are by and large beyond the reach of reason, in much the same way the typical religious person is. I wouldn't advocate mockery and ridicule because it is as equally wasted as reason is on these people. Instead they should simply be ignored to the extent possible, and when not possible as in the case of the subject of this article they should be quarantined so the rest…

The parents might be unreachable. But the children grow up and they, and then their children, might be reachable.

Those later generations are easier to vaccinate if they haven't been subjected to years of mocking.

Re: To Protect His Son, a Father Asks School to Bar Unvaccinated Children

#18

Post by bequanna »

pzxc wrote: post #11

Some people view their right to not vaccinate, not circumcise, have a home birth of their son and then home-school him, to be an essential religious freedom protected by the first amendment, no different than their right to be a conscientious objector of military conscription. This is a far more complex issue than it appears. Don't dismiss it derisively, as if only an idiot could disagree with you. (Not speaking to a…

Ok, but I think you're missing the point here.

It would be OK if you were to refuse vaccinations and only you had to bear the costs of that decision: You get sick, you die, the end.

That is not the case here. There are, potentially, huge external costs to your decision. You may get sick and infect others with poor immune systems. Other people might die.

I think a good comparison here would be parents who expose their children to second hand smoke. Sure, it's your choice to smoke, and if you get sick or die from smoking, fine. But when you force others to bear the consequences of your decisions, and impact their health, well, that isn't fair and it shouldn't be legal to do so.

EDIT:

First, most of these parents are not making this decision for religious reasons any more than they are not eating gluten for religious reasons.

Additionally, hiding behind religious expression/freedom is BS. There are plenty of religious practices that would be illegal if followed. I know it's cool to be PC, but you need to stop somewhere. If a religion promoted cannibalism or human sacrifice, we certainly wouldn't allow that, would we?

Re: To Protect His Son, a Father Asks School to Bar Unvaccinated Children

#19

Post by haiguy »

Do any of you religiously stay up to date on your boosters to stay fully immune to these diseases?

Do you advocate shutting down the borders, prosecuting people to the fullest extent of the law that are found illegally in this country, and overall taking every effort to prevent illegal immigrants into the country where we can't control their movements amongst the population and have no history of their medical conditions, what diseases they are carrying, and their vaccination status?

A few percentage of unvaccinated children are not the hysterical public health threat that some of you make them out to be. In general you always have that percentage not vaccinated always.

If third world diseases are popping up again in this country, maybe we should be looking at the unregulated flow of immigrants, and not generally shitting all over affluent, intelligent individuals with healthy children.

Re: To Protect His Son, a Father Asks School to Bar Unvaccinated Children

#20

Post by gojomo »

Rather than penalizing the parents brave enough to shun modern medicine, let's reward them: a free trip to Disneyland for all their families, at the same time, as soon as possible. In fact, let's give them a full (checks Wikipedia) 21 days isolated inside "the happiest place on Earth".
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