Who knew? Tightening requirements for waivers for school vaccines increases vaccine uptake

[HuckleB]

http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2016/01/29/who-knew-tightening-up-requirements-for-personal-belief-exemptions-to-school-vaccine-mandates-increases-vaccine-uptake/

"...

Remember how, starting January 1, 2015, the Michigan Department of Community Health altered the rules regarding requirements for parents to claim personal belief exemptions to vaccine mandates. Basically, it patterned its policy change on California Bill AB 2109, a bill from a few years ago that sought to tighten up requirements for personal belief exemptions (PBEs) in California. AB 2109 required parents seeking PBEs to meet with a physician or other enumerated health care practitioner to receive counseling on the risks of opting their children out of school vaccine requirements. The physician would then have to sign the PBE form to verify that he had counseled the parents. Of course, in the wake of the Disneyland measles outbreak a year ago, California passed a far stronger measure, SB 277, which, beginning with the 2016-2017 school year, eliminates PBEs in California.

...

So has this new rule been effective? A recent news report suggests that it has:

...

Statewide, 11,204 students (out of 399,880) had received waivers as of November 2015, for a rate of 2.8%. That compares to the 4.6% rate in November 2014, when 19,152 students (out of 415,891) received waivers.

So, based on this analysis, this temporal correlation between the enforcement of a more stringent standard for vaccine exemptions, the requirement that parents seeking PBEs go to a local health department for 15-30 minute counseling sessions on the benefits and risks of vaccines and, in particular, the risk of forgoing vaccines, has been effective. Statewide, PBE rates have declined markedly since the rule change. In metro Detroit, rates have declined ...

..."


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Good news is good news.

[tk2kewl]

1. we all have a responsibility to oneanother

[kiva]

2. The 'do what's easiest' factor had never occured to me.

Parents have to visit their local health department for the counseling. It’s a creative modification to a strategy designed to make obtaining a PBE at least as difficult as getting one’s children vaccinated. Indeed, part of the problem in Michigan, as in California, is that it’s been easier to obtain a PBE by simply signing a form and sending it to a child’s school than it is to actually get that child vaccinated according to the CDC schedule, or at least according to the requirements of the state school vaccine mandate.

I've always been a bit surprised by the number of parents (based on non-vaccinated children) who apparently actively opposed vaccines. Honestly, it makes more sense to me that a fair number are just unwilling to spend the time to take the kids in if they can just sign a paper instead.

[HuckleB]

3. It's interesting how many people who have insurance don't bring their kids to see a Ped.

Until the kid is actually quite sick. Of course, then there is no relationship. No history, and it makes care very difficult.

[GoneOffShore]

4. Good news for the kids and good news for immune-compromised people in Michigan!

[HuckleB]

5. Indeed!

[mhatrw]

7. You can't just allow people to control their own bloodstreams or reproductive systems

because then some might not make the (pharmaceutically) correct choice!

[HuckleB]

8. If you want to put others at risk by not vaccinating, then keep your kids at home.

This isn't hard stuff.



PS: Thanks for the kick!

[mhatrw]

9. I'm all vaccinated. I simply prefer to educate more than I prefer to mandate.

And you are welcome for the kick. I am happy to help educate people about this topic.

[HuckleB]

12. And educating them means making sure everyone is safe in public areas.

And that means making sure people get vaccinated.

[alarimer]

10. You must be unaware of the herd immunity concept

It only works when 80% or more of people are vaccinated against a disease.

Vaccines MUST be mandatory for it to work. It is a public health issue, individual rights be damned. I don't give a rat's ass about anyone's precious bodily fluids. Get the vaccines, otherwise you are a selfish ass of a human being.

[mhatrw]

11. LOL. Are you saying you cannot possibly educate 80%+ of people to vaccinate?

Last edited Fri Jan 29, 2016, 07:37 PM - Edit history (1)

If you just take all the unnecessary crap out of all vaccines and make vaccine manufacturers liable for the small number of injuries their products cause, I would think it would very easy to get a 95%+ uptake simply by educating people. But that's me. Always with too much faith in my fellow humans and too little faith in The Man.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. Well the profit for pharma from vaccines is just a bunch of hooey

let me see. 10 bucks for the MMR, or a million for a kid in ICU, who remains blind after measles. Or worst, dies after 2 weeks of the ICU.

If you are into the profit, what do you think is far more profitable? The ICU or the 10 bucks for the jab? Think hard about that one.

Also injuries from vaccines could be just having a tad more of a fever from the flu shot, and yes I could have applied to the committee... do you really think that me having to take two more tylenol and feeling run over for a day really qualified for that fund? I am sure some folks would file though, because well.

Oh and public health is partially education, but partially mandates.

One reason why Americans have become stupid regarding vaccines is that they do not see this often.



Yup that kid is blind from measles.



and we certainly are not seeing this anymore


Or this

Isn't polio fun?



Whooping cough, that baby is truly having a grand old time.

Spare me the rest by the way. I have like zero tolerance or patience for people who even make the argument that public health should not be mandated.

[gratuitous]

13. If that's what we as a group decide, then yes

See, that's how a democracy and a society work. But what does this have to do with reproductive systems?

Right now, we as a society have apparently chosen to listen to a handful of people who have persuaded a majority of us that it's not in our interest to be paid a living wage, to try to stop disease epidemics, to make sure our food supply is safe and wholesome, to provide a quality education for our children, to provide safe drinking water, or even to fix roads and bridges. This same handful of people have persuaded a majority of us that it's a very bad trade-off to pay an additional, say, $1,000 in taxes annually in order to have all the things (and more) listed above.

The poisonous fruit of this tree of rotten ideas has been oppressing our society for going on 40 years. A few people have gotten very wealthy, but far more people are slipping further and further behind every day, week, month and year, under the current system. Maybe it's time to do things differently.

[Odin2005]

18. When those idiots threaten the health of others...

...yes, that "control" should be taken from them.

[tammywammy]

14. That's good news

That type of minimum requirement for a vaccine waiver should be implemented in all states.

[HuckleB]

17. Indeed. -eom-

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Now if tney just follow my state in now making them MANDATORY

and getting rid of PBEs

[HuckleB]

19. Alas, other states did not get the job done.

Including Oregon, where the anti-vaccine tirade scared off the legislature.