The "Philosophical Differences Don't Cut It With Me!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Trying to figure out why parents today don't want to get their children vaccinated for childhood diseases like mumps and measles.  When I was ready to begin school, my mom and dad had to take me to the doctor's office so I could get my smallpox vaccination.  It was given in the arm and was supposed to leave a small round scar on your arm.  I got the shot, but not the scar.  The school nurse had to call my doctor to make sure I actually had the shot.  My doctor told my mom that I must have had a natural immunity to the disease, therefore no scar.  Small pox was an infectious disease that killed about 30% of the people that developed it, but was finally eradicated in 1980.  Then on February 23 of 1954 a new vaccine was developed to stop people from getting Polio which was a devastating disease that caused muscle deterioration, paralysis and even death.  I was in elementary school at the time and can remember standing in line at school to get my polio shot.  When I eventually went to Jr. High School, one of my classmates had developed the disease before the vaccine had been discovered by Dr. Jonas Salk and he was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Well, today in the local newspaper was a story titled "Vaccination Gap."  It talked about the Pennsylvania State law requiring all students in public schools to be vaccinated unless they had a good reason.  Had to be vaccinated against mumps, measles, and Rubella, all diseases that haven't been totally eradicated from our population. Reasons to not have vaccinations were: medical grounds which required a doctor's approval, religious grounds and philosophical grounds.  If you didn't have a reason based on those three criterion, you couldn't enter school.  Make sense to you since it would keep the population safe from childhood diseases that could be debilitating as well as deathly.  School districts actually would give free shots if you couldn't afford to go to your doctor and get vaccinations.  The new report in the newspaper showed that 8.6% of Lancaster County students had exemptions!  What for?  Most were for philosophical reasons with about 1% each for religious and medical reasons.  Why don't parents want to get a vaccination for their child so they don't develop a contagious disease that could be deadly.  They have to know they are playing medical roulette when they opt out of the vaccinations.  Pennsylvania is one of 19 states that still allows philosophical exemptions as a reason for not getting the shots. Today more and more students are home-schooled which is the legal right for parents in PA.  But, when these students want to play sports and enter public school clubs and organizations, I believe they should have to be vaccinated.  Lancaster County has a very large Amish population and they have their own schools and I'm not sure if they believe in vaccinating their children, but they never interact in public school extracurricular activities, so they can do what they choose.  But, being that these childhood diseases haven't been totally eliminated, I can see any reason why they don't get the vaccine unless it may cause harm medically.  Now, these are my opinions and you can disagree all you want with me as long as you don't send you children to public schools with my grandchildren.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.