Vaccinations and college..what have you done?

[Tsuga]

The forms I printed out from dd's college gave an option for date of vax or positive titer levels.  

 

(But no place to write in if there was a medical exemption...?)

 

You can buy a medical exemption. Sadly.

[TechWife]

Whooping cough would also absolutely ruin a semester at school. It's called the 100-day cough for a reason. I've always wondered what happens to the money paid by the kids that have to stop out because they get Mono. Do they get a tuition credit or is that just dollars down the drain?

 

It depends on when in the semester it happens. There's usually a date up to which you can get a partial refund, but it's pretty early in the semester. After that, yes, it's money that you don't get back. 

[TechWife]

Sickness is always to some extent dollars down the drain but you can advocate for an incomplete and make it up later.

 

College professors don't pass out incomplete grades like candy, though. In flu season, it's conceivable that hundreds of students would try for this if they did. Incomplete grades are extra work for the professor. It is also harder for the student to make up the work without the benefit of attending classes. 

 

If a student is seriously ill, they can request a medical withdrawal from some or all of their classes. My son and to do this for one class this past semester when he was ill. Student health and the Dean of Students had to approve it. 

[TechWife]

You can buy a medical exemption. Sadly.

 

It's up to the college to agree that the exemption exists. I doubt you could buy an exemption from student health. 

[bettyandbob]

I thought most colleges had policies about medical withdrawals and changing test dates or getting incompletes for medical reasons. I was very ill (vomiting, high fever) and got a friend to take me to student health services early on the morning of a midterm because the policy at my school was strict. I would really have been better off sleeping in my own dorm room and there's no way I could walk. My friend got pulled over for not properly clearing her windshield, but campus police drove me the rest of the way.

 

People I've known who got withdrawals for med reasons list that tuition money, but they didn't have a string of F's on their transcript.

[cjzimmer1]

 

We haven't done the Chicken Pox vaccine ever....I've never met or heard of a person who died from Chicken Pox.   Uncomfortable, yes, death, no.  And I am aware the adult version can be worse, and cause shingles.  Still a no for us.

 

T

 

I don't really understand the push for chicken pox either.  I remember with one of my kids discussing the chicken pox vaccine with the doctor (who was pro-vaccine) and the doctor even said that the reason for the push for chicken pox was because with so many 2 parent working families, the parents couldn't afford to take off for a few weeks if their child got the chicken pox.  So the pharmacuetical's capitalized on this, promoted chicken pox as this horrible scary thing and now the vaccine is MUST HAVE.  The doctor actual felt the chicken pox vaccine was causing more harm than good because it was pushing off chicken pox until later in life (due to vaccine failure, lack of natural exposure, etc), which causes more complications than getting it as a child.  Yes some kid's have horrible experiences with chicken pox, but overall adult's have a much worse time with it.  The doctor actively discouraged chicken pox vaccine for young children with the hope (although pretty rare these days) they would catch it naturally.  If they didn't he recommended getting the vaccine during the teenage years when complications from getting it naturally were higher.

 

[cjzimmer1]

Whooping cough would also absolutely ruin a semester at school. It's called the 100-day cough for a reason. I've always wondered what happens to the money paid by the kids that have to stop out because they get Mono. Do they get a tuition credit or is that just dollars down the drain?

 

I would expect it would depend on the college.  I had one semester that started with my right hand in a cast (and I was right handed and this was long before laptops were available) and ended with me having emergency gallbladder surgery that had complications.  I ended up missing the last 2 weeks of classes and finals as well as missing my part on group projects in 3 of my 5 classes.  Yeah a really bad time to be sick.  Anyways, the beginning of the semester they let me do my work orally since I couldn't write anything. And the end of the semester they made accommodations to my work load.  Some extended my time to complete the work to the end of the next semester, some gave me altered assignments instead of the group projects I was unable to complete and some didn't even make me finish the work  (had to say I LOVED that teacher, her words "I know you would  get an A on the missing work and you know would get an A, I'm busy planning next semester's work and you are still recovering, so I'm just going to give you an A for the semester and we'll call it good", this class was my third with her, she knew me very well by that point).

 

Next year I had mono in the middle of the semester.  I missed about a week of class (plus was sick over fall break) but again the teachers were extremely accommodating in making adjustments.  I didn't lose anything for all the time I was sick.  But I went to a small college where everyone knew everyone.  I had all the teacher's home phone numbers and called them the night before my surgery to tell them I would be missing for a while (never expecting to be out for the full 3 weeks).  I'm sure at a large university it would be harder.

[TechWife]

I thought most colleges had policies about medical withdrawals and changing test dates or getting incompletes for medical reasons. I was very ill (vomiting, high fever) and got a friend to take me to student health services early on the morning of a midterm because the policy at my school was strict. I would really have been better off sleeping in my own dorm room and there's no way I could walk. My friend got pulled over for not properly clearing her windshield, but campus police drove me the rest of the way.

 

People I've known who got withdrawals for med reasons list that tuition money, but they didn't have a string of F's on their transcript.

.

 

Gettimg a medical withdrawal isn't hard when it's medically justified. There was paperwork involved and student health and the dean of students had to sign off on it. I have no idea if they do them for things like the flu. My son was seriously ill and had a prof that didn't take makeup assignments (it was a studio class). Student health talked to the prof and he wouldn't budge, so they processed the withdrawal from that course for my son. He missed classes at the bringing of the semester in that one.

[ktgrok]

The doctor actively discouraged chicken pox vaccine for young children with the hope (although pretty rare these days) they would catch it naturally.  If they didn't he recommended getting the vaccine during the teenage years when complications from getting it naturally were higher.

 

 

That is what one of our doctors said as well, and the path we took for our oldest. The younger ones seem to have no issues with vaccines, and given how rare it is to have exposure, we just went ahead and vaccinated the younger ones as well as I'd given up on exposure for them. 

[December]

The risk that an adult would die from chicken pox is 30 times that of a child.  I put off all vaccines until my eldest was 7 (and so far my children have only received one vaccine, but I'm planning on more, just so you know where I am coming from), but my plan all along had been to get them the chicken pox vaccine as a preteen if they hadn't contracted a case naturally by then.  Most vaccine hesitant people I know have similar plans.  Chicken pox is almost always no big deal in kids, but the potential for severe complications definitely goes up for teens and adults.

[Lanny]

The Pharmacy we use (in Colombia) sent an email to their customers, this morning, regarding Meningitis.  I would not permit my DD to attend any school that does not require proof of vaccinations. That applies to schools in the USA as well as those here in Colombia.

[lovinmyboys]

I don't really understand the push for chicken pox either. I remember with one of my kids discussing the chicken pox vaccine with the doctor (who was pro-vaccine) and the doctor even said that the reason for the push for chicken pox was because with so many 2 parent working families, the parents couldn't afford to take off for a few weeks if their child got the chicken pox. So the pharmacuetical's capitalized on this, promoted chicken pox as this horrible scary thing and now the vaccine is MUST HAVE. The doctor actual felt the chicken pox vaccine was causing more harm than good because it was pushing off chicken pox until later in life (due to vaccine failure, lack of natural exposure, etc), which causes more complications than getting it as a child. Yes some kid's have horrible experiences with chicken pox, but overall adult's have a much worse time with it. The doctor actively discouraged chicken pox vaccine for young children with the hope (although pretty rare these days) they would catch it naturally. If they didn't he recommended getting the vaccine during the teenage years when complications from getting it naturally were higher.

 

Right. And since we are talking about an (almost) adult, I think he should at least consider getting it. Chicken pox kills more people in the US each year than measles does. It is still very rare to die from chicken pox, but most people killed by chicken pox are teens or adults. The op is the first delayed/selective vaxxer that I have heard is skipping chicken pox vaccine for a teen who hasn't had chicken pox. I'm sure there are others, I just haven't encountered it.

 

I think when you are choosing which vaccines to do, it is kind of a shot in the dark. If you immunize against mumps but whooping cough is what goes around it won't do much good. It's impossible to predict what he will be exposed to. The good news is he likely won't be exposed to any of them and if he is he will likely survive.

[Seasider]

As for chicken pox being an unnecessary vaccine...

 

If you have a child that deals with a skin issue such as eczema, chicken pox can be more easily followed by a strep B infection. This affected our decision.

[December]

I don't really understand the push for chicken pox either.  I remember with one of my kids discussing the chicken pox vaccine with the doctor (who was pro-vaccine) and the doctor even said that the reason for the push for chicken pox was because with so many 2 parent working families, the parents couldn't afford to take off for a few weeks if their child got the chicken pox.  So the pharmacuetical's capitalized on this, promoted chicken pox as this horrible scary thing and now the vaccine is MUST HAVE.  The doctor actual felt the chicken pox vaccine was causing more harm than good because it was pushing off chicken pox until later in life (due to vaccine failure, lack of natural exposure, etc), which causes more complications than getting it as a child.  Yes some kid's have horrible experiences with chicken pox, but overall adult's have a much worse time with it.  The doctor actively discouraged chicken pox vaccine for young children with the hope (although pretty rare these days) they would catch it naturally.  If they didn't he recommended getting the vaccine during the teenage years when complications from getting it naturally were higher.

 

 

 

I think preventing adults from getting chicken pox is one of the reasons they are pushing it so hard on kids.  Apparently, they calculated that if you have 90% or higher of kids vaccinated against chicken pox then the number of adults catching chicken pox will be lower than it was in the pre-vaccine era.  However, under 90% there is a certain level where the vaccine is potentially causing more harm than good by decreasing the circulation of chicken pox enough that more people are getting adulthood without gaining immunity...but not decreasing chicken pox circulation enough to prevent adults from getting it.

[TranquilMind]

Whooping cough would also absolutely ruin a semester at school. It's called the 100-day cough for a reason. I've always wondered what happens to the money paid by the kids that have to stop out because they get Mono. Do they get a tuition credit or is that just dollars down the drain?

 

You get a credit only if your kid stepped out of the semester quick enough.  Otherwise, it's gone.  

 

[kubiac]

I know these videos will be viewed suspiciously by some (since they advocate so directly for a meningitis vaccine), but I watched them a few years ago and they were very powerful. 

 

Voices of Meningitis: Meningitis Video Library

[Tsuga]

College professors don't pass out incomplete grades like candy, though. In flu season, it's conceivable that hundreds of students would try for this if they did. Incomplete grades are extra work for the professor. It is also harder for the student to make up the work without the benefit of attending classes. 

 

If a student is seriously ill, they can request a medical withdrawal from some or all of their classes. My son and to do this for one class this past semester when he was ill. Student health and the Dean of Students had to approve it. 

 

That is very true, but I am just saying it's not guaranteed lost.

[Tsuga]

And also... If you don't vaccinate for yourself, vaccinate for those with cancer, lupus, and other auto-immune diseases. Vaccinate for the pregnant professor who may not have gotten full immunity before pregnancy for whatever reason. Vaccinate for the young man who whose vaccine didn't stick.