Whooping Cough Vaccine Law May Prevent Calif. Students From Attending School

In the midst of one of the worst whooping cough epidemics our country has seen in half a century, the majority of California's schoolchildren may not be vaccinated against the disease -- and that may bar them from attending school.

AP recently reported that there were over 21,000 cases of whooping cough in the U.S. last year, and experts are unsure as to the cause. NBC News reported that at least 7,800 of those cases happened in California -- the highest since 1947.

In response, California's AB 354 was passed in September of last year, making proof of whooping cough vaccinations mandatory for both public and private school students starting in the 2011-12 school year. However, health representatives told Mercury News that the law makes most students ineligible for attendance.

Melinda Landau, a health manager for the San Jose Unified School District, told Mercury News that the if the rule was implemented tomorrow, only 4,500 out of the district's 16,000 would be able to attend school. She said that the drastic statistic may help parents remember the importance of vaccinations.

"Most of us have grown up in a time that we didn't have friends with these diseases, so people tend to forget that these vaccine-preventable diseases can be really, really deadly."

Whooping cough can last months in infected persons. If spread to infants or small children, it may become mortally serious.

In some school districts, health nurses told Mercury News that as few as 1 in 10 students are vaccinated against whooping cough. In a state that has over 3 million K-12 students, the impact may be overwhelming.

Some unvaccinated students may still attend school if parents sign "personal belief exemption" waivers. However, if an emergency is declared, those students may be required to stay home.

Comments

[dbrett480]

08:29 PM on 05/05/2011

Thanks to these pseudo-science anti-vaccine people, we have had a resurgence of already eradicated diseases. I can't think of a greater threat to public health than these people.

[sabelmouse]

07:45 AM on 05/07/2011

if they are eradicated then how can they resurge ?

[dbrett480]

11:43 AM on 05/09/2011

Eradicated was the wrong word as a disease cannot be totally removed. However, when the percentage of a population that is immunized is lowered, the disease returns. This is called Herd Immunity.

[am10]

05:21 PM on 04/28/2011

Good. Stay out until you get the shot. And stop reading junk science websites. And get rid of the personal beliefs waiver.

[redpilldude]

01:09 PM on 04/29/2011

check out http://www.watchdoginstitute.org/2011/03/27/preliminary-findings-on-california-whooping-cough-epidemic/ this cleary shows over half the the cases are in children who have been vaccinated, which prompted the CDC to have a conference intitled "What's an epidemic like this doing in a highly-vaccinated community?” so yeah your right about junk science but ..its the FDA & CDC who have the junk science. Here it the final word " Vaccines are not effective and highly dangerous "

[am10]

02:03 PM on 04/29/2011

I'll say it again: Stop Reading Junk-science websites.

[Dyson]

06:35 PM on 05/01/2011

So the vaccine doesn't always fully protect, but even if it protects half of the exposed it's great value.

And btw the conference is not *entitled* "What's an epidemic like this doing in a highly-vac­cinated community?" - that's sensationalist garbage.

Here is the program:
http://cdc.confex.com/cdc/nic2011/webprogram/INPUT.html

[abraosolhos]

10:28 AM on 04/28/2011

Research shows that what may be causing the increase of whooping cough is the vaccine itself!!! A lot of times whooping cough is caused by Parapertussis, and not Perussis, as both have similar symptoms. Mostly doctors don't check to see if the person has one of the other. So when you read an increase in whooping coughing among the population is hard to tell if it is the Parapertussis or the Pertussis. Now research is showing that the Pertussis vaccine in fact increase the chances of having Parapertussis!

Search online for this full research. Very interesting...
"An acellular whooping cough vaccine actually enhances the colonization of Bordetella parapertussis in mice; pointing towards a rise in B. parapertussis incidence resulting from acellular vaccination, which may have contributed to the observed increase in whooping cough over the last decade."
http://www.cidd.psu.edu/research/synopses/acellular-vaccine-enhancement-b.-parapertussis

[Dyson]

06:29 PM on 05/01/2011

Nice theory, for mice.
In practise most cases of whooping cough have been confirmed as B. pertussis, not parapertussis.

[hagagaga]

10:04 PM on 04/27/2011

This law is a good idea.

[dbrett480]

08:09 PM on 04/27/2011

I know it isn't popular but this law is a good idea. I don't want my child going to school where he can catch a disease that was supposed to be eradicated. The anti-vaccine movement has done an amazing amount of damage to the public health of this nation. Shame on them.

[nsewing]

11:05 PM on 04/27/2011

If your child is vaccinated, why are you worried that they will catch a disease?

[dbrett480]

11:26 PM on 04/27/2011

Vaccination is most effective through herd immunity. This is how diseases are eradicated. If a significant portion of the population is immunized against a disease, then it is much harder for that disease to affect portions of the population. Since diseases can mutate and change; the disease that my child was immunized against might have morphed due to the spread of that disease through the people who have selfishly chosen not to be vaccinated.

[pankate]

12:13 PM on 04/29/2011

Vaccines are not 100% effective. If everyone is vaccinated, this generally does not matter because only a certain percentage of the population needs to be vaccinated in order for herd immunity to take effect. However, when people start voluntarily opting out of being vaccinated they can reduce the number of non-immune people in a population below the critical value necessary to render herd immunity, endangering themselves and the others who by random chance are not immune through no choice of their own.

[Tauna Grinager]

02:09 PM on 04/27/2011

Herd immunity created through vaccines is a myth. Here's a huge page of links if anyone would care to do their own research: http://www.lowellsfacts.com/herdimmunity.html
Forced vaccinations can never be legal in this country. We still have informed consent. Trouble is if a parent doesn't do their own research, there is little information given before they consent to vaccines.

[Kylemac]

10:27 PM on 04/27/2011

Where did you get your doctorate in immunology? Because I know you're not basing this information off some rumors from a website.

[Cipo]

11:42 PM on 04/27/2011

Because everyone knows that the pharmaceutical industry and the CDC/FDA are above bar organizations that would never engage in any mischief, right?

[pankate]

12:15 PM on 04/29/2011

Forced vaccinations can and should be legal for anyone who wants government services (such as schooling for their children). You take your "facts" from some unscientific website. I'll take my facts from the best school of public health in the world (note, not some for-profit pharmaceutical company), where I got my degree.

Vaccines work.

[anna gallinelli]

01:57 PM on 04/27/2011

The theory behind how vaccines help protect people from diseases makes medical sense BUT reality is that big pharma that make the vaccines historically have been part of the eugenists club like when big pharma companies like the IG Farben cartel that was crucial to the Nazi war effort by supplying synthetic fuel, rubber, and other chemicals. They also manufactured Zyklon-B, the nerve gas used to kill millions at the concentration camps of Auschwitz, Birkenau and elsewhere. The IG Farben cartel, later known as the Devil's Chemists, used unwilling inmates of the concentration camps as slave labourers and guinea pigs to test chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and vaccines

Big Pharma is involved in rigging drug trials, ghostwriting the reports of "independent" researchers, bribing politicians, doctors, and scientists, and hiding reports unfavourable to their drugs! So if you trust putting your well being in the hands of big pharma with there openly predatory past and present then i become a Darwinist and say please go and thin you and your family from the heard and let the strong guarddogs that know how to smell and sense a threat survive.

[hagagaga]

10:05 PM on 04/27/2011

You do realize that vaccines have been around longer than that, right?

[Kylemac]

10:28 PM on 04/27/2011

Everytime someone mentions "big pharma" it makes me want to break something. Do you know how much money goes into research? Have you even thought about looking it up? Millions upon millions of dollars are invested into making a drug that can SAVE YOUR LIFE and you have the GALL to complain about these people? Give me a break.

[Cipo]

11:44 PM on 04/27/2011

You are WOEFULLY uniformed. I worked for, and around, big pharma for almost 2 decades. They could care less about the public welfare. They are concerned with the bottom line. To think otherwise is to believe that big oil is concerned about their effects on the environment.

[Tao Monkey]

12:49 PM on 05/29/2011

Don't forget about all the human guneia pigs they use in Africa.

[Ace Free]

12:25 PM on 04/27/2011

What ever happened to "Swine Flu" that the World Health Organization declared and emergency along with Barry Soetoro? this is another form of Tyranny, inject harmful chemicals into our kids to supposedly keep them healthy? yet they fluoridate our water knowing that Sodium Fluoride is toxic waste and then tell us they care about our teeth and its good for you? INFOWARS.COM

[Ldcook]

12:01 PM on 04/29/2011

The swine flu went around, and was milder than anticipate. It did still landed me in the hospital overnight.

[nmeemn]

07:32 PM on 04/29/2011

Big pharma did not invent the vaccines that ensure that kids don't suffer from polio.

The anti-vaccine movement has it all backwards. It's not a conspiracy. It's about preventing kids from getting sick because of diseases that are common in less developed countries.

(In fact, some of those diseases HAVE come back to the developed world because of immigration/globalization).

[Dyson]

03:35 AM on 05/02/2011

Many vaccines generate very little income for pharma. Exceptions are certain vaccines like gardasil, which is being heavily promoted. I have problems with that, but not with the vaccines themselves, which are fantastic.

[DXM]

11:36 AM on 04/27/2011

I find this a bit odd. One of the arguments made by some school officials against requiring proof of citizenship or legal residency as a precondition of attending school is that the school officials are not lawyers capable of assessing the validity of the documents provided. But now they are going to require proof of vaccinations even though these school officials are not doctors?

[Peter007]

08:06 AM on 04/27/2011

The collective, as represented by the state officials, needs to dominate the rights of individuals.

It takes a village.

[novabird]

08:23 AM on 04/27/2011

A clear cut prescription for tyranny.

[ilovecandy]

01:52 PM on 04/27/2011

Like the right of a woman to have an abortion. ok. i'll go with that

[Kylemac]

10:31 PM on 04/27/2011

Well, the difference is, when a woman declines to have an abortion then her contact with women not on birth control will not get pregnant. My guideline is, personal decisions for personal effects. Community decisions for community effects.

[RocheTm]

01:42 AM on 04/27/2011

Seems simple, get your kid vaccinated or keep them at home.

[SF TKF]

10:08 AM on 04/27/2011

If the vaccine wasn't potentially deadly, more parents would. Neither of my younger siblings was vaccinated for whooping cough after two of our friends lost babies to the vaccine within a six month period. The danger of the vaccine simply outweighed their chances of catching the disease (which neither of them ever did).

[ilovecandy]

01:56 PM on 04/27/2011

Then get it later, these diseases would be mostly gone, if there weren't so many vaccine free people out there. The reason its coming back is because so many people don't get vaccinated because of "personal beliefs." Yet, you say whatever. What about the kids that would die if they get this disease, the babies, the senior citizens. What happened to your friends babies was unfortunate, but i can't blame the school for wanting to protect ALL there children, not just a few.

[hagagaga]

10:08 PM on 04/27/2011

Aspirin is strongly recommended against for those under thirteen years of age.

[healthanalyst]

01:18 AM on 04/27/2011

Local health depts should vaccinate at schools, that's what they're there for.

[mikey09]

08:16 AM on 04/27/2011

They do in my state.....problem like this and they would be at the schools....we are now starting flu shot clinics at the schools.

[Taximom5]

04:53 PM on 05/29/2011

And what about studies like those done by the Cochrane Collaborative, which found that flu shots are no more effective than placebos? Even the British Medical Journal found that flu shots are ineffective in children and in the elderly--the two groups targeted by the pharmaceutical marketing campaigns!

[SaraHuntie]

12:10 AM on 04/27/2011

People who refuse to vaccinate because of their "personal beliefs" are selfish. Plain and simple. Personal beliefs are great, however, they do not override the right of the rest of us to not be exposed to things like whooping cough (or measles or whatever). No further discussion needed.

[imokit]

08:13 AM on 04/27/2011

Agreed, there are people who can't vaccinate because of other medical conditions or immune problems or they're too young to have them all.
Those vulnerable people need everyone who can have vaccinations to be vaccinated. This gives them herd immunity, means they're less likely to be exposed to those preventable diseases.
People who can vaccinate have a duty to be vaccinated to protect those who through no fault of their own can't be vaccinated.

[Kylemac]

10:38 PM on 04/27/2011

exactly! My cousin was allergic to the MMR vaccine and would have a fatal reaction to further innoculation (note to all the deniers, which will likely be ignored anyway, this is complete different from the vaccine itself being deadly). This means he will rely on others to not bring him into contact with the causative agents of measles, mumps, or rubella. However, when you could get a vaccine and choose not to, you are putting my cousin at risk. How dare you.

[Angelus2007]

11:43 AM on 04/27/2011

Agreed, if they have thsoe personal beliefs, fine, they can home school their children.

[nsewing]

11:02 PM on 04/26/2011

If these vaccines work so well then anyone who is vaccinated shouldn't be worried about being infected by someone who is not vaccinated.

[healthanalyst]

01:15 AM on 04/27/2011

Problem is disease then runs rampant through unvaccinated population.

[RocheTm]

01:43 AM on 04/27/2011

When in doubt, broadcast your ignorance.

[Iconcoclast]

10:27 PM on 04/26/2011

My local school district had a similar whooping cough epidemic because a large number of idiot parents refused to allow their children to be vaccinated. So as a result, they created a create environment for whooping cough--and other diseases as well.

I think failure to vaccinate your children qualifies as neglect.

[DWilson99999]

04:35 PM on 04/27/2011

To all those people who think that vaccines are going to cure the world of disease..........do your research!!! If you are advocating anyone, ANYONE to get vaccinated then you have NOT thoroughly researched vaccines. To those who think it is the unvaccinated kids who are getting the diseases and passing them on, think again! It is those who ARE vaccinated who are spreading the disease. If you so much as educate yourself in how to read the inserts of the vaccines from the manufacturers themselves, you will learn that the vaccines do not protect you from anything. However, they can and do cause a whole list of side effects from seizures to death. I'd venture to say that those of you who advocate for vaccines are also the people who are feeding your children Frosted Flakes, McDonald's cheeseburgers and Diet Coke......not concerned at all with what you put into your childrens bodies. You claim neglect and bad parenting, but it is those of you who are lazy follower's of the mainstream media that have not taken the time to educate yourselves in the history of vaccines, the dangers of vaccines, or the real facts about vaccines. Stop reading the headlines and news stories and actually spend time researching vaccines before you line your children up to have their little bodies INJECTED WITH THE VERY DISEASE YOU BELIEVE YOU ARE PROTECTING YOURSELF FROM!

[Kylemac]

10:40 PM on 04/27/2011

How's your polio?