Some Fairfax County Parents Opting Out of Vaccinations for Their Children
Parents can use waivers to opt out of 'mandatory' vaccines required for kindergarten and 6th grade
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About one percent of Fairfax County students are not getting vaccines, according to a national survey published this week in Pediatrics. According to the Fort Hunt Patch, the study concludes that one-in-ten parents don't comply with the vaccination schedule recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"Since many of the communicable diseases that we have developed vaccinations against still exist, any person who does not receive the recommended vaccines is at risk for contracting diseases like Pertussis, Measles, Rubella, Chickenpox or Hepatitus B," said Esther Walker, assistant director of Patient Care Services, Fairfax County Health Department. "These diseases are preventable and the best way to protect a child is to keep him or her up-to-date on recommended vaccinations… Children and adults can be exposed to communicable diseases anywhere they go."
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Tracy Bank
9:23 am on Thursday, October 6, 2011
And that is why we get the diseases that should have been eradicated in the US decades ago. As adults, after many years we have lost some of our immunities that our vaccines offered us. That's why Pertussis is making a comeback.
Sally Spangler
11:48 am on Friday, October 7, 2011
Ho-Hum - I'm 79. I had all my shots and vaccinations on schedule as a small child. Some years the school of that moment lined us up and we had our boosters. I thought I was all done. Then I joined the Army in 1951. Guess what I had them all over again. No way out, just roll up your sleeve and receive. Except for three day measles while in basic. I had no problems with illness caused by the various shots and certainly no illness. I can't image why children should not receive these various anti-whatever. A little precaution is nice. No untoward time in bed, shut off from the world and sicker than a dog. My time was also the time of polio. Got both of those as they became available. Still here, still well.