Measles outbreak in Canberra

rimu said :

There are about 4 or 5 children in most classes in Orana who aren’t immunised, the rest of the children are immunised; some of us feel just like other people on this blog ; that its incredibly selfish for people not to immunise as it endangers the lives of the vulnerable.
But please remember that not every parent at Orana is the same we are a diverse community, including those people who believe the anthroposophical advice not to immunise. And those of us who are not there to embrace the whole philosophy and just want a holistic and creative educational experience for our children that matches their development.

Please think before you start throwing insults about everyone at the school that 85% of the families in the school do immunise their kids. thank you.

rimu said :

There are about 4 or 5 children in most classes in Orana who aren’t immunised, the rest of the children are immunised; some of us feel just like other people on this blog ; that its incredibly selfish for people not to immunise as it endangers the lives of the vulnerable.
But please remember that not every parent at Orana is the same we are a diverse community, including those people who believe the anthroposophical advice not to immunise. And those of us who are not there to embrace the whole philosophy and just want a holistic and creative educational experience for our children that matches their development.

Please think before you start throwing insults about everyone at the school that 85% of the families in the school do immunise their kids. thank you.

rimu said :

There are about 4 or 5 children in most classes in Orana who aren’t immunised, the rest of the children are immunised; some of us feel just like other people on this blog ; that its incredibly selfish for people not to immunise as it endangers the lives of the vulnerable.
But please remember that not every parent at Orana is the same we are a diverse community, including those people who believe the anthroposophical advice not to immunise. And those of us who are not there to embrace the whole philosophy and just want a holistic and creative educational experience for our children that matches their development.

Please think before you start throwing insults about everyone at the school that 85% of the families in the school do immunise their kids. thank you.

Thank you Rimu, but I think your comments may fall on deaf ears here. I think there are some who choose to believe all Orana parents are ‘feral non-vaccinating hippies’ despite a number of the infected children being immunised. There are very few children in my child’s class who have been excluded due to non-vaccination.

There are about 4 or 5 children in most classes in Orana who aren’t immunised, the rest of the children are immunised; some of us feel just like other people on this blog ; that its incredibly selfish for people not to immunise as it endangers the lives of the vulnerable.
But please remember that not every parent at Orana is the same we are a diverse community, including those people who believe the anthroposophical advice not to immunise. And those of us who are not there to embrace the whole philosophy and just want a holistic and creative educational experience for our children that matches their development.

Please think before you start throwing insults about everyone at the school that 85% of the families in the school do immunise their kids. thank you.

Nice to see some sensible discussion of this issue such as in the posts by ex-vectis and Wily_Bear.
Having heard of people in previous generations being crippled and needing crutches or living in iron lungs I was glad I got the immunisations I did, but the MMR one was not available yet so I suffered those illnesses and didn’t think anything of it, just accepted it as part of childhood, until I read in the paper about a type of encephalitis which can occur years after having the measles and I realised I was at the vulnerable age according to the article. I wonder how many parents really do some thorough objective research of all aspects of the vaccinations and the diseases they protect against and how many just react to the scare stories pushed by the anti-vaccine people?

http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4180

As far as i am concerned, peeps who do not vaccinate their children should have their kids taken away from them. It is child abuse. not only is it risking the lives of their own kids, but also the lives of kids who are either too young to be vacinated or cannot for legit health reasons.

Ex vectis, I agree completely with your sentiments, and I’m quite sure parents who make the choice not to vaccinate do so based on strong convictions (however misinformed). It does however bother me that the choice might well be based on figuring the risk of catching certain diseases is small. What they may or may not consider, is that assumption is based on the ‘herd principle’, and the hope that the majority of other parents don’t make the same choices they make- thereby affording their own child protection. This idea falls apart when the herd they associate with also fail to vaccinate.
Essentially, they are using the vaccination program for protection, whilst refusing to take part.

Vaccination is such an emotive issue with so much mis-information going on that it is too simple to just accuse Parents who dont vaccinate as being in the wrong. They are simply doing what they feel is right and they feel, using all the information they are given, that vaccination is wrong.

There are risks associated with vaccination. They are albeit very small risks, but risks nonetheless. Some parents feel the personal risks of vaccination outweigh the risks to society in general of not vaccinating. While I am on the side of vaccinating – and indeed intend to have our -3 month old vaccinated – I find it difficult to argue that those who don`t are in the wrong as it is their opinion.

A good example is the MMR (Measles Mumps Rubela) vaccination. Many people dont go for that as 20 seconds on the Internet will produce many scare stories of it causing Autism (‘My child had the MMR on Monday and went downhill to their state of Autism on Tuesday’). Fair do, statistically there will be, by sad coincidence, some children who exactly that happens to. However, simple population wide studies in Denmark, and a study that watched the incidence of Autism in Japan when the MMR was stopped altogether, prove to me that MMR does not cause Autism. But if I say that to someone who deeply believes that MMR causes Autism then I’d get the same reaction as if I went up to a devout Christian and told them that scientifically God doesn’t exist.

So vaccination discussions; more a green light to get the popcorn out than to expect rational debate 🙂 Lets just hope & pray that the measles outbreak is contained and controlled and doesnt kill or cause anyone lifelong problems…

micky_c85 said :

These parents who refuse to vaccinate are a bunch of parasites. They are nothing but a drain on the health system by allowing their children to contract illnesses that should be eradicated, as well as endangering the lives of children too young to be vaccinated.

Concur. Perhaps Orana children and parents should just be contained and not allowed to mingle with the rest of society, then they can feel free to not vaccinate and enjoy the ‘benefits’ of that without affecting the rest of us.

These parents who refuse to vaccinate are a bunch of parasites. They are nothing but a drain on the health system by allowing their children to contract illnesses that should be eradicated, as well as endangering the lives of children too young to be vaccinated.