Parents Lose The Right To Choose: News, Facts, and Controversy Over The Chicken Pox Vaccine.

Hi karoli. Back when you and I had Chicken Pox, there was a lot of scaring with more severe cases, but now-a-days there are anti-viral meds. These medications prevent chicken pox from getting bad, my kids have no scars at all, and only had the chicken pox for a few days.

As far as Shingles goes...the Chicken Pox vaccine does not prevent Shingles, and there is even a fear that this vaccine may cause more cases of Shingles...But don't worry, the same companies that brought us the Chicken Pox vaccine will soon be peddling a Shingles Vaccine.

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
also at CatherineBlogs.com ( http://www.catherineblogs.com/ ) and The Political Voices of Women ( http://politicsanew.com/ )

I caught the chicken pox when I was 12 and had a horrible case that left scars on my chest, ears and upper body. It was miserable and the virus that carries it doesn't ever leave, so I've had shingles as an adult, too. If I could have escaped that miserable 10 days from hell (yeah, it wasn't just a couple of days) I would've.

However. I think it's incredibly extreme (and possibly unconstitutional) to exclude children from school because they are not vaccinated. If they're going to do that, they should exclude all unvaccinated children...Pertussis is far more deadly than chicken pox, after all. If they think they have legal grounds for these exclusions, then I would assume they will also have to make accomodations for the unvaccinated students, which is another can of worms.

Chicken pox sucks. It's not as trivial as you paint it in some cases, but it's not at a level where children should be excluded from school, either.

karoli (odd time signatures ( http://drumsnwhistles.com ))

It's nice when somebody "gets" what I'm trying to say. I'm not against saving lives, or even vaccines...but the chicken pox, HPV, and even (dare I say it) the flu vaccine, are more to benefit the pharmaceutical industry and less to benefit the people...and that is just wrong.

Thanks again Leian for taking the time to comment. I hope you have a nice Thanksgiving.

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
also at CatherineBlogs.com ( http://www.catherineblogs.com/ ) and The Political Voices of Women ( http://politicsanew.com/ )

I too have had a problem with the Chickenpox vaccine. Against my real wishes, I allowed my daughter to be vaccinated against it, but I did ask the doctor why something that had just been dealt with when I was growing up was all of a sudden something so serious that we needed to be vaccinated. She said it can be serious and that there are children who die from it. Now, I do not for one minute hold ANY one person's life as being dispensable. But I think that when we start vaccinating an entire population of children - millions - to avoid something that happens very rarely, we've gone too far. I agree with Catherine 100% that this is only about making money for the pharmaceutical companies. My sister lost her first baby 3 days before he was due because of vasa previa. A simple color ultrasound would have detected the abnormality and made the baby's death avoidable but performing this test is not a standard of prenatal care although women have lobbied to ask that it be done. Why is it not done? Because it happens only 1 in 1000 cases - and because there's no money in just getting an ultrasound. Yet something that is even more rarely a fatal disease, we are now injecting millions of children to prevent? As you can see, the lack of consistency speaks to the fact that at the end of the day, it is all about money. I truly hope that they do not make that HPV vaccine mandatory and I will seriously consider leaving the country if they do. I am tired of having a government that is supposed to look out for the PEOPLE, dictate to those same people that we do unnecessary things to our bodies because of wining and dining from lobbyists. Now they are taking it to the extent that they will JAIL people? They are not looking out for us and therefore we have to look out for ourselves.

By the way, I contracted chicken pox when I was 17, much older than usual, and I lived. I hope now that my daughter will not get the disease and that if she does she does not suffer a worse case because of this stupid vaccine that they pushed on us before doing the decades of research really necessary to know if this is even good.

Hello Helene. I'm sorry to hear about your childhood friend, it's always a tragedy when a child dies. More than likely there were extenuating circumstances with this young boy, because death is very rare with chicken pox. More than likely, today this boy would have lived, because he would have been able to be treated with anti-viral medication (before this medication was available, children had different degrees of illness, some could be more severe than others).

If I thought that less children would die because of this vaccine, I would agree with you. But, as I tried to explain in my post...Because this is not a life-time immunity, there will be potentially more deaths associated with chicken pox.

You see, the older a person is when they get this virus, the more serious it will be (and it's even more serious if a women is pregnant when exposed). Think about that for a minute...if you are only protected for 7-10 years, you could potentially be exposed to this virus in your 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's (and the older you are the more severe/deadly this virus will be), all it would take is missing one booster shot (are you really going to be thinking about chicken box booster shots your whole life?). So, in the long run...there very well could be more deaths related to chicken pox that are directly related to a person who had this vaccine instead of a natural exposure in childhood.

Basically, it just doesn't make sense to make the whole population of this country dependent on a chicken pox vaccine for their entire life (well...it does make sense if you are the company making the vaccine). It's a case of...Does the benefit outweigh the risk? The answer is NO...especially considering their is a medication that makes this virus even less serous then it already is.

Also, studies are beginning to show that by giving people so many vaccines, their actual immune systems are becoming less able to protect them from all sorts of illnesses.

But the long and the short of it is...Parents should not be threatened with jail time if they don't want their child vaccinated against chicken pox...That is just insane.

Thanks for your comment Helene.

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
also at CatherineBlogs.com ( http://www.catherineblogs.com/ ) and The Political Voices of Women ( http://politicsanew.com/ )

I remember a boy in my grade school who died from chicken pox complications. He was in fourth grade and we were reminded of his death for years to come. First, it was a catholic school so we all attended an open casket service - and we walked past his body! Next, there was a photograph of him placed in a permanent frame, bolted to our hallway wall... Needless to say, I remember the death vividly.

This leads me to ask...isn't a mandatory vaccine worthwhile if it saves one child's life? Don't you think it's worth the trouble? And what about protecting other people's children from risk of exposure...I mean what if your child gave another child chicken pox and that child died?

Just thinking about the topic out loud.
Helene
http://themodernwomansdivorceguide.com/blog

I know what you mean....What would they do with the kids if the parents are in jail? But basically that's not going to happen, because the parents will finally cave in and get their child vaccinated (especially since nurses with vaccines will be available at the court). The administration knows that faced with jail these parents will comply...but that is the problem...WHAT'S NEXT?

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
also at CatherineBlogs.com ( http://www.catherineblogs.com/ ) and The Political Voices of Women ( http://politicsanew.com/ )

I've been reading about the outrage over jailing parents for not vaccinating, but the aspect that is noticeably absent from discussion is what happens to the kids when the parents are jailed? It would be really interesting to see how many kids end up in foster care over this.

Sarah Thompson
http://childlawblog.blogspot.com
http://thompsonsaraht.blujay.com

First: vaccination saves lives.

Second: there is no connection between routine childhood vaccination and autism.

Third: chickenpox as a disease imposes two burdens: the risk of adverse complications to the individual suffers, and the economic cost of caring for the ill child. It's the last argument that lead to the adoption of the chickenpox vaccine.

Pediatrics. 1999 Jul ;104 (1 Pt 1):1-6 10390252 ( http://lib.bioinfo.pl/meid:191489 )
Cost of chickenpox in Canada: part I. Cost of uncomplicated cases.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to assess the direct medical costs and productivity losses associated with uncomplicated chickenpox (no hospitalization) in Canada.
[snip]

RESULTS: From a societal perspective, the per-case cost for children from 1 to 4 years of age and from 5 to 9 years of age was $370.2 and $236.5, respectively. Direct medical costs accounted for 10% of the total costs in both groups. The largest cost driver in patient care was caregiver productivity losses, which amounted to $316.5 in the younger age group and to $182.7 in the older age group. Based on an estimated yearly incidence of 344 656 cases of uncomplicated chickenpox in Canada, the total annual societal burden of the disease can be estimated at $109.2 million, with a cost to the Ministry of Health of $11.2 million.

CONCLUSION: Chickenpox is one of the last common childhood diseases prevalent in Canada, and the uncomplicated disease, despite its rather benign course, imparts a large annual economic burden.<?i>

JAMA. 1994 Feb 2;271 (5):375-81 8283587 ( http://lib.bioinfo.pl/meid:191489 )
Cost-effectiveness of a routine varicella vaccination program for US children.

OBJECTIVE--To evaluate the economic consequences of a routine varicella vaccination program that targets healthy children.

[snip]

RESULTS--A routine varicella vaccination program for healthy children would prevent 94% of all potential cases of chickenpox, provided the vaccination coverage rate is 97% at school entry. It would cost approximately $162 million annually if one dose of vaccine per child were recommended at a cost of $35 per dose. From the societal perspective, which includes work-loss costs as well as medical costs, the program would save more than $5 for every dollar invested in vaccination. However, from the health care payer's perspective (medical costs only), the program would cost approximately $2 per chickenpox case prevented, or $2500 per life-year saved. The medical cost of disease prevention was sensitive to the vaccination coverage rate and vaccine price but was relatively insensitive to assumptions about vaccine efficacy within plausible ranges. [snip]

CONCLUSIONS--A routine varicella vaccination program for healthy children would result in net savings from the societal perspective, which includes work-loss costs as well as medical costs. Compared with other prevention programs, it would also be relatively cost-effective from the health care payer's perspective.

I like what physician and scienceblogger Orac had to say on this issue: ( http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2007/11/prince_g... )

In the end, I'm skeptical about just how effective the court's tactics will be. Personally, if I had been in charge, I probably would have simply instructed the school to send home any children whose vaccination records were not up to date with a letter instructing the parents that their children would not be permitted back until they provided proof that their children had received the required vaccinations. As it is now, although there's no doubt that remaining unvaccinated children are receiving the recommended vaccinations as a result of this campaign. The problem is that most of these children were probably not unvaccinated as a result of their parents' being opposed to vaccination, but rather due to sheer laziness or forgetfulness of the parents, and bringing down the heavy hand of the state in such a manner on them concerns. me. It's why I have to wonder if this success in Prince George's County doesn't come at too high a price, namely a major propaganda victory for antivaccination groups like AAPS and its antivaccination allies.

Liz Ditz
I Speak of Dreams ( http://lizditz.typepad.com )
More Joy in Your Family ( http://lizditz.typepad.com/more_joy_in_your_family... )
lizditz@gmail.com