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The five parents, who filed anonymously in Manhattan Supreme Court, brought the case against the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and its Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot, saying the order goes beyond “the powers of the Commissioner,” and the reasons for the order “are insufficient to justify these drastic emergency measures.”
They claim the current measles outbreak isn’t serious enough to justify the order’s “recklessly short 48-hour period” that Williamsburg residents were ordered to get vaccinated by — which expired last Thursday.
It was me and of course everyone knew! You must be young and that's why it's hard to understand how things could be different in previous times.
We all knew that the complications could be very severe if you didn't go through chickenpox as a young child. We had one child break out every Friday and when parents picked up, they hoped it was theirs.
Life went on, the child who had chicken pox kept coming every day, it really truly wasn't a big deal. No need for doctor visits, it's very mild when you're young.
I literally had to stop reading, close out CD and take a shower after reading that. Then I came back and read it again.
I am shocked and appalled that you let these kids come to day care with active chickenpox. I was a mom of young kids then, and believe me, that was not acceptable. You are lucky someone didn't report you.
Chickenpox is not always "very mild" when you're young. The median age for chickenpox pre-vaccine was 4, yet still there were kids with complications and about 100 deaths each year.
Your blase beliefs about chickenpox were not shared by everyone back then, and contrary to what some really young ones on here seem to think, the 80s were not some period of total lawlessness when it came to communicable disease. BTW, I'm about a decade older than UNC4Me, I just had my kids in my 30s.
Using your logic throughout this thread, your mother shouldn't have been allowed to send you to public school since you weren't immune to chickenpox yet. You should've been banned from all public events. She made her choice not to let you catch them before you were of school age.
That's the same point I was trying to make about Kat's post pages ago. She intentionally sent her kids to school for years while they had no immunity to chickenpox.
What? What's that all about? There's no law NOW that kids have to have immunity to chickenpox to attend school except in CA, WV, and MN. Is this how you deal with people who disagree with you? Make up crap about them? Holy Cow!
I'm a bit older (70). They did not call them parties per se, but friends did visit friends when they were home with measles and chicken pox. The sick kids were not isolated from other kids. Maybe as a kid I was naive as to the ulterior motive of some of the parents? I do remember some of the kids calling me a "cheater". Because I already had these diseases as a baby and couldn't catch them again?
When my daughters had chicken pox, my 11 year old's friends came over to visit her. They played video games and watched MTV. Daughter would eat the oatmeal in her bath and laugh at me. She was happy to get out of school, but missed playing sports. Most probably already had the pox, but I did tell the Mom of the infected girl that my daughter was staying over her house because her doctor wanted her to catch pox. That Mom did not question it at all. This was in 1991. My 6 year old's case was worse. All she did was cry and cry, but she's still a complainer in adulthood. We aren't clones of one another; children or adults.
Edit: The first time I ever flew on a plane was when I was 9 months old; from NYC to Indiana. Today that would be too young to be vaccinated for measles or chicken pox. However, I was already immune to them by that age. The mindset was get them as young as possible. Mom did not deliberately try for me to catch them, but she did nothing to isolate me from them. She brought me all around NYC where she had to go.
Different world than today.
We've been over and over and over this, Jo. Up until about 1950, people had to put quarantine signs on their doors when there was a measles case in the household and others were supposed to KEEP OUT. By the time your kids were born, there was a vaccine, whether you got it for your kids or not.
What? What's that all about? There's no law NOW that kids have to have immunity to chickenpox to attend school except in CA, WV, and MN. Is this how you deal with people who disagree with you? Make up crap about them? Holy Cow!
Actually, that law exists in places other than those states. Here’s the law in Massachusetts:
Massachusetts regulations require proof of immunity to varicella for school attendance, including college. Other groups, particularly healthcare workers, should also be immune to varicella.
Proof of immunity includes:
Written documentation of up-to-date varicella vaccination according Massachusetts school immunization requirements.
Massachusetts is currently phasing in requirements for varicella vaccination. Most students in kindergarten through college are required to have 2 doses of varicella vaccine or other proof of immunity. Some students, including child care and preschool students are only required 1 dose or other proof of immunity.
Born in the United States before 1980 (this is not considered proof of immunity for healthcare providers or pregnant women)
Written documentation of a blood test confirming immunity
Written documentation of chickenpox diagnosed by a healthcare provider
Written documentation of history of shingles (Herpes zoster) by healthcare provider
Per the link for the 2011-2012 school year, 36 states and The District of Columbia required proof of immunity for daycare, public school and perhaps college attendance. Could be more added in the past 8 years.
I literally had to stop reading, close out CD and take a shower after reading that. Then I came back and read it again.
I am shocked and appalled that you let these kids come to day care with active chickenpox. I was a mom of young kids then, and believe me, that was not acceptable. You are lucky someone didn't report you.
Chickenpox is not always "very mild" when you're young. The median age for chickenpox pre-vaccine was 4, yet still there were kids with complications and about 100 deaths each year.
Your blase beliefs about chickenpox were not shared by everyone back then, and contrary to what some really young ones on here seem to think, the 80s were not some period of total lawlessness when it came to communicable disease. BTW, I'm about a decade older than UNC4Me, I just had my kids in my 30s.
LOL, dramatic much? Lawlessness? Parents wanted me to continue caring for their children, in our nice comfy home atmosphere, cuddled on the couch. Parents were free to take the kids somewhere else or keep them at home, I'll just repeat, it's not a horrifying experience. The kids had been together for years, we spent more time together than they did with their own families.
And these weren't strange antivaxxers, there just wasn't a vaccine for chickenpox yet. Why in the world would they report me? No different than a child catching any other cold or virus.
And again, it turned out fine! The kids all got their natural immunity to chickenpox without any complications. No parent was angry. No pediatrician was angry, they just checked off the "had chickenpox" box at the next checkup.
LOL, dramatic much? Lawlessness? Parents wanted me to continue caring for their children, in our nice comfy home atmosphere, cuddled on the couch. Parents were free to take the kids somewhere else or keep them at home, I'll just repeat, it's not a horrifying experience. The kids had been together for years, we spent more time together than they did with their own families.
And these weren't strange antivaxxers, there just wasn't a vaccine for chickenpox yet. Why in the world would they report me? No different than a child catching any other cold or virus.
And again, it turned out fine! The kids all got their natural immunity to chickenpox without any complications. No parent was angry. No pediatrician was angry, they just checked off the "had chickenpox" box at the next checkup.
This sounds very normal to me as a child who grew up in the 70s and one who played outside all day every day from sun up to sundown with all of the other kids in the neighborhood who had chicken pox with the blessing of all of our parents. Playing hard too, running, swimming, etc. Not laying in bed. Maybe it was all of the vitamin D that helped keep it mild as it was summer and we were outisde all day long, not hiding inside in a state of fear. Chicken pox was a normal part of childhood back then. I still have no idea how or why people thought it was a better idea to try to avoid it. They were going to get it eventually. They could decide to lower the risk by planning and trying to get it over with earlier but they think that is just the craziest idea ever.
This sounds very normal to me as a child who grew up in the 70s and one who played outside all day every day from sun up to sundown with all of the other kids in the neighborhood who had chicken pox with the blessing of all of our parents. Playing hard too, running, swimming, etc. Not laying in bed. Maybe it was all of the vitamin D that helped keep it mild as it was summer and we were outisde all day long, not hiding inside in a state of fear. Chicken pox was a normal part of childhood back then. I still have no idea how or why people thought it was a better idea to try to avoid it. They were going to get it eventually. They could decide to lower the risk by planning and trying to get it over with earlier but they think that is just the craziest idea ever.
Why do you think those of us with mothers who didn’t deliberately set out to get us infected with chickenpox had us hiding inside in a state of fear? That’s so laughable. I did all the things you did as a kid, but it I did them 12 months out of the year not just in summer.
My mother’s rules were designed to keep us out of the house from right after breakfast to when the street lights came on. We weren’t even allowed inside to get a drink of water even though we lived in south Florida. You haven’t lived until you’ve burned your lip on a brass hose bib when trying to drink out of the hose in Florida in July. Didn’t want to drink hot water out of the hose? Then you just stayed thirsty.
The thought of my mother clucking and worrying over us is quite amusing to me. She was a charter member of the Mothering by Benign Neglect club. She should have been elected president.
Actually, that law exists in places other than those states. Here’s the law in Massachusetts:
Massachusetts regulations require proof of immunity to varicella for school attendance, including college. Other groups, particularly healthcare workers, should also be immune to varicella.
Proof of immunity includes:
Written documentation of up-to-date varicella vaccination according Massachusetts school immunization requirements.
Massachusetts is currently phasing in requirements for varicella vaccination. Most students in kindergarten through college are required to have 2 doses of varicella vaccine or other proof of immunity. Some students, including child care and preschool students are only required 1 dose or other proof of immunity.
Born in the United States before 1980 (this is not considered proof of immunity for healthcare providers or pregnant women)
Written documentation of a blood test confirming immunity
Written documentation of chickenpox diagnosed by a healthcare provider
Written documentation of history of shingles (Herpes zoster) by healthcare provider
Per the link for the 2011-2012 school year, 36 states and The District of Columbia required proof of immunity for daycare, public school and perhaps college attendance. Could be more added in the past 8 years.
Massachusetts and 46 other states allow religious/personal belief exemptions. It's not surprising to me that MA is just phasing this in; they seem to be very old fashioned. (My SIL is from there and I've had many conversations about this mostly with his parents.) Colorado required varicella for Ks for 20 years or so.
Last edited by Katarina Witt; 04-15-2019 at 09:23 AM..
Why do you think those of us with mothers who didn’t deliberately set out to get us infected with chickenpox had us hiding inside in a state of fear? That’s so laughable. I did all the things you did as a kid, but it I did them 12 months out of the year not just in summer.
My mother’s rules were designed to keep us out of the house from right after breakfast to when the street lights came on. We weren’t even allowed inside to get a drink of water even though we lived in south Florida. You haven’t lived until you’ve burned your lip on a brass hose bib when trying to drink out of the hose in Florida in July.
The thought of my mother clucking and worrying over us is quite amusing to me. She was a charter member of the Mothering by Benign Neglect club.
I played outside year round as well. My story about being outside was about my experience with chicken pox. Chicken pox didn’t stop anyone in my neighborhood from doing what we always did. No one was hiding inside trying to avoid catching it. No one was even sick enough to even skip a beat.
I’m not sure what your post has to do with you thinking you were so much smarter for trying to avoid the unavoidable and in turn, increase your risk of serious complications and death.
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We aren't clones of one another; children or adults.