{"id":170184,"date":"2015-01-30T22:04:43","date_gmt":"2015-01-30T22:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/01\/30\/populationpensive-pubhealth-to-protect-his\/"},"modified":"2018-09-11T06:03:05","modified_gmt":"2018-09-11T06:03:05","slug":"populationpensive-pubhealth-to-protect-his","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/01\/30\/populationpensive-pubhealth-to-protect-his\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-170184 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/01\/30\/populationpensive-pubhealth-to-protect-his\/attachment\/170185\/'><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/tumblr_niwozp8Drq1qdv92xo1_1280-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/tumblr_niwozp8Drq1qdv92xo1_1280-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/tumblr_niwozp8Drq1qdv92xo1_1280-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/populationpensive.tumblr.com\/post\/109499285747\/pubhealth-to-protect-his-son-a-father-asks-school\" class=\"tumblr_blog\" target=\"_blank\">populationpensive<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><a class=\"tumblr_blog\" href=\"http:\/\/pubhealth.tumblr.com\/post\/109481809951\/to-protect-his-son-a-father-asks-school-to-bar\" target=\"_blank\">pubhealth<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h2><a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/blogs\/health\/2015\/01\/27\/381888697\/to-protect-his-son-a-father-asks-school-to-bar-unvaccinated-children\" target=\"_blank\">To Protect His Son, A Father Asks School To Bar Unvaccinated Children<\/a><\/h2>\n<p>By Lisa Aliferis<\/p>\n<p>Carl Krawitt has watched his son, Rhett, now 6, fight leukemia for the past 4\u00a01\/2 years. For more than three of those years, Rhett has undergone round after round of chemotherapy. Last year he finished chemotherapy, and doctors say he is in remission.<\/p>\n<p>Now, there\u2019s a new threat, one that the family should not have to worry about: measles.<\/p>\n<p>Rhett cannot be vaccinated, because his immune system is still rebuilding. It may be months more before his body is healthy enough to get all his immunizations. Until then, he depends on everyone around him for protection \u2014 what\u2019s known as\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kqed.org\/stateofhealth\/2013\/08\/23\/5-things-you-should-know-about-vaccines\/\" target=\"_blank\">herd immunity<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But Rhett lives in Marin County, Calif., a county with the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/news\/2013\/08\/21\/marin-vaccinations\/\" target=\"_blank\">dubious honor of having the highest rate of \u201cpersonal belief exemptions\u201d<\/a>\u00a0in the Bay Area and among the highest in the state. This school year, 6.45 percent of children in Marin have a personal belief exemption, which allows parents to lawfully send their children to school unvaccinated against communicable diseases like measles, polio, whooping cough and more.<\/p>\n<p>Carl Krawitt has had just about enough. \u201cIt\u2019s very emotional for me,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you choose not to immunize your own child and your own child dies because they get measles, OK, that\u2019s your responsibility, that\u2019s your choice. But if your child gets sick and gets my child sick and my child dies, then \u2026 your action has harmed my child.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Krawitt is taking action of his own. His son attends Reed Elementary in Tiburon, a school with a 7 percent personal belief exemption rate. (The statewide average is 2.5 percent). Krawitt had previously worked with the school nurse to make sure that all the children in his son\u2019s class were fully vaccinated. He said the school was very helpful and accommodating.<\/p>\n<p>Now Krawitt and his wife, Jodi, have emailed the district\u2019s superintendent, requesting that the district \u201crequire immunization as a condition of attendance, with the only exception being those who cannot medically be vaccinated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Carl Krawitt provided me with Superintendent Steven Herzog\u2019s response. Herzog didn\u2019t directly address their query, instead saying: \u201cWe are monitoring the situation closely and will take whatever actions necessary to ensure the safety of our students.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>(More from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/blogs\/health\/2015\/01\/27\/381888697\/to-protect-his-son-a-father-asks-school-to-bar-unvaccinated-children\" target=\"_blank\">Shots: Health News from NPR<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><i><b>\u201cIf you choose not to immunize your own child and your own child dies because they get measles, OK, that\u2019s your responsibility, that\u2019s your<br \/>\nchoice. But if your child gets sick and gets my child sick and my child<br \/>\ndies, then \u2026 your action has harmed my child.\u201d<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n<p>Totally support this dad. Completely. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>populationpensive: pubhealth: To Protect His Son, A Father Asks School To Bar Unvaccinated Children By Lisa Aliferis Carl Krawitt has watched his son, Rhett, now 6, fight leukemia for the past 4\u00a01\/2 years. For more than three of those years, Rhett has undergone round after round of chemotherapy. Last year he finished chemotherapy, and doctors &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/01\/30\/populationpensive-pubhealth-to-protect-his\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[17525,4369,4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170184"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170184"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":170186,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170184\/revisions\/170186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}