Way to go vaccineophobe parents: Measles Outbreak

[return to the red]

Originally Posted by V

Just got confirmation that this was at the Canadian Reformed school in Coaldale, which was almost shut down because of the outbreak.

Which freaks me out a little because I send my kids to the same school but up here in Edmonton and we have just as many anti-vaxxers. Although I will re-iterate that while this is centred around religious people, the motivation for not vaccinating has nothing to do with religion.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world...ions-1.1435468

It has already been established locally that the new outbreak is so far clustered around a number of schools run by the Dutch Reformed Church, which objects in principle to vaccination.
“The belief is that medical intervention is against the will of God”, says Prof Roel Coutinho, director of the RIVM’s Centre for Infectious Disease Control.

Apparently this measles outbreak came over from Holland. Don't know if you know much about the region but Lethbridge has a very large and religious Dutch population

[V]

Yeah, I do, I know a lot of the people in the Lethbridge area (mainly Coaldale) who are originally from the Dutch Reformed circles, a lot of them are friends or friends of friends. I do disagree, though that the schools object in principle to vaccination, at least here in Canada, as our school's official policy is to encourage vaccination, but they don't deny anyone for lack of vaccination.

[Street Pharmacist]

I was born in in Coaldale, but moved far away at 9 months old. Grew up in though in the Christian Reformed church, but became atheist as I got older. There were a bunch of splits in the Church leading to the formation of the Canadian Reformed Church and the Dutch Reformed Church, both of which were much, much more fundamentalist. Never once heard anyone saying anything in my church about avoiding anything medicinal. Lots of anti homosexual rhetoric, etc. But nothing about not vaccinating.

I have an aunt in the Canadian Reformed Church that we don't see much. She has pretty funny medical beliefs, I'll say that. Salt is actually good for you, but doctors conspire to say otherwise to sell pills. Annual PAP exam is just an excuse for a deviant doctor to feel up a woman, etc.

[Peanut]

Originally Posted by Bertuzzied

Hey don't all babies get the measles vaccines anyways? how can you decline from getting it? By not showing up at the appointments?

Is this a serious question? No, not all babies get all immunizations because nothing is mandatory. The immunizations also don't happen at a regualr doctor's appointment, they are provided at a public health clinic by a nurse. You can decline any and all immunizations for your child after they review everything with you and tell you the risks. Or you can just not make the appointments with public health and skip it all together.

Plus I think the first MMR isn't until 12 or 18 months on the immunization schedule so according to the "schedule" no infants are immune other than whatever immunity they may have received in-utero and/or from breast milk.

The "Darwin" comments bother me in these discussions because there are others who are put at risk than just those Darwin-families who choose not to vaccinate. Like little babies who aren't old enough to be immunized or people who are immune-compromised and can't get immunizations.

[return to the red]

Originally Posted by Peanut

Is this a serious question? No, not all babies get all immunizations because nothing is mandatory. The immunizations also don't happen at a regualr doctor's appointment, they are provided at a public health clinic by a nurse. You can decline any and all immunizations for your child after they review everything with you and tell you the risks. Or you can just not make the appointments with public health and skip it all together.

Plus I think the first MMR isn't until 12 or 18 months on the immunization schedule so according to the "schedule" no infants are immune other than whatever immunity they may have received in-utero and/or from breast milk.

The "Darwin" comments bother me in these discussions because there are others who are put at risk than just those Darwin-families who choose not to vaccinate. Like little babies who aren't old enough to be immunized or people who are immune-compromised and can't get immunizations.

Just wanted to quote and say Thank you! As the father of a 4 month old and living in Lethbridge, the decision of others have directly effected how we have been living our lives. My wife is a RN and knows the risks associated with Measles and also that our son probably does have some immunity to it through breast feeding but the seriousness (although its diminishing) of measles and infants in the area is not something we are willing to take a gamble on and subject our son to.