H. R. 2232: Mandatory Vaccination From Sea To Shining Sea

H. R. 2232 is called the “Vaccinate All Children Act of 2015” and is a game changer.  This bill would mandate that all students in public elementary schools and secondary schools be vaccinated in accordance with the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
It aims to amend the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 247b). Basically, if any state or public entity of a state wants grant money from the federal government under the section, they will have to prove that the state requires all public school students be vaccinated exactly the way the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices says the students should be vaccinated.
Now, pro-vax parents and caregivers may have no problem following the current schedule, and see nothing potentially dangerous with this bill. After all, there is a medical exemption stipulation. But, let’s look at how that medical exemption would work.

Not Just Any Doctor’s Note Will Do

In order to qualify for a medical exemption, every child, whose parent or caregiver wishes to file an exemption for even a single vaccine on the vaccination schedule will need to have a doctor’s note that certifies that:
  1. The physician examined the student in the last year.
  2. In the physician’s opinion, the students health would be endangered by the vaccine.

But ALSO, the person in charge of the school’s health program would have to be satisfied that the doctor’s opinion “conforms to the accepted standard of medical care.”

So, let’s say that your child is allergic to latex, and you and your doctor feel that the latex a particular vaccine is causing allergic reactions that are not yet life threatening. Let’s say that the doctor states that these allergic reactions are a reason to skip that particular vaccine, especially since the allergy test showed a latex allergy. The person in charge of the school’s program can look to the accepted medical standards and see that, according to health officials, only actual life-threatening allergic reactions are satisfactory allergic reactions for skipping vaccines over latex concerns. And while latex allergies often get worse after each exposure, apparently, that’s a risk worth taking, even in the absence of an immediate threat or impending outbreak.

Same goes for egg allergies. Same goes for gelatin allergies and neomycin allergies. Your only choice would be to remove the child from his or her school or take a risk, even if you and your doctor feel that the risk is greater than the risk of and from the disease that that particular vaccine is intended to prevent. Even if that vaccine is as effective as last winter’s flu vaccine, which as of the latest data was deemed only 19 percent effective.

 

Religious Beliefs Will Not Matter

There will be no religious belief exemption. If religion is that important to people claiming a religious objection to vaccines, their children will not be permitted in public school. So, while there are some people who oppose only particular vaccines that were created using human tissue cells originally obtained from aborted fetuses and cite religious reasons for objecting these vaccines, it will not matter. The child will be vaccinated according to the recommendations of the government, or the child will not be allowed in public school.

If New Vaccines Are Added, Parents Would Have To Comply

Literally hundreds of new vaccines have been in the works. Should the Advisory Committee decide to add new vaccines to the list, your child would have to get those vaccines too. Let’s just look at what would be required as of right now, according to the Committee’s recommendations for children from birth through the time they are leaving high school:
  • 3 doses of a Hepatitis B vaccine
  • 2-3 doses of a Rotavirus
  • 4-6 doses of a Tetanus, Diptheria, and Acellular Pertussis vaccine
  • 3-4 doses of Hib
  • 4 doses of PCV13 (Pneumococcal conjugate)
  • 4 doses of Polio
  • Yearly flu vaccines (These would be required for each year in school)
  • 2 doses of the MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella)
  • 3 doses of a Varicella (Chickenpox) vaccine
  • 2 doses of a Hepatitis A
  • 3 doses of a HPV vaccine
  • 2 doses of a Meningococcal vaccine

So, say you didn’t like the way the HPV vaccine was fast-tracked, and you oppose only that one vaccine. By the standards set forth in H. R. 2232, you would have to either suck up your concerns and comply with the vaccination recommendations, or your children would not be guaranteed their free, public education.

Say that your family has some rough luck with the flu shots, and you just don’t think their efficacy track-record is exceptional enough to warrant the added exposure each and every year. It will not matter. The Advisory Committee recommends the flu vaccine, so students will have to get them if they want to go to public school.

The same goes for whatever other new vaccines get introduced to the schedule. Maybe the Committee will decide that the acellular Pertussis vaccine needs to be given yearly, because it’s just failing so substantially no matter how many boosters they add to it. You’ll have to comply, if you intend to send your child to school. Even if you’re up on your vaccine info and know that the acellular Pertussis vaccine is no longer believed to stop the spread of pertussis, and seems to actually increase it, you’ll have to comply. Even if you know that government health officials and government studies show this particular vaccine is a gigantic let down, you’ll have to comply or your child will not be allowed in public school.

Vaccines on the horizon include jabs to try to prevent HIV, Herpes, UTIs, allergies, cancers and autism. That’s just naming a few. And if the Advisory Committee decides to fast track certain vaccines and shove them into the pediatric schedule, you will have two choices: Comply with the recommendations or your child will lose access to public school, assuming the state is interested in the federal funding, of course.

This is all said to be on behalf of public safety. Consider this though: A child who is infected with Hepatitis can not be kept out of public school, but if this bill succeeds, a child who is not up-to-date on their Hepatitis A and B vaccines would not be allowed in public school.  A teen with HPV can not be kicked out of school, but a teen without the HPV vaccine would not be allowed in public school, if this bill succeeds.

Still, I guess there’s always that slim chance that your state might not be interested in the federal funding. Right? 

We don’t know what the vaccine schedule will look like five years from now. We don’t know what kinds of vaccines will be offered, what ingredients they will contain or what side effects they may come with. Yet, the “Vaccinate All Children Act of 2015” aims to either take away parent’s philosophical and religious exemption rights and drastically limit pediatricians’ and allergists’ rights to declare a medical exemption based on an individualized risk analysis, or remove the children’s right to a public education.

 

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