New York Vaccination Basics If you give birth in-hospital, be armed with a birth plan! You can deny the hospital permission to vaccinate, circumcise, etc. If it is your wish, you must give them to understand in no uncertain terms that your baby is not to be taken anywhere for any medical procedure. Remember, vaccination is not a medical emergency. You can always decide to vaccinate at a later date. Take your time and come to a well-reasoned, calm decision. If your pediatrician tells you that you cannot continue at his practice unless you vaccinate (not unusual) - shop around - you will find more cooperative doctors listed in the phone book. LAW Excerpts from New York's vaccination laws (see http://nyvic.org/nyvic/law/): § 2164 ... immunization against poliomyelitis, mumps, measles, diphtheria, rubella, varicella, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), pertussis, tetanus, and hepatitis B 8. If any physician licensed to practice medicine in this state certifies that such immunization may be detrimental to a child's health, the requirements of this section shall be inapplicable until such immunization is found no longer to be detrimental to the child's health. 9. This section shall not apply to children whose parent, parents, or guardian hold genuine and sincere religious beliefs which are contrary to the practices herein required, and no certificate shall be required as a prerequisite to such children being admitted or received into school or attending school. § 2165 ... Immunization of certain post-secondary students (against measles, mumps and rubella) NY law does not require membership in a "bone fide" religion. The NYVIC website presents the full text of the Wexler Decision, which ruled on the constitutionality of this principle. The document explains why one family received the exemption and another did not. See http://nyvic.org/nyvic/law/wexler/ for details. Medical exemptions are rarely obtained; when they are, it is usually an exemption from a single vaccine, not all. CONCERNS Parents and lawmakers have begun to rethink the New York vaccination laws (§ 2164 and § 2165), due in large measure to the requirement for 7th graders to receive the problematic Hepatitis B vaccine, which was designed for drug addicts and the sexually promiscuous. This has led parents throughout the state to resist this vaccination, resulting in many children being removed from classes and embroiling parents and local authorities in legal wrangling, when in fact, the decision regarding vaccination should be left to the parents, in consultation with their physicians. Help contacting NY legislators is available at http://nyvic.org/nyvic/law/. In testimony before Congress, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) stated that the incidence of Hepatitis B in the U.S. in 1999 was about 4 per 100,000, while the risk of a reaction to a Hepatitis B shot was about 4 in 1000 (based on the widely accepted belief that only 10% of adverse reactions are reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System). AAPS also testified, "Striking increases in chronic illnesses have occurred in temporal association with an increase in vaccination rates," and that serious reported adverse effects to Hep B vaccination seem restricted to Caucasians, yet, "the oft-cited long-term safety study was conducted in Alaskan natives, and many studies involved Asians." This underscores the concern of many parents that little or no prescreening for genetic or allergy problems is being done and that the "one size fits all" attitude of health officials regarding the vaccination of masses of children is, at best, a troubling and suspect concept. RESOURCES New Yorkers for Vaccination Information and Choice - Website: http://nyvic.org, Email: nyvic@nyvic.org. NYVIC offers support meetings - usually at Realbirth, 54 West 22nd Street (between 5th and 6th Ave.) in Manhattan. Check nyvic.org/nyvic/support for details. Parents'/children's health rights groups in U.S. - www.nyvic.org/nyvic/resource/groups.htm National Vaccine Information Center http://www.909shot.com/ For vaccination news, the Texas group PROVE (Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education) emails out excellent updates regularly. To subscribe: http://www.vaccineinfo.net/subscribe.htm Please copy and distribute this document. Also available online at www.nyvic.org/nyvic/resource/vacbasic.htm.