Mon
Nov 8 2021
06:35 pm
Schools and vaccines
By: bizgrrl

The first time kids had to get a vaccine to go to school was more than 200 years ago. The disease? Smallpox.

For the past four decades, all 50 U.S. states have required that parents, if they want to enroll their children in any school, public or private, must vaccinate them against contagious diseases like polio and measles.
...

1980, smallpox was declared eradicated.

1979, thanks to a vaccine polio was declared eradicated in the United States.

Schools across the country are holding vaccine clinics.

On the first day vaccines are being offered, "more than 8,000 children ages 5-11 have gotten COVID-19 vaccine shot in North Carolina... Last week, children still accounted for about a quarter (24%) of reported weekly COVID-19 cases. For context, children, under age 18, make up 22.2% of the U.S. population."

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JaHu's picture

There wasn't a republican

Submitted by JaHu on Mon, 2021/11/08 - 9:45pm.

There wasn't a republican party 200 years ago.

Moon's picture

For additional context (I'm NOT an anti vax'er)

Submitted by Moon on Tue, 2021/11/09 - 2:45am.

Curiously, we all know that smallpox and Covid-19 attack(ed) opposite ends of the age spectrum. If Wikipedia is to be believed, the case fatality rate among children infected with smallpox was 80%, while the CDC reports that the case fatality rate for children infected with Covid-19 is less than 0.1%. That is, small pox was 800 times more like to kill an infected child than has been Covid. (That is, at least to-date.) The primary life expectancy value of vaccinating children against Covid is second order: protecting adults from the kids, not (mostly) protecting the kids themselves.

For those interested in changes in life expectancy (including the unexpected anomaly that wealth was once negatively correlated with life expectancy), Steven John's Extra Life: A short history of living longer is well researched and pretty fascination.

Mike Knapp's picture

Should kids be vaccinated in school vs COVID like polio

Submitted by Mike Knapp on Tue, 2021/11/09 - 6:05am.
(in reply to Moon)

Polio has similar disease dynamics as COVID - kids at lower risk than adults, <1% children have serious complications, less than 1% develop paralysis. Should we vax against COVID like we did polio? Should kids be allowed to attend school if they are not vaccinated against COVID in the same way that they cannot if they are not vs polio and measles?

(link...)

fischbobber's picture

In a nutshell

Submitted by fischbobber on Tue, 2021/11/09 - 12:18pm.
(in reply to Mike Knapp)

That's the point. We've been lucky to have the level of pediatric care we have in Knox County, and haven't lost a child, despite our caseload indicating we should be losing our second one any day. That being said, if one looks at the symptoms of covid, the closest comparable action to replicate that is waterboarding, and we sent dozens of kids to the hospital with those symptoms. This was a conscious decision by our School Board, County Commission and County Mayor.

As I watch pediatric numbers, and death counts, and hospitalization numbers , I ask myself, "Is this where we are as a community?" "Are we really engaging in the ongoing torture and murder of our local children and adults so people can avoid the vaccine and masking during outbreaks?" "Why do we allow the unvaccinated dictate the habits of the community, when they are the problem?"

And the answer is no, kids should not be able to attend school if they are unvaccinated. We have 45 active cases today in our school system, despite masking and allegedly moving past the Delta surge. Parents who do not wirsh to vaccinate should arrange for the education of their children outside the boundaries of public schools. The scientific and historical data is clear.

Mike Daugherty's picture

Thank you.

Submitted by Mike Daugherty on Tue, 2021/11/09 - 1:39pm.
(in reply to fischbobber)

Thank you.

bizgrrl's picture

Sesame Street's Big Bird

Submitted by bizgrrl on Tue, 2021/11/09 - 7:02am.

Sesame Street's Big Bird encourages children to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

U.S. Senator from Texas, Ted Cruz, call it "government propaganda."

jbr's picture

Tennessee Required Immunizations

Submitted by jbr on Tue, 2021/11/09 - 9:12pm.

Vaccine requirements for school seem already in place. How is Covid-19 different from those already required?

Tennessee Required Immunizations

jbr's picture

Covid vaccine doesn’t cause infertility, but the disease might

Submitted by jbr on Tue, 2021/11/09 - 9:15pm.

“There is evidence to suggest that infection with SARS-CoV-2 has the potential to impact both male fertility, female fertility, and certainly the health of a pregnancy of someone infected,” said Dr. Jennifer Kawwass, a reproductive endocrinologist and associate professor at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. “And there is simultaneously no evidence that the vaccine has any negative impact on male or female fertility.”

Covid vaccine doesn’t cause infertility, but the disease might

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