Free country? Sure, you're free to do as you're told,or else.

The fact is that while this vaccination may be beneficial for many, there is risk of severely damaging effects in a small percentage of those vaccinated. Some years ago a Palos PArk State Senator's daughter was profoundly disabled by beinig forced to take a vaccination, and still has life changing affects today. PARENTS should ultimately be the ones who decide what risks their children should be exposed to, NOT the state with corrupt, generally incompetent liegisaltors and bureaucrats!

It would be interesting to see if the increased instances of these illnesses is due to parents not vacinating kids against them in the first place. Thanks J. McCarthy.

Students should be vaccinated. It is hard to believe certain religion s can buy a pass from vaccinations.

Home school your kids if you don't want to follow the rules.

Being in the medical field, I am a huge supporter of vaccinations. My kids are always up to date on theirs. I also have to be up to date on mine, which includes a yearly flu shot (required to work in a hospital)

I am aware of the DPT booster shot is the Tdap the same? Did they rename it? Or did they come up with a new one all together?

The state can go screw itself. I decide whats healthy and safe for my child. I will not be a slave to the big pharma who has lobbied the Congress to force everyone to take it's FDA approved so called safe medicine through the initiation of force. Also if they work so well how is an un-vaccinated child a danger to the other vaccinated children? Quit being slaves to the state and think for yourselves for a change. Before they make that illegal too.

Herd mentality. Google it.

The Tdap vaccine protects against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (whooping cough). All of these are serious, potentially deadly illnesses caused by bacteria.

The problem is not the individual vaccines, it's when they bundle them that the person has a reaction due to the interactions and system overload.

Split the shots-up whenever you can.

SO what you're saying is Pharma doesn't lobby Congress and Congress is just doing these things to be nice? Pharma doesn't pay them millions of dollars to make laws to force people to get insurance , take medicine or Obama care or anything? Name 1 Congressman or Senator who read the the Affordable Health care Act before they voted for it. Just 1. There isn't any because it was written by the lobbyists who will benefit from it's enforcement. Nancy Pelosi said they needed to pass it so they could then read it. Yet my thought is a crazy conspiracy. Everything is a conspiracy. Anytime more than one person agrees to anything then they have conspired to do something. Follow the herd my friend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWkhMSkA508

Agrippa that was already discussed by CR who has taken down all his posts now for whatever reason. Follow the herd.

http://www.examiner.com/article/piers-morgan-sick-after-dr-oz-s-flu-shot

New research reported by Reuters reveals that whooping cough outbreaks are HIGHER among vaccinated children compared with unvaccinated children. This is based on a study led by Dr. David Witt, an infectious disease specialist at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in San Rafael, California.

As Reuters reports: (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/03/us-whoopingcough-idUSBRE832...)

Oh god Karen, what a completely wonderful comment. If more people home schooled their kids there would be less idiocy in the world. I homeschooled my daughter and it advanced her far above her peers when she had to go back to state run school. She was testing and operating at levels 3-4 yrs above her classmates and only started regressing because the school she's in had to slow her down to fit in to their advanced classes. I continue tutoring her after school and told her to just do what they wanted at school and she can come home and learn interesting and fulfilling knowledge at home until I can homeschool her again.

WAY too much government control!!!!!! It starts a little at a time.....from a multitude of issues till people step back and wonder "How did this happen?!?!?!"

While I feel that vaccinations should be a parental decision I feel that alot of parents send their children to school knowing their children are sick because they don't want to take time from work and risk losing their job or are unable to find a sitter. Once you send your child to school sick they infect everyone which is why they are probably pushing for vaccines to protect the other children from those kids whose parents send them to school knowing they are going to cause others to be ill

The state has no right to force you to have a medical procedure against your will. When we do procedures on patients we need a consent. If they tell us to stop, even after we have started, we have to stop or we can be charged with assault.

Please be careful with the wording of articles such as these. The government can recommend but they cannot REQUIRE that we give our children any shot. This is complex issue and being truthful in reporting is important. Parents still have the right to make a choice in how to keep their children healthy without fearing being thrown from school.

I strongly feel that we have become way too reliant upon meds, vaccines and magic pills... And evidently, they're not working like they claim because the statistics don't lie: 1 in 8 women will now get breast cancer, 1 in 55 boys will develop a ASD (autisum spectrum disorder), 1 in 5 Americans are considered obese, boardering on morbid obesity, and childhood diabetes & obesity is at EPIDEMIC levels. And the alarming stats go on ..... So, if you really think more meds, more vaccines, more magic pills are going to change this downward spiral of our health in America, please take some time and educate yourself more on what's really going on .... My family practices good nutrition and always reach for natural rememdies first. I respect conventional medicine, but I also know it was meant to be used for "crisis care." Listen, I know my echinancea can't fix a broken arm, but it sure does boost my kid's immune system and stop that seasonal cough before it starts creeping in. No steroid, no toxic med needed for this cough .... So, do I need government to tell me that I need another vaccine to keep my child healthy? Why? to join the ranks of the cancer, autism and diabetes statistics above? We're being hoodwinked people and terribly misled by brillant fear-marketing. All I ask is that you start investigating, researching and keeping an open mind to what you'll find once you start .. Good luck all.

Remember the Chicken Pox vaccine? They forced us into that one, and then discovered it didn’t work. What was their solution? A mandatory booster shot. This Dtap vaccine they want to force us to inject into our kids contains formaldehyde (can cause cancer), aluminum hydroxide & aluminum phosphate (both associated w/causing Alzheimers), polysorbate 80 (can cause anaphylactic shock), and thimerosal (mercury). Mercury is a neurotoxin, and dangerous to even inhale, let alone inject into the bloodstream! Go to informedchoice.info/cocktail.html and see what’s in the other vaccines. Also, many vaccines, like MMR, are grown on aborted fetal tissue. Go to cogforlife.org for more information on that issue. These drug companies are raking it in by poisoning our children, and I bet our state politicians are getting a nice kickback. They don’t care about keeping us safe from diseases. They only care about money.

From some random article: • Less than 1% of U.S. children have not had any vaccinations at all, but 30% have skipped at least some of their recommended shots.
• An unvaccinated child is 35 x more likely to get the measles.
• There was a 78% decline in measles mortality worldwide after the WHO stepped up vaccinations in 2008.
• There is a 1:1,000,000 chance of developing encephalopathy from the vaccine, but a 1:1000 chance from the measles virus.
• The annual average from 2001-08 was 60/year, but there were 154 cases of measles in 2011.
• There were 57,879 cases of polio in 1952, but 1,312 in 1961, six years after the vaccine came out, and 0 cases of polio in the U.S. in 2002
• The AAP (American Academy of Pediatricians) is turning away non-vaccinating families now. 25% of pediatricians are turning them away. There are risks in the waiting room, amongst other factors. The herd effect disappears if less than 90% are vaccinated.

I don't know everything about everything, but I am absolutely blown away by ignorant people. Vaccines such as that for smallpox have been very instrumental in keeping people alive. I shake my head in disbelief when I read that polio is endemic in only three countries: Pakistan, Nigeria, and Afghanistan. The fact that the disease still thrives there is for similar reasons as are found in many of your posts. People distrust the "government" or those crazy scientists spouting all their fancy science.

Vaccines are one way to obtain immunity (active immunity) whereby your body produces antibodies, generates additional memory B-cells, T-cells, etc. The body readies itself for future breaches by some pathogen.

I forget that not everyone has a scientific background - but you should research a bit about cowpox, Jenner, Salk, Pasteur.

It is incredibly selfish for you to forego vaccinations. Your child may not get the measles, or mumps, or rubella - but that is in no small part because you are surrounded by responsible persons. You're welcome. If everyone operated from a selfish point of view, we would be in much worse shape from an infectious disease standpoint.

As far as getting sick from flu shots - not likely, but one of my hypotheses is that people congregate for flu shots in places where sick people go: Walgreens, doctors' offices, sometimes at local schools for group flu shots. All of those places are great places to pick up viruses. If you want to stay well, stay away from sick people.

Also - just because you're sick does not mean you have the flu (influenza). There are other viruses out there that will give similar symptoms. And stomach flu is not the flu - it is usually a norovirus, of the cruise ship variety.

And for you conspiracy/tea party/homeschoolers - vaccinations at a regular check-up for your kids or yourselves will probably save you money (and therefore cost the healthcare industry) because preventative medicine will likely keep you out of their office later in the season for a more serious battery of tests. Getting the flu, and going to your doctor's office for a bag of lactated ringers solution to rehydrate you is much more costly than giving you a $20 shot. I understand the 'land of the free, home of the brave' argument - but the fact of the matter is that you all (and I) have already accepted the government's gift of healthcare for everyone. And with that gift, they get to make rules. I know it's more fun to get stuff given to you AND decide who you want to listen to about health decisions - but it does not always work like that.

The biggest encroachments of government were: employer-based healthcare circa WWII (the biggest tax expenditure in the country), Medicare, Medicaid (LBJ), EMTALA (Reagan), MDC pt D (Bush II), and now Obamacare. EMTALA is possibly the worst of them all because it guarantees everyone free treatment - whether you are an illegal alien or not. If you plan on going on medicare at some point, thank the government - but when it asks you to do something, you better do it.

I don't know what Ruby Jewel was reading, or thought she was reading, but here is part of a Reuters article dealing with whooping cough:

(Reuters Health) - During a recent whooping cough outbreak in California, kids who hadn't been vaccinated against the disease were nine times more likely to get it than those who had received the entire five-shot series, researchers found.

But even among children who were fully vaccinated, the longer it had been since their final dose of the so-called DTaP vaccine, the higher their risk of coming down with whooping cough, also known as pertussis.

The lead researcher on the study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the effectiveness of many childhood vaccines is known to decrease over the years after vaccination.

Because of such waning immunity, a DTaP booster was recently added to the vaccine schedule for 11- to 12-year-olds, on top of the five doses traditionally given between age 2 months and 6 years. The combination vaccine also protects against diphtheria and tetanus.

"Pertussis vaccines are still our best tool to prevent pertussis," said Lara Misegades, from the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC.

Lots of good ideas and opinions here. Right? Wrong? Yes. If uncle sam says your kid has to get a shot to go to school, and you want them to go to school, get the shot. If you're against the shot, then home school them. Pretty simple.

The State of Illinois requires vaccinations to protect children from a variety of diseases before they can enter school. Required up-to-date immunizations for a child entering any grade include diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, poliomyelitis, measles, rubella and mumps. Haemophilus Influenzae Type B (Hib) is required only for children entering preschool programming. Hepatitis B is also required for children entering preschool programming, but is not required for children in kindergarten through fourth grades. Hepatitis B is, however, required for students entering fifth grade and above. Varicella (chicken pox) is required for students entering preschool programming through 10th grade.
For additional information about immunizations in Illinois, visit:
 IDPH’s Illinois Immunization Program: http://www.idph.state.il.us/about/shots.htm
 Administrative Rules for Basic Immunizations: http://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/077/077006650B02400R.html

According to the CDC website, for 2012 WI has approx 8x the national average, MN about 7x, and IA about 5x the national ave for whooping cough. All those states are nearby - not a bad idea to be proactive. Young infants die from this disease - and more strains of bacteria are antibiotic resistant all the time. We are in big trouble when antibiotics stop working (see MRSA, drug-resistant TB, etc.)

Wisconsin

104.9

Illinois

14.5

Minnesota

82.9*

New Mexico

35.7

Idaho

14.3

Washington

67.4

Colorado

28.9

Missouri

14.2

North Dakota

54.4

Kansas

25.5

Arizona

13.4

Iowa

53.5

Oregon

23.3

-

-

Maine

52.9

New Hampshire

16.4

-

-

Utah

47.5

New York

15.8

-

-

Just FYI: the flu shot that they push everyone to get - especially senior citizens - isn't working. In the Sun Times, the article says it's only 9% effective against the flu. But, the CDC still says everyone should get it. Why? Because it's a huge money-maker. Every year, there's a big scare campaign about how virulent the flu will be, and then it turns out they guessed the wrong flu strain, or it just doesn't work, like this year. I'll take my chances on getting the flu. A 9% success rate isn't good enough.

I think it is a violation of my civil rights and those of all parents that feel that this vaccine causes more harm than it solves. Enough already!

As a local pediatrician I would ask all concerned to have an honest, open discussion with your child's healthcare provider about vaccinations. Everything on the INternet has to be true....?

Unrelated to the topic of vaccines... Does anyone know of any homeschool groups in the Orland park area!?New to homeschooling please help thanks!!