Chickenpox Outbreak in Anti-Vaxxer Community

[The New California Republic]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46267038

A North Carolina school with a large anti-vaccine community is at the heart of the state's largest chickenpox outbreak in decades, officials say.

On Friday 36 students at Asheville Waldorf School were diagnosed with the disease, the Asheville Citizen-Times newspaper reported.

The school has one of the state's highest rates of religious exemption, allowing students to skip vaccination.

US health officials say vaccinating is far safer than getting chickenpox.

"This is the biggest chickenpox outbreak state health officials are aware of since the vaccine became available," a North Carolina Department of Health spokesman told the BBC in an emailed statement.

Out of the Waldorf School's 152 students, 110 have not received the vaccine for the varicella virus, known to most as chickenpox, the Citizen-Times found.

And 67.9% of the school's kindergarten students had religious immunisation exemptions on file in the 2017-2018 school year, according to state data.

---

At least it is "only" chickenpox. which (usually) isn't serious in children. There is a whole raft of far more serious diseases that children are susceptible to if they are not routinely vaccinated. Is it time to implement some kind of punitive measures on parents that refuse to have their children vaccinated? Does the Anti-Vaxxer movement pose a threat to public health at large? Is there any way to educate parents to dispel the myths surrounding vaccinations?

I hope that this acts as a wake-up call to the parents whose children are involved in this outbreak. It is unfortunate, but I believe that their children being affected by the diseases that the vaccinations are supposed to protect against is one of the only ways that these parents will actually learn, such is the intractability of their opinions.

I'm actually on the fence regarding punitive measures against the parents. On the one hand I believe that the risk to public health is serious enough to warrant routine vaccination, but I cannot imagine any measures taken against the parents that wouldn't indirectly affect the child in some way. And the thought of children being dragged off to be vaccinated against their parents' will just comes across as abhorrent.

[Bauscland]

This perhaps comes as a surprise to no one...

[Valentine Z]

I am not surprised, but at the same time, I am not being unsympathetic.

What happened to the kids was a terrible thing, but I really, really hope this is a wake-up call to the Anti-vaxxers.

Knowing them, any method you try to implement will simply end up with them screaming "Global Conspiracy!" and "Poison injection!"

[Indo-Malaysia]

The parents should be punished for refusing vaccination for their children. Not only do they put their child at risk, but it contagious diseases can also spread to others, putting them also at risk.

And you wonder why so many died from diseases before vaccination became widely accepted.

[Internationalist Bastard]

There’s also measles outbreaks elsewhere
Isn’t it fun hating science?

[Internationalist Bastard]

I am not surprised, but at the same time, I am not being unsympathetic.

What happened to the kids was a terrible thing, but I really, really hope this is a wake-up call to the Anti-vaxxers.

Knowing them, any method you try to implement will simply end up with them screaming "Global Conspiracy!" and "Poison injection!"

Please we already have more serious preventable illnesses and people still scream

[Herskerstad]

Tragic, but vaccinations despite some setbacks and less than stellar practices is and remains the single greatest medical invention of the last few centuries.

[Xmara]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46267038

A North Carolina school with a large anti-vaccine community is at the heart of the state's largest chickenpox outbreak in decades, officials say.

On Friday 36 students at Asheville Waldorf School were diagnosed with the disease, the Asheville Citizen-Times newspaper reported.

The school has one of the state's highest rates of religious exemption, allowing students to skip vaccination.

US health officials say vaccinating is far safer than getting chickenpox.

"This is the biggest chickenpox outbreak state health officials are aware of since the vaccine became available," a North Carolina Department of Health spokesman told the BBC in an emailed statement.

Out of the Waldorf School's 152 students, 110 have not received the vaccine for the varicella virus, known to most as chickenpox, the Citizen-Times found.

And 67.9% of the school's kindergarten students had religious immunisation exemptions on file in the 2017-2018 school year, according to state data.

---

At least it is "only" chickenpox. which (usually) isn't serious in children. There is a whole raft of far more serious diseases that children are susceptible to if they are not routinely vaccinated. Is it time to implement some kind of punitive measures on parents that refuse to have their children vaccinated? Does the Anti-Vaxxer movement pose a threat to public health at large? Is there any way to educate parents to dispel the myths surrounding vaccinations?

I hope that this acts as a wake-up call to the parents whose children are involved in this outbreak. It is unfortunate, but I believe that their children being affected by the diseases that the vaccinations are supposed to protect against is one of the only ways that these parents will actually learn, such is the intractability of their opinions.

I'm actually on the fence regarding punitive measures against the parents. On the one hand I believe that the risk to public health is serious enough to warrant routine vaccination, but I cannot imagine any measures taken against the parents that wouldn't indirectly affect the child in some way. And the thought of children being dragged off to be vaccinated against their parents' will just comes across as abhorrent.

If the 2014 Disneyland measles outbreak taught us anything, then I doubt it. Although I believe that California removed religious/philosophical exemptions shortly after the outbreak, so maybe.

Quite frankly I think the only exemptions that should be made are for medical reasons. I don't have kids, but if I did, I wouldn't want them around kids whose parents won't vaccinate them and it's not because the kids have medical issues preventing them from being vaccinated.

Also, while it's just chickenpox, I had chickenpox as a kid (was vaccinated, so it was a very mild case), and it was not fun.

[LiberNovusAmericae]

Surprised, I'm not. Unfortunately, with people like that, I highly doubt that even events such as this will be a sufficient wake up call.

[Internationalist Bastard]

Tragic, but vaccinations despite some setbacks and less than stellar practices is and remains the single greatest medical invention of the last few centuries.

Which is saying something considering most medical inventions are recent

[Internationalist Bastard]

Surprised, I'm not. Unfortunately, with people like that, I highly doubt that even events such as this will be a sufficient wake up call.

I’ve heard reports of people not reporting illnesses in their children to avoid being judged

[Trollzyn the Infinite]

Not vaccinating your children should be a federal offense.

[Xmara]

Tragic, but vaccinations despite some setbacks and less than stellar practices is and remains the single greatest medical invention of the last few centuries.

Which is saying something considering most medical inventions are recent

Yep. There's a good reason why we don't see smallpox anywhere anymore, and why diphtheria and polio are almost unheard of. In fact, there's only 3 countries where polio is still a problem.

[Saiwania]

There can actually be some good reasons for being anti-vaxxer. Provided someone doesn't dismiss all vaccination as being bad out of principle.

In my case, I'm against vaccinations if it is a new batch that is too recent and hasn't been means tested enough so far as determining side effects goes, and if the vaccination in question costs too much money. Ideally it'd be free or the government picks up the tab. But if the vaccine is expensive, I'm not going to go out of my way to get it. At best, I'd want a generic or older version of whatever exists.

[Darkium]

Well, instead of punitive measures against the parents (which honestly would be great, you should target people stupid enough to put their kids at risk because they don't have enough intelligence to put two and two together), what might work better in terms of public health is for the federal government or at least the state government to get their heads out of their rears and mandate that for a child to attend school they need to be up to date with their vaccine schedule. None of this 'religious' exemption malarkey; if there are no medical reasons for not vaccinating, then every child has to be vaccinated to attend school.

Not just public schools; any institution that claims to be an educational centre. If the anti-vaxxers remain too thick to put their children's health above their uninformed opinions, they can home school them so they aren't a risk to other children with legitimate medical reasons for being unable to vaccinate.

[Khasinkonia]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46267038

---

At least it is "only" chickenpox. which (usually) isn't serious in children. There is a whole raft of far more serious diseases that children are susceptible to if they are not routinely vaccinated. Is it time to implement some kind of punitive measures on parents that refuse to have their children vaccinated? Does the Anti-Vaxxer movement pose a threat to public health at large? Is there any way to educate parents to dispel the myths surrounding vaccinations?

I hope that this acts as a wake-up call to the parents whose children are involved in this outbreak. It is unfortunate, but I believe that their children being affected by the diseases that the vaccinations are supposed to protect against is one of the only ways that these parents will actually learn, such is the intractability of their opinions.

I'm actually on the fence regarding punitive measures against the parents. On the one hand I believe that the risk to public health is serious enough to warrant routine vaccination, but I cannot imagine any measures taken against the parents that wouldn't indirectly affect the child in some way. And the thought of children being dragged off to be vaccinated against their parents' will just comes across as abhorrent.

If the 2014 Disneyland measles outbreak taught us anything, then I doubt it. Although I believe that California removed religious/philosophical exemptions shortly after the outbreak, so maybe.

Quite frankly I think the only exemptions that should be made are for medical reasons. I don't have kids, but if I did, I wouldn't want them around kids whose parents won't vaccinate them and it's not because the kids have medical issues preventing them from being vaccinated.

Also, while it's just chickenpox, I had chickenpox as a kid (was vaccinated, so it was a very mild case), and it was not fun.

I have to say, if I were a parent and my kids were going to a school with a large antivaxxer community and this happened, I’d be on the warpath right now. I’m a person of faith myself and I do try to avoid discriminating based on religious values in any case, but when the religious values are creating potentially dangerous situations for me or people I know, I’ve the mind to start pushing for hard secularisation.

[Herskerstad]

Tragic, but vaccinations despite some setbacks and less than stellar practices is and remains the single greatest medical invention of the last few centuries.

Which is saying something considering most medical inventions are recent

While not a medical expert by any stretch and could well be wrong, I know of few fields that have saved more lives outside the world of Fritz Haber.

[Internationalist Bastard]

Which is saying something considering most medical inventions are recent

Yep. There's a good reason why we don't see smallpox anywhere anymore, and why diphtheria and polio are almost unheard of. In fact, there's only 3 countries where polio is still a problem.

I dunno about anyone else
But personally I’d rather not die horribly and slowly by illness

[The Great Imperator Jeffrey]

Anti-vaxxers are absolute idiots.

[Valentine Z]

There can actually be some good reasons for being anti-vaxxer. Provided someone doesn't dismiss all vaccination as being bad out of principle.

In my case, I'm against vaccinations if it is a new batch that is too recent and hasn't been means tested enough so far as determining side effects goes, and if the vaccination in question costs too much money. Ideally it'd be free or the government picks up the tab. But if the vaccine is expensive, I'm not going to go out of my way to get it. At best, I'd want a generic or older version of whatever exists.

But these are all tried and tested! Granted, there is a very small chance that you will get adverse reactions, but that 0.01% (or however small) chance is being outweighed by the overwhelming benefits.

There's a difference between being cautious about the new stuff, and denying science that has proven to work over and over. And knowing AVers, I can say that they will absolutely not see it that way. For them, it's either all good or all bad.

As far as I am concerned, vaccines aren't that expensive. Sure, they will take money to develop, but the end-product is something you can get for free for most of the time. And you just need annual or 2-3 yearly shots.

[Khasinkonia]

But these are all tried and tested! Granted, there is a very small chance that you will get adverse reactions, but that 0.01% (or however small) chance is being outweighed by the overwhelming benefits.

There's a difference between being cautious about the new stuff, and denying science that has proven to work over and over.

I have a special place of disdain in my heart for the deniers of clear scientific precedent. Antivaxxers endager themselves, and more importantly others with their dangerous suspicions. I’ve no qualms with people putting themselves at risk, but when other people are put into harm’s way, I feel that public action is necessary to some degree.

[Xmara]

If the 2014 Disneyland measles outbreak taught us anything, then I doubt it. Although I believe that California removed religious/philosophical exemptions shortly after the outbreak, so maybe.

Quite frankly I think the only exemptions that should be made are for medical reasons. I don't have kids, but if I did, I wouldn't want them around kids whose parents won't vaccinate them and it's not because the kids have medical issues preventing them from being vaccinated.

Also, while it's just chickenpox, I had chickenpox as a kid (was vaccinated, so it was a very mild case), and it was not fun.

I have to say, if I were a parent and my kids were going to a school with a large antivaxxer community and this happened, I’d be on the warpath right now. I’m a person of faith myself and I do try to avoid discriminating based on religious values in any case, but when the religious values are creating potentially dangerous situations for me or people I know, I’ve the mind to start pushing for hard secularisation.

I'm religious too, but I agree: religious exemptions for vaccines should not exist.

And my kids wouldn't even go to a school with a large antivax community. I'd move before sending my kids to a school where 50% of the student body is unvaccinated.

[Indo-Malaysia]

But these are all tried and tested! Granted, there is a very small chance that you will get adverse reactions, but that 0.01% (or however small) chance is being outweighed by the overwhelming benefits.

There's a difference between being cautious about the new stuff, and denying science that has proven to work over and over.

I have a special place of disdain in my heart for the deniers of clear scientific precedent. Antivaxxers endager themselves, and more importantly others with their dangerous suspicions.

but I don't need vaconations

the planets are aligned, my piss is neon green and my humours are in balance. don't have this daft vacsinayshun malarkey. it givs u poison and autism and maeks u even iller

[Xmara]

I have a special place of disdain in my heart for the deniers of clear scientific precedent. Antivaxxers endager themselves, and more importantly others with their dangerous suspicions.

but I don't need vaconations

the planets are aligned, my piss is neon green and my humours are in balance. don't have this daft vacsinayshun malarkey. it givs u poison and autism and maeks u even iller

Alt-med: another one of my major pet peeves.

[Khasinkonia]

I have to say, if I were a parent and my kids were going to a school with a large antivaxxer community and this happened, I’d be on the warpath right now. I’m a person of faith myself and I do try to avoid discriminating based on religious values in any case, but when the religious values are creating potentially dangerous situations for me or people I know, I’ve the mind to start pushing for hard secularisation.

I'm religious too, but I agree: religious exemptions for vaccines should not exist.

And my kids wouldn't even go to a school with a large antivax community. I'd move before sending my kids to a school where 50% of the student body is unvaccinated.

Antivaxxers are precisely the excuse I’d need to organise a coup in the PTA