Do your kids have their shots? Exclusion Day is Wednesday
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PORTLAND, Ore. - Oregonians - if you have a child in school, you don't have much time left to make sure they are current on their immunizations or have an exemption.
Wednesday is Exclusion Day, which means any kids who don't have either of those can be held out of school.
"Immunization is an effective way to keep schools and the entire community healthy," said Stacy de Assis Matthews, school law coordinator for the Oregon Health Authority's Public Health Division. "If school and child care vaccination records are not up to date, the child will be sent home."
State law requires that all children in public and private schools, preschools, Head Start and certified child care facilities have up-to-date immunizations, or have a religious or medical exemption.
Getting the Shots
Parents seeking immunizations for their children should contact their health care provider or local health department, or call Oregon SafeNet at 1-800-SAFENET (1-800-723-3638) or 211. No one can be turned away from a local health department because of the inability to pay for required vaccines.
Locally, the Multnomah County Health Department is holding two immunization clinics this week for children who are uninsured or under insured:
- Tuesday, Feb. 19 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the State Office Building on Oregon Street in Northeast Portland.
- Wednesday, Feb. 20 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the East County Services Building at 600 N.E. Eight Street in Gresham.
For more information on immunizations:
- Oregon immunization rates by county
- Oregon Health Authority - Immunization safety information
- Oregon Health Authority - Vaccines Q and A
- Multnomah County - School immunization information
Bill Being Considered
On Tuesday, state lawmakers will hear Senate Bill 132, which would change how parents opt out. If it passes, it would require parents who request non-medical exemptions from immunization requirements to submit a signed form from a healthcare provider, or complete an online educational video.
The bill's supporters at the Oregon Pediatric Society say they want parents who opt out to know the risks of not vaccinating - to both their children and the community.
Innoculation..... Will Appease.......
With all the current anti-gun hysteria is "shots" the best way to describe vaccinations for kids?
A religious exemption? That's idiotic. People have a right to their religious views when it affects only themselves, of course. But when their beliefs have potentially drastic and adverse impacts on others, their rights stop there. We should no more allow people to (mis)use religion to endanger public health than we would give one second of credibilty to someone who wants to drive but not obey traffic signs because that would somehow violate their religious beliefs. Of course that would be loony, and so it is just as loony to let someone use their religion to endanger public health.
If parents don't want to immunize their kids then they should not be allowed in the PUBLIC schools. Those non-immunized kids cause everyone to be at risk.Â
@KKStJohn Good. I'd rather send my kids to private schools, or even home school if the came to that, then send them to government indoctrination centers. The lack of vaccines being pushed on them is only one of hundreds of pluses. Â
 How many times in the past 20 years have they come back and said, uh you need to take another dose of the vaccine because what you where given did work, or was mishandled and left out, or whatever excuse they have to jabbing people again, and again. Vaccines are a huge money maker. Dealing with endless idiots with the vaccines, fluoride, high fructose corn syrup, apartame, GMO's in everything etc etc and then they wonder why at age 28 they have cancer.. Gee I don't know.Â
@axpman @KKStJohn In the last 18 or so years, I've had exactly four vaccines - two flu shots and two Tdap. One is a shot that is needed every year, the other every 10. I've never had to redo one because it didn't work or whatever - just the usual regimen that has been there for a long time.
Ah, don't you love backroom corporate deals and campaign donations that result in forcing your kid/s to get shots with questionable benefits.
I'm not 100% against vaccinations, but the amount of vaccinations required screams big pharma employing big scare tactics to enrich themselves.
@deejm2112Â That's because you live in a world without polio, smallpox, measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough, etc, etc, etc. Â
Vaccinations are partly victims of their own success.
@Festivus And a lot of those were "way back when" before shareholder value took over as the primary corporate driver over people (employees, the "good of the many", etc...).
@deejm2112 @Festivus That pretty much covers the required vaccinations. It keeps those things from coming back in large numbers. A lot of people have stopped getting their Tdap vaccine, and as such there have been large outbreaks of whooping cough. These illnesses haven't gone away, it's just that those of us with vaccines are protected.
There are others you can get that are voluntary - like HPV and flu. I'd much rather my child get 3 shots than cancer. HPV and chicken pox are the only vaccines our daughter's had that my husband and I didn't have as a child as far as I can remember.
I saw KATU's "debate" of medical "professionals" last night, was a joke. Having a chriopractor talking about immunization is like having a Starbucks clerk tell me whats wrong with my car. Why the media wants to turn this into another equal footing debate is irresponsible/ KATU is endangering public health in the quest to sell media web clicks.
@dynamited77Â N.S. Â I go out of my way to get people to read the Wikipedia article on Chiropractics and it's pseudo-scientific underpinnings whenever I get a chance.
Goddamn voodoo witch-doctors.
@Festivus @dynamited77 I might not be quite as jaded, because I feel chiropractors are great when you've thrown out your back, stuff like that.  But I'd never see one for 'real' stuff (oops -- that sounds worse than I mean).  My ex daughter-in-law is a naturopathic physician -- great for skin rashes, some potential diagnostic stuff, but she's very pro-vaccination as am I.  My daughter isn't, and when my grandson got measles last year, it was horrible...hopefully my one little earth-cookie child has seen the light re: vaccines....I stay on my soapbox about it.
@Jenni S. @Festivus @Sundowner @dynamited77 Like I said.  Those are the only two things that chiropractic medicine has ever been shown to have any effect.  So have at it.  It's just an accident of empirical medicine with no basis in chiropractic theory.
@Festivus @Sundowner @dynamited77 I found that no form of standard medicine ever made my back and neck feel as good as going to the chiropractor. For those of us with issues like scoliosis, about the only things standard medicine has to offer us is pain meds and surgery.
@Festivus My great-grandmother was a chiropractor WAY back...at that time, all they did was spinal/neck adjustments.  She may have been a quack for all I know, but people traveled from all over Kansas to see her -- and she wasn't run out of town on a rail or strung up for being a witch, so I guess she was OK.  LOL!
@Sundowner @Festivus @dynamited77 Controlled studies show that lower back pain and some neck pain are the only things that have any measurable clinical response to chiropractic adjustment, still no better than standard medicine.  Once you read up on the underlying theory, you realize that they just stumbled on those by accident. Â
Simple change in the law. If you elect not to have your kid vaccinated, and a child who cannot be vaccinated (due to allergy, other health condition, etc.) contracts the disease from your child, you (the moron parent) are liable for all medical expenses for the victims life, or $10 million in the case of death.
Taking responsibility for your choices is a conservative mantra until it applies to them . . . .
@ShallowEnder Thats fine with me because I have never met someone who has had measles, whooping cough, measles, etc...
And if you are vaccinated but still get sick, then the vaccine don't work right?
@portlandborn83 @ShallowEnder @FestivusChicken pox, measles and whooping cough are out there and are dreadful, potentially fatal diseases.  There was a measles outbreak (Salem? Eugene?) last month, spread by someone who returned to the US from the Netherlands.  http://www.katu.com/news/local/Case-of-measles-reported-in-Marion-County-188290191.html.  Because the child wasn't immunized and traveled internationally, I can't comprehend how many people were infected (especially dangerous for pregnant women since it can result in birth defects), at airports, stores, schools.  Very irresponsible, IMO. Â
@portlandborn83Â The CDC calculates the flu vaccine effectiveness at roughly 70%.
Either you don't understand or you don't want to understand how vaccines work. Â Which is it?
@portlandborn83 @Festivus Yes.  One measles outbreak can literally infect thousands, especially since the 'carrier' in the most recent case went through numerous airports around the globe.  Measles can actually kill people, particularly the young, elderly and those with fragile immune systems...it's a respiratory infection.  As for whooping cough, again it kills people.  And flu vaccines?  I work with sick people all day every day.  I get a flu vaccine (required by my employer) every year...despite constant exposure, I haven't had the flu in 15+ years.  You can't seriously be so selfish that you espouse "As long as I don't get it, what do I care?" when it comes to communicable diseases, can you?  I'd hate to know other communicable 'things' you don't care about as long as you don't get an outbreak.
@portlandborn83Â There was one outbreak because most people had the vaccine. When you start having larger populations not covered by a vaccine, you see bigger outbreaks. That's what happened with Whooping Cough - it hit youth who were too young to have the shot and adults who had not renewed their shot.
@portlandborn83Â As long as it isn't your son going sterile from the measles, what do you care?
@Sundowner @portlandborn83 @ShallowEnder @Festivus Oh so vaccinate hundreds due to one measles outbreak?Â
And vaccinate the population because a handful get whoopin cough?
Makes more sense to the flu vaccine that doesn't work...
@Sundowner @portlandborn83 @ShallowEnder @Festivus There have also been major whooping cough outbreaks over the last year.Â
@portlandborn83Â @ShallowEnderThat's right. Â What's your point?
No vaccine is 100% effective in 100% of the population. Â
@axpman @Festivus How do you argue with such monumental stupidity and denial?
@Festivus
Â
"No vaccine is 100% effective in 100% of the population. "
No vaccine has even been proven to actually work.
@ShallowEnder No. The law is fine. If anything they should move the date forward. Endangering public health isn't a right we should be going out of our way to protect.
This may be off the point and I'm certainly not an expert on the subject but why does TV news always show injections with the biggest, baddest and longest needles they can find? This to me would be the first thing to turn people off to getting immunizations!
If you don't get vaccinated they will put you in domestic surveillance programs and you may even be put on fema quarantine lists:
http://www.infowars.com/cdc-calls-homes-demands-immunization-records-in-vaccine-surveillance-program/
Cousin severely disabled by DPT vaccine. Now dead. : (  Know your family history and family sensitivities/allergies before committing to vaccines, etc.
@whirledworld Yes, that is important to know. It's why they ask if you have an allergies to certain things. Usually they're things you would know about, like shellfish and eggs, but not always.
The knuckledraggers and troglodytes and Luddites have spoken. My great aunt moved from St. Louis to Texas because the water was being fluoridated. It was, she maintained, a Communist (capital C) plot to poison her. The Commies were willing to take out a whole city just to get to her. Most of you who have posted so far are as looney as she was.
@Mechanic I grew up in St Louis in the 50s & 60s. No fluoridation.  All my teeth have fillings due to St Louis water. I moved to Washington state....for 30 years I had no cavities. Two years ago I moved to Portland. AGAIN, I've got cavities that came on immediately upon moving here due to no fluoride. . I'm voting for fluoridation in the water.  I've always been shocked by what bad teeth (or NO TEETH) the people in Oregon have (or have not).  It's like some backwoods Appalachian 'holler'.Â
@KKStJohn @Mechanic brush your dang teeth and put down the cokes and sodas
@KKStJohn @Mechanic Why don't you just use fluoride rinse? you know...like ACT? I do, and at least I know whats in it, some places use the wrong type of fluoride in their water.
@deejm2112 @KKStJohn @Mechanic You can do rinses and you can do a daily tablet. Our daughter does the tablet.
The well water in Texas has very high fluoridecontent so the joke was on her. But as an aside which side of the knuclkle draggers/luddite/troglodyte political spectrum is most of the anti-flouridation folks in Portlandia fall on ya think ?
@Tonk If you want to poison yourself, then knock yourself out. Why do you libtards have to drag those of us still capable of rational thought down with you?Â
@axpman @Tonk Hahaha!  Why do us "libtards" have to drag you down?  Because apparently you're not really capable of taking care of yourself and certainly care nothing of others.  Sometimes as a civilized society one has to see beyond the end of their own nose and look for the betterment of all.  That being said, the nice thing about some plague coming along or some massive outbreak of bird flu or whatever, all that'll be left is us "libtards".  Please, I urge you to get no vaccinations whatsoever.  Oh, and if you step on a rusty nail, put some Bactine on it and call it good, k?
@axpman @Tonk Actually, we were kind of hoping you wouldn't vaccinate.
@Mechanic Hitler added it to the water in the concentration camps because he cared about people's teeth.
@axpman Hitler served bread to people in concentration camps... BREAD BAD!
@JTesla well yes, if it's not gluten free and you have celiac or thyroid disease.
@axpman So is bread:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505269_162-57505149/modern-wheat-a-perfect-chronic-poison-doctor-says/
It's poison!
@JTeslahttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3491930/
 Yeah, fluoride is fantastic stuff.Â
Why is it anyone's business whether or not I give my kids these shots? If they work so well why would someone be so concerned with my kids not having their shots? Your kid wouldn't be in danger, just mine, so let me deal with that. Meanwhile, I'll go chat with my other relatives about their thoughts on our two family members who were severely injured by shots.Â
@finlyn @wondering It's everyone else's business because you care so little about anyone outside your own little bubble.  Many of these diseases are contagious before symptoms are ever present.  So you take your little dumplings to the grocery store, they sneeze on the handle of the cart, the next person to use it gets your little dumplings' disease.  I actually don't care at all about your kids, but I care about all the innocent people you care nothing of.  And do get back to us about your two family members who were "severely injured" by shots...it's such a rarity, I'm sure we'd all love to hear the actual FACTS.
@finlyn What about infants and the elderly. That's whose most likely to die by being around a grandchild who hasn't been vaccinated. I recently received the whooping cough vaccination because I was going to visit by 2 month year old and two-year old grandsons who hasn't had all of his vaccinations yet. Is that none of my business? Or perhaps you don't expose your unvaccinated child to this population so you don't care. Â
@peckishpete The young & old have ALWAYS been far more prone to dying the rest of the population. That's a fact. It's always been that way. It's not a new thing.Â
@axpman @Festivus Unless you're female, keep your opinions about hormone replacement therapy to yourself.  And if you live with a woman who uses them, you better hope and pray she doesn't decide to go off them cold turkey.  You'd be the first fatality from her withdrawal.
@axpman @peckishpete Didn't say it is a new thing. But the very young the elderly do NOT have to unnecessarily die because of other peoples' idiotic ideas about immunizations. Don't immunize your kid. Don't put him around the young and elderly and don't put them in school. Period.
@axpman @Festivus My children were vaccinated, never had the chickenpox, and will never get shingles.
They'll thank me later on.
@axpman @Festivus Zostivax is more effective than NOTHING.  I actually don't care if people come down with shingles since it's not contagious.  But you'll care like a MoFo if you ever get it -- it's really rough on adults and nothing like chicken pox.
@Festivus I had the chickenpox as a kid... and not only that the varicella vaccine won't keep you from breaking out later on. Â
 Tell me again how how a vaccine that doesn't actually protect is fantastic..Â
@Jenni S. Protect them like giving hormone replace therapy that leaches calcium from the bones so when they fall it's even more traumatic? Â
@axpman @peckishpete Get back to us when your shingles fires up and see if you wish you hadn't had a chickenpox vaccine way back when.Â
@axpman @peckishpete So because they are always more prone to dying we shouldn't try to do things to keep that number from growing?
@peckishpete @finlyn Not to mention those who cannot have an immunization because of a medical issue and/or allergy.
Many of these vaccines take numerous doses over several years to be fully effective. Others have to be renewed. From what I gather, the reason we've had such a whooping cough outbreak is because people didn't renew their Tdap shot (have to do it every 10 years), and a lot of adults and young children caught it.
@finlyn  Why the concern?  Perhaps it's because some shots can't be given until a baby reaches a certain age. Other are not effective until the series has been given. If you don't want to protect YOUR children, keep them away from the masses who do want protection.
@wondering Then keep your kid home until it can be become a carrier, er get vaccinated.Â
@axpman @wondering So is everyone in the house supposed to stay home as well? You can carry these things home without ever being sick yourself.Â
You shouldn't have to isolate a child because they're too young to have had the full series (some of which are only in the first year, others take years) or have an allergy.