Why do some folks think that you can’t make a vaccine for a bacteria?
You have done everything you can to keep her healthy by not vaccinating but sometimes things still happen, like your baby gets a vaccine-preventable disease???
Probably because they spend too much time in anti-vax Facebook groups…
How Can They Make a Vaccine for a Bacteria?
Hopefully most people do know that there are plenty of vaccines for bacteria, from tetanus to tuberculosis and typhoid fever.
Essential oils do not help kids with meningitis.
And that several of those vaccines can help prevent children, including infants, from getting meningitis.
The first thing to understand is that when folks like Rob Schneider talk about medically fragile children, they are using the term differently than when medical professionals and most parents do.
“Medically fragile” means having an acute or chronic health problem which requires therapeutic intervention and skilled nursing care during all or part of the day. Medically fragile problems include, but are not limited to, HIV disease, severe lung disease requiring oxygen, severe lung disease requiring ventilator or tracheostomy care, complicated spina bifida, heart disease, malignancy, asthmatic exacerbations, cystic fibrosis exacerbations, neuromuscular disease, encephalopathies, and seizure disorders.
2005 California Health and Safety Code Sections 1760-1761.8 FACILITIES HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE SECTION 1760-1761.8
The medically fragile kids as defined by the California Health and Safety Code, who require skilled nursing care, are not typically the kids who are getting routine medical exemptions.
Sure, some of them might need one. A child with severe HIV disease or a malignancy being treated with chemotherapy would likely get a medical exemption for live vaccines, etc.
A child with an acute encephalopathy or uncontrolled seizures would also qualify for a medical exemption.
And since vaccines aren’t 100% risk free, there might be some kids with a vaccine injury among these medically fragile kids. It is likely not a high number though, as severe reactions to vaccines are very rare.
“CMC {children with medical complexity} are likely increasing in prevalence because of increased survival rates of infants born prematurely, those born with various congenital anomalies, and/or those with chronic conditions, as well as improved treatments for acute illnesses in fields such as intensive care and oncology.”
Cohen et al on Children With Medical Complexity: An Emerging Population for Clinical and Research Initiatives
In most other cases, medically fragile kids wouldn’t need a medical exemption and would greatly benefit from being vaccinated and protected!
ITP after MMR is not a reason to get a medical exemption for all vaccines…
What is he saying now?
Will SB276 Revoke Legitimate Medical Exemptions?
Bob Sears is saying that SB276 will revoke legitimate medical exemptions from children who have had “seizures, nerve injuries, and severe allergic reactions after vaccines.”
He also says that they “will be forced to continue just to stay in school.”
To be clear, neither SB276 nor any other vaccine law in the United States forces anyone to get vaccinated.
Yes Bob Sears, what do you mean forced to stay in school?
What else can you see from reading the comments to Bob’s post?
Some medical exemptions might be revoked under SB276, but it isn’t because they are legitimate.
ITP would not be a reason to get a medical exemption to ALL VACCINES.
A rash that turned in ‘purple blobs’ after the MMR vaccine sounds like it could be ITP, which is actually a table injury.
Since the ACIP lists that as a precaution to getting another dose of MMR, you would almost certainly get a medical exemption, but not to all vaccines!
While scary for parents, ITP typically goes away on its own without treatment in about two weeks to six months.
Anyway, SB276 doesn’t revoke legitimate medical exemptions.
If you actually read SB276, as amended, what it does do is trigger a review by medical professionals to “identify those medical exemption forms that do not meet applicable CDC, ACIP, or AAP criteria for appropriate medical exemptions” if:
a school’s immunization rate drops below 95%
a doctor writes five or more medical exemptions in a single year (although that doesn’t sound like a lot, keep in mind that true medical exemptions are not very common, so the average doctor who is only writing medical exemptions for their own patients likely won’t write that many each year)
a school doesn’t report it’s immunization rates
And once reviewed, inappropriate medical exemptions can be revoked, although that process can be appealed by a parent who thinks that their child does indeed have a legitimate medical exemption.
Keep in mind that just because a doctor writes more than 5 exemptions in a single year, that doesn’t mean that they will automatically be revoked. That simply triggers a review. Even if the doctor writes 10 or 20, if they are legitimate exemptions, then they will be allowed.
Again, SB276 doesn’t revoke legitimate medical exemptions.
Maybe because many of things that Bob Sears considers to be legitimate medical exemptions actually aren’t, which is why he is already under investigation, even before SB276 is enacted…
VAPP or vaccine-associated paralytic polio after the oral polio vaccine might not resolve. Fortunately, it only occurs in about 1 in every 1.27 million children receiving their first dose of OPV. It is even less common after bOPV, which is oral polio vaccine that is now being used. And won’t happen at all once we stop using oral polio vaccines.
Encephalitis or encephalopathy after a pertussis or a measles, mumps, and rubella virus containing vaccine might also lead to long lasting effects.
