
Boy survives tetanus. 57 days in hospital. Parents refuse further vaccinations - wjossey
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/09/well/oregon-child-tetanus-vaccine.html
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DanBC
> This month, a teenager who defied his mother’s antivaccine beliefs and
> started getting shots when he turned 18

Just in case any young people are reading: In England you get to make your own
medical decisions at 16 and your parents don't need to know, and if you're
under that age your doctor will see if you understand the issues ("Gillick
Competent") and if you do then again you can make your own medical decisions
and your parents don't need to know.

This is because you are a human, and you have human rights, you are not the
property of your parents.

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senectus1
All it takes is an epidemic level flu to hit and these idiots will be
classified as terrorists.

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amanzi
I'd love to hear the parents' perspective on things... "The boy spent 57 days
in the hospital and racked up medical bills of more than $800,000." All that
pain and cost, and they still didn't want further vaccinations: "But despite
an “extensive review” of the risks, and the benefits of vaccination, the
article said, the family declined the second vaccination — or any other
recommended immunization."

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dogma1138
You leave a 13 year old with a mobile phone home alone for the evening in the
suburbs and you can go to jail.

You torture a kid by denying effective treatment it’s fine.

I can’t understand the doctors that didn’t say fuck it I don’t care what these
morons think and didn’t just vaccinated the kid.

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kuhhk
> I can’t understand the doctors that didn’t say fuck it I don’t care what
> these morons think and didn’t just vaccinated the kid.

Probably because they didn’t want to lose their medical license, and make
their degree (that they’re still paying back their debt on) suddenly
worthless?

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dogma1138
The a medical board that revokes their license it should be disbanded, forcing
someone to suffer through this seems to be directly go against the Hippocratic
oath.

~~~
beatgammit
Forcing someone to undergo a procedure that they explicitly do not want is far
worse than harming someone at their request IMO.

Doctors aren't there to make everyone healthy, doctors are there to offer
their services when desired. Sometimes they have to make a tough call and
can't ask permission (e.g. patient is incapacitated and the legal authority
isn't available), but directly going against someone's wishes _is_ harm.

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einrealist
Parents like this should be denied all tax-exempts. They should even have to
pay a high extra tax. That tax money can then go into vaccination education
and treatment of unvaccinated children.

~~~
bjoli
In France vaccination is mandatory, and not vaccinating your kinds is
considered child abuse in the eyes of the law.

I have argued for a long time that not following the child vaccination
programme (in Sweden,my home country) should disqualify you from childcare and
any public schools since you are putting other kids at risk. then I'd probably
withdraw their government benefits (1050sek/month/child)

Edit: but of course, one should also see to what works on the population
scale. Sweden has no compulsory vaccination, but also has the highest
percentage of vaccinated kids in the world. I do however think removing child
benefits or limiting childcare for unvaccinated kids is a good idea. You can
choose whether you vaccinate your kids, but you can't choose not to have an
infection sensitive kid that can't be vaccinated.

~~~
DanBC
> should disqualify you from childcare and any public schools since you are
> putting other kids at risk.

In the UK you're allowed to home-educate your child, and we see
disproportionate numbers of parents with conspiracy-theory mindsets home-
educating. This is because we see larger numbers of "freemen on the land" and
"sovereign citizens" in this group.

Excluding these children from mainstream education feels satisfying, but may
well be counter productive. At school they get to see all their friends having
BCG and polio vaccines (I had these at school, are they still given?) and not
suffering any harm. They also get less indoctrination about wierd ideas. And
I'm uncomfortable with making the child suffer because they have an idiot for
a parent.

So, it's a bit tricky.

~~~
bjoli
Sweden has no homeschooling (except for one orthodox Jewish family a couple of
years ago which I believe ended up in the supreme court. I don't know the
final.judgement though), so that problem is already solved.

But yes, that is a problem.

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hbogert
I don't know what's more shocking, the inflated 800k, or the ignorance of the
anti vaxxers

~~~
dogma1138
I’m not entirely sure how inflated that is form the NHS in Wales:

“A Level 3 Intensive Care bed cost an average £1932 per night”.

Add to that the additional costs of the treatment and staff and even in a
country with relatively cheap health care you get to costs of $300-400K for a
period of nearly 60 days.

