Should Schools Require That Children Be Vaccinated?

Should Schools Require That Children Be Vaccinated?

Hepatitis, Diphtheria, Rubella...Each year millions of children are vaccinated in order to prevent potentially fatal illnesses like these. But should schools be able to mandate vaccines? Some parents see them as vital lifesavers, but others fear serious or perhaps even debilitating risks. How much authority should schools have in determining your child’s health?

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ThinkTwice Global Vaccine Institute

Some Vaccines Required for School Entry are Clearly Unnecessary

ThinkTwice Global Vaccine Institute

Our children have become captive instruments of the vaccine industry, accessible by mandate to satisfy other purposes. For example, children rarely develop hepatitis B. In the United States, less than 1% of all reported hepatitis B cases occur in persons less than 15 years of age. When the hepatitis B vaccine was initially introduced, 87% of pediatricians did NOT believe it was needed by their patients. Doctors knew that children rarely develop this disease. According to the hepatitis B vaccine manufacturer, children are targeted “because a vaccination strategy limited to high-risk individuals has failed.” In other words, because high-risk groups—sexually promiscuous adults and IV drug users—are difficult to reach or have rejected this vaccine, authorities are targeting children. Authorities believe that by vaccinating children (a low-risk herd) they will protect unvaccinated adults (a high-risk herd). Since children are unlikely to contract hepatitis B, and studies show that vaccine efficacy declines after a few years, children are being subjected to all of the risks of the hepatitis B vaccine without the expected benefit.

The chickenpox vaccine is another drug that should not have been mandated for all children. It was available since the 1970s but authorities were reluctant to license and promote it because the disease is rarely dangerous and confers lifelong immunity. The vaccine, however, contains a weakened form of the virus; once injected, it remains in the body indefinitely. Authorities were concerned that it could reawaken years after the vaccination and cause serious problems. In addition, the chickenpox vaccine was originally developed for children with leukemia or compromised immune systems, a small population at greater risk for complications from the disease. But vaccine manufacturers quickly sought a wider market for their potentially lucrative product. A study conducted by the CDC in 1985 determined that the vaccine was not necessary. However, in 1995 it was promoted as “cost-effective”—rather than essential—because moms and dads would not have to miss work and stay home (an average of 1 day) to care for their sick children. It was licensed shortly thereafter. Before the chickenpox vaccine was licensed, doctors would encourage parents to expose their children to the disease while they were young. Doctors recommended this course of action because they knew that chickenpox is relatively harmless when contracted prior to the teenage years (but more dangerous in adolescents and adults). However, after the vaccine was licensed, the CDC began warning parents about the dangers of chickenpox. Doctors stopped encouraging parents to expose their children to this disease. Instead, they were told to have their children vaccinated against chickenpox.

These examples confirm that some vaccines required for school entry are NOT essential. School officials have become henchmen for the vaccine industry. Low-risk children are being force-vaccinated to protect high-risk adults or to increase the vaccine manufacturer’s profits. Blackmailing families by threatening to withhold a child’s education for refusing needless vaccines is a moral outrage.

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    The Thinktwice Global Vaccine Institute was established in 1996 to provide parents and other concerned people with educational resources enabling them to make... More

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