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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 nyvic.org/nyvic/law):
§ 2164. Definitions; 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 nyvic.org/nyvic/wexler/law
for details.
Medical exemptions are rarely obtained; when they are, it is usually an
exemption from a single vaccine, not all.
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.
For updates on legislative initiatives, please keep in touch with New Yorkers for Vaccination Information and Choice online at
nyvic.org or by attending our support meetings
when scheduled (see Support section for details).
EXAMPLES OF CONCERNS
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 - NYVIC provides
regular support meetings in Manhattan. See nyvic.org/nyvic/support
or email the
NYVIC team.
Parents'/children's health rights groups in U.S. - nyvic.org/nyvic/resource/groups.htm
National Vaccine Information Center - www.nvic.org
For vaccination news, the Texas group PROVE (Parents Requesting Open Vaccine
Education) emails out excellent updates regularly. To subscribe -
www.vaccineinfo.net/subscribe.htm
This page is available as a printer-friendly text file (basics.txt;
turn on Word Wrap to print after downloading)
and word document (basics4-05.doc) and Rich
Text Format (basics.rtf) for distribution.
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