If You Don't Want The MMR We'll Force You and Other Vaccination Force Stories
One little boy who will never be getting his MMR
Tough sanctions are being proposed for parents who refuse routine vaccinations, such as MMR.
In an article for the Fabian Society, leading public health expert Sir Sandy Macara called for child benefit to be linked with vaccination uptake.
And Labour MP Mary Creagh said children should have to prove they are vaccinated before they start school to improve uptake of MMR.
The Department of Health said vaccination was voluntary.
Public confidence in vaccination, and in MMR particularly, fell after research raised the possibility that the jab may be linked to an increased risk of autism.
The research has since been debunked, and a string of studies have concluded that the triple vaccine - which protects against rubella and mumps as well as measles - is perfectly safe.
But immunisation rates are still well below the 95% needed for herd immunity and are particularly low in London.
As a result there have been several outbreaks of measles.
'Blasé'
Sir Sandy Macara, ex-chairman of the British Medical Association, said in many developing countries immunisation rates were higher than in the UK even though they had poorer access to healthcare.
"People here have become a bit blasé and they worry more about rare possible risks of vaccination rather than the diseases they prevent.
"One ought to recognise that mothers have a responsibility for ensuring their children are protected."
He said linking vaccination to child benefit would ensure full vaccine coverage and make the argument that it was being done for the public good rather than for the benefit of individuals.
"Politicians are much more anxious than they would admit about 'nanny state' accusations but they should be more worried about being accused of negligence," he said.
Ms Creagh said proof of vaccination before school attendance had been used in the US.
"The MMR vaccination rate is at 85% and the target figure is 95% so it's about catching children who may have moved or lost contact with their health visitor but also saying to parents your child has a right to live free from vaccine preventable diseases."
She said there would be exceptions where children could not be vaccinated for medical or religious reasons.
"In lots of cities now they are offering catch up MMR for five-year olds and there's a high take-up - a lot of anxiety has gone away and it offers parents another opportunity."
But Jackie Fletcher of pressure group Jabs was against both proposals.
"It's only six months since a big public consultation by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics which we contributed to and they concluded there was no reason to change the voluntary system.
"At the same time as this was published in the UK there was a huge furore in the US as parents were threatened with hefty fines and jail unless they vaccinated their children before entry into school.
"Is this really the direction we want to go in," she said.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health said they wanted to see a continued improvement in the uptake of the MMR vaccine.
"Vaccination in this country is voluntary.
"PCTs need to identify what approaches will work best to meet the need of their communities in order to ensure that all children and at-risk groups can benefit from vaccines."
VAN UK's comment: The benefit from vaccines has never been proven, is highly subjective and medical literature over the past couple of hundred years shows that vaccines can cause an array of complications, even resulting in death, particularly for children who are immuno-compromised (see CDC vaccine damage pictures). While this is the case, no one should ever be compelled to have a vaccine, particularly not for the benefit of someone else.
Vaccines Given Without Parent's Consent
12-year-old Christian is an active kid. A CMS student. And a boy scout. It's his scouting that made mom Tina Smith-Johns want to get him vaccinated against tetanus. So last Friday, they went to the Charlotte Pediatric Clinic in Pineville, part of Carolinas Medical Center.
Tina stayed in the waiting room with two younger children while Christian went back to get his single dose tetanus shot. Tina says, "Moments later, a nurse walks out and hands me a piece of paper and asks me to sign here, here, here and here, four areas."
Christian got more than the tetanus shot Tina requested: he got a vaccine for chicken pox. He got a vaccine for hepatitis-a. And he got a vaccine to prevent diseases like meningitis. Tina says, "I was devastated. I was devastated, we practice delaying vaccinations, we are very selective about the ones we choose."
Scott White, a spokesman for Carolinas Medical Center, says, "The mom definitely wanted her child to receive a single dose vaccine and unfortunately a four dose vaccine was given in error." White admits: the clinic violated its own policy of written consent before vaccination. White says, "We apologize for the error. We regret it. The clinical staff's been given a review of the policy that a consent form must be signed before vaccine is administered."
FOX Charlotte also uncovered a federal law that may have been violated: the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986. It requires all health-care providers in the United States to give parents or legal guardians a "Vaccine Information Statement" before administering each dose of vaccine. CMC confirms it did not provide the statements to Tina during Christian's visit to the clinic on Friday.
Meanwhile, Tina has kept a close eye on Christian and has noticed no adverse reaction to the four vaccines he received. She says she appreciates the apology from CMC, but isn't sure if that's enough.
Tina says, "What just happened was they violated our rights. His rights as a patient, my rights as his mom."
CMC will not comment on any possible disciplinary action with any of the clinic's employees, citing personnel privacy. Tina tells FOX Charlotte that she has filed a complaint with the North Carolina Medical Board. Its investigation could last six months.
Source: My Fox, Charlotte, 25 February 2009.
VAN UK'S Comment: I don't think it was an error. I have heard this scenario many times from mums who phone my helpline. Nurses are trained medical professionals, they know full well what is a single tetanus vaccine and what isn't.
Sometimes if consent has been withheld or the parent does selective vaccination, they will 'accidently' give other vaccines because they don't agree. I have heard it done too many times to be a coincidence.
They don't 'accidently' mix up blood transfusions or other drugs in the same way, or they would lose their medical licence.
Doctor Gave Child MMR Even When Mother Said No
YOU'RE torturing your daughter," repeated my then 1-year-old's rigid pediatrician matter of factly. Suddenly, a terrible churning in my chest sent my heart racing as frustration steamed out my flaming eyeballs in the form of tears.
I had been bullied by this pediatrician at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Valencia for a solid year because I made an educated, well-researched decision to stagger my infant daughter's vaccination schedule. The apparent definition of torture was giving my daughter fewer shots more often, rather than more shots all at once.
A heated discussion ensued until an agreement was reached. There would be no MMR combination shot (which includes the measles, mumps and Rubella vaccines all in one); just a mumps vaccine on this visit - the others would come later, or so I thought.
I was notified afterward that my daughter was, in fact, given the MMR vaccine anyway, without my knowledge or consent, leaving me feeling helpless, betrayed and intensely - parentally - angry.
All infants are to be given 14 vaccines in multiple doses from birth through 12 months, according to the Center for Disease Control's Recommended Childhood Immunization Schedule and the American Academy of Pediatrics. That is a total of 26 shots in the first year of a fragile, developing baby's body, with eight vaccines at a time given to a 2-month-old and seven at a time to a 4-month-old.
I'm just a parent who takes her child's development seriously enough to learn that ingredients in vaccines include fetal cow blood, monkey kidney cells, chicken embryo proteins, human blood proteins (including human DNA), formaldehyde, aluminum and the live virus itself. I can't give my child milk or honey until she's 1, but I can give her all this from birth?
While I ultimately chose to get all the recommended vaccines, my goal with a staggered schedule was to reduce the amount of toxins in my baby's body at a given time, ensure her exposure to live viruses was one at a time, and more easily trace any sources of side effects she may exhibit with only two vaccines to investigate, rather than eight.
Torture? Maybe for doctors who've got better things to do than their job.
Source: Los Angeles Daily News, 6th September 2009.
Swine Flu Vaccine Without Consent - Cases
In a minor setback for New York City’s effort to vaccinate schoolchildren against swine flu, two students were inadvertently vaccinated without the consent of their parents, city health officials said Thursday.
The children suffered no adverse effects from the vaccinations and were expected to be fine, but the misstep raised questions about the way in which the program is being carried out. Health officials said they had started an inquiry.
“We are working to determine how this occurred, and to implement additional safeguards,” said Jessica L. Scaperotti, a spokeswoman for the city’s health department.
As part of the program, which started this week, children are taken to the schools nurse’s office and administered the vaccine. The nurses are supposed to follow a protocol that involves reviewing each child’s health records and determining whether the child has parental consent before they vaccinate.
Health officials said it was not clear what had happened in the case of the two children, both of whom are in elementary school. One attends Public School 335 in Brooklyn, and the other P.S. 65 on Staten Island.
Ms. Scaperotti said nurses and other school workers would be given additional training in how to handle the vaccination program.
Source: Go Upstate.com, 30 October 2009.
6 Year old Given H1N1 Vaccine Without Consent And Ends up in Hospital
Now it turns out that one of the public school students given the swine flu vaccine without parental consent had to go to the emergency room after getting sick. Six-year-old Nikiyah Torres, who suffers from epilepsy (her parents had been waiting to see what their family doctor said about the swine flu vaccine) told WCBS 2, "He just gave me the needle, without asking me what is my name."
The little girl told the Daily News, "My stomach was hurting, and I was itching," and was taken to the hospital from her school, PS 335 in Brooklyn. According to the News, "When the nurse called for a student Thursday morning, Nikiyah's teacher misunderstood and sent the wrong student, [NIkyah's mother Naomi] Troy said. The error was compounded when the nurse didn't check Nikiyah's name before sticking her in the shoulder."
When the nurse realized what happened, the school called Troy to appear—and the nurse asked her to sign the consent form even though the shot was already given to her daughter. Troy fumed to WCBS 2, "He knew he was in big trouble and he wanted to cover himself."
The News also reports that a third child was given the swine flu vaccine without consent, prompting the nurses' union to say "I told you so" because it had warned about problems with making school nurses responsible for this: "We don't like it when we're right, because usually when we're right someone does get hurt somewhere along the way."
Now it turns out that one of the public school students given the swine flu vaccine without parental consent had to go to the emergency room after getting sick. Six-year-old Nikiyah Torres, who suffers from epilepsy (her parents had been waiting to see what their family doctor said about the swine flu vaccine) told WCBS 2, "He just gave me the needle, without asking me what is my name."
The little girl told the Daily News, "My stomach was hurting, and I was itching," and was taken to the hospital from her school, PS 335 in Brooklyn. According to the News, "When the nurse called for a student Thursday morning, Nikiyah's teacher misunderstood and sent the wrong student, [NIkyah's mother Naomi] Troy said. The error was compounded when the nurse didn't check Nikiyah's name before sticking her in the shoulder."
When the nurse realized what happened, the school called Troy to appear—and the nurse asked her to sign the consent form even though the shot was already given to her daughter. Troy fumed to WCBS 2, "He knew he was in big trouble and he wanted to cover himself."
The News also reports that a third child was given the swine flu vaccine without consent, prompting the nurses' union to say "I told you so" because it had warned about problems with making school nurses responsible for this: "We don't like it when we're right, because usually when we're right someone does get hurt somewhere along the way."
Source: Gothamist, 31 October 2009.
Nurse Refuses Consent For Her Son To Be Vaccinated And He is Given the Shot Anyway
A boy in Ohio has received the swine flu vaccine despite the fact that his mother clearly refused consent for her child to be inoculated, in another example of how health authorities are blatantly disregarding the wishes of parents in the pursuit of a mass vaccination mandate.
“Kim Lutheran works as a nurse and says her son, Matthew, has had bad reactions to medicine. So, she says she signed for “no consent” on a vaccination form and then circled her intentions with a black marker to make things clear to the boy’s public school in the Toledo suburb of Oregon,” reports the Associated Press.
Despite her clear refusal to give consent, the boy was given the H1N1 shot on Monday. Lutheran is now demanding that the local health department be held accountable.
The mother had followed the correct procedure in filling in the form because parents were still required to return it even if they were notifying the school of their refusal to give consent. The fact that she so clearly indicated that her son was not to receive the vaccine suggests that health authorities flagrantly ignored her request and inoculated the boy anyway.
This is not the first time that a child has received the swine flu shot against their wishes of their parents and it’s unlikely to be the last.
A 7-year-old boy in Montgomery County was given the nasal spray version of the H1N1 vaccine last week despite his father’s objections that his son should be exempted because of underlying health problems.
Matthew Angel called the nurses’ station at Camargo Elementary School to ask why his son Jacob Wages was given the vaccine. They told him they had mistaken the boy with another child. An investigation is currently underway to discover exactly what happened.
“A little cold can lead to a big thing for him, if he runs a temperature it’s not a hundred point one, it’s a hundred and five,” said Angel, who fears his son’s health is now at risk.
Angel has every right to worry – the nasal spray version of the H1N1 vaccine contains live swine flu virus and doctors and hospitals are expressing concern that the FluMist vaccine could endanger people, with children the most vulnerable. With no less than 60 per cent of the U.S. population immunodeficient in one way or another, the nasal spray could actually make the swine flu pandemic worse, health experts have warned. A number of hospitals across the country have refused to administer the spray form of the vaccine because of these concerns.
Source: The Survival Station, 29 October 2009.
Boy is Held Down By Police And Force Vaccinated
It took the strength of two sheriff's deputies to keep a middle schooler still enough to receive a shot of the swine flu, or H1N1, vaccine at a recent clinic.
During a regular Wheeling-Ohio County Health Board meeting Tuesday, health department Administrator Howard Gamble told board members about the student's attempt to flee Wheeling Middle School during a vaccination clinic held there last Friday.
He noted the boy's mother could not bear to watch the scene and left the gymnasium. Out of apparent fear of receiving the injection, the student ran out of the building. The school's resource officer, Ohio County Sheriff's Deputy John Haglock, coaxed the boy back inside. Once at the shot station, however, Haglock apparently needed some help keeping the boy still, and another deputy assisted.
"He tried to run. I looked over and saw two sheriff's deputies holding a kid down," Gamble said. "Mom took off, she couldn't take it. You had one nurse with the needle, two deputies holding him, one nurse is grabbing hands - because that's what they want to do, to go after the needle. And that's the last thing you want."
Gamble said as soon as the nurse gave the boy his injection and told him he was done, he hopped up like nothing had happened.
"For the most part they go very easy. As far as the shots, every once in awhile you have to hold down one or two - but that's why mom is there or dad is there," Gamble said.
He added after the meeting that Friday's incident was the only time Ohio County deputies have held a student during a shot.
"They're mostly there for parking and directions. They also know the kids. ... They were our first line of contact when setting up the clinics," Gamble said.
Neither Sheriff Pat Butler nor Haglock could be reached for comment. A sheriff's department official said Haglock is on vacation for the next two weeks.
Source: http://www.theintelligencer.net/page/content.detail/id/530805.html?nav=515
131 Children Vaccinated at Gunpoint
131 children who fled during a measles vaccine campaign have been vaccinated by force and at gunpoint when they and their parents returned to the country:
http://www.malawivoice.com/latest-news/131-children-vaccinated-at-gunpoint-in-nsanje/
Vaccination Teams Enter Private Schools with Guns and Force Vaccinate Students, Saying they Don't Need Parental Consent!
A group of small children lined up in a colourful room of a private school on Wednesday morning and waited for a burqa-clad woman to force red polio drops down their throats. This was part of the three-day anti-polio campaign, which ended on a bitter note as the administrative staff of private schools around the city complained about being harassed and subjected to aggressive behaviour.
Private schools were asked to cooperate with the government teams administering polio vaccinations to students under the age of five years or go to jail. “We were harassed by the polio teams and were forced to let them administer drops to our students,” said the principal of AMI School’s nursery branch, Nasira Faiz. “We are not the parents of these students. We cannot give permission to these teams to administer polio drops.”
In Jamshed town, anti-polio teams were accompanied by police officers who were always a step ahead and ready to pick up faculty members. On Monday, the manager of the AMI school, Shakeelur Razzak, was picked up from the school and taken to the Ferozabad police station, just because the school did not attend a meeting on the polio campaign organised by the town commissioner.
“Our schools are located in safe areas. How can people barge in with guns? There was no condition in the notice that if we don’t attend, we would be arrested,” said Rabea Minai, a teacher. “We are against this aggressive attitude.”
Razzak was released after the school said that they would apologise to the town administration for ‘causing inconvenience’ to the polio teams. They had to ensure that the school would cooperate with the anti-polio teams. On Tuesday, the school sent out circulars to the parents asking them for permission to have their children vaccinated at school. Sarwat Naseem, a parent, said that her children were vaccinated. She felt that this approach was wrong.
While talking to The Express Tribune, the deputy commissioner for the East, Qazi Jan Muhammad, said that he wanted to make sure that every child in his district was vaccinated. “Every deputy commissioner is responsible for the children in his area,” he said. “If any child has polio in my area then it will become my responsibility.”
He added that this year, the health department had indicated refusal areas ie, those areas or schools where anti-polio teams were not allowed to vaccinate children in the past. “There were 172 schools in the east zone which were refusal areas,” he said. “This time we took strict action against them. We arrested some staff members but released them after they swore to cooperate with us.”
According to the deputy commissioner, under section 186 of the Pakistan Penal Code, they have the right to take the action and arrest those who disobeyed government orders.
“Private schools say that they can’t let the children get vaccinated without the parents’ consent,” he said. “We don’t need the permission. It is the basic human right of every child under the age of five to get vaccinated.”
The chairman of the All Private Schools Management Association, Khalid Shah, said that for the first time, around 50 to 55 private schools had turned into polio centres during the campaign. He added that earlier, the health department was not successful in vaccinating all the children as most of them were at school but this time the schools had worked with them.
Source: The Express Tribune, 2nd February 2012. http://tribune.com.pk/story/330598/as-govt-teams-come-knocking-schools-face-dilemma-of-permitting-polio-vaccinations/
14 Year Old Vaccinated Without Parental Knowledge or Consent
Sighle Kinney is fuming after her 14-year-old daughter was given four shots by the school nurse at Marcus Garvey Academy without her permission.
The daughter said she was called out of class by the school nurse on Jan. 30 and sent to the school’s clinic, which is operated by St. John’s Medical.
While there, she was given four vaccinations, including the one for HPV. It was the shot for HPV that really touched a nerve.
Sighle was furious. She said she never gave consent for the shots to the school or St. John’s – Sighle said she even signed a document indicating never to administer medical treatment to her daughter.
“I told them – if she falls, give her a Band Aid, or if she has a headache, give her an aspirin – that’s it,” she said.
A week after getting the shots, Sighle’s 14-year-old daughter came down with a rash on her arms that spread to the rest of her body.
Sighle said someone needs to be held accountable.
“I’m angry with everybody. You know, St. John’s should have better nurses. How are you going to overlook something like this? You injected my child with medicine I never wanted her to have,” she said.
A spokesperson for Detroit Public Schools issued the following statement when asked about the situation:
The staff at the clinic must maintain confidentiality with the students and the parents of the students. Detroit Public Schools staff members are not informed of any services that are provided for any students, and this policy is regularly communicated by the clinic staff to the school staff. All paperwork or parent permission slips are provided to students who are instructed by the clinic to return it directly to the nurse.
The school's principal upon learning of this concern was immediately responsive to the mother and instructed her to take her very serious concerns to St. John's, which operates the clinic.
Read more: http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/national/mother-angry-after-daughter-vaccinated-without-her-permission1329917968594#ixzz1o5lkNXdc
Aust judge orders parents to vaccinate newborn
A judge ordered a mother and father take their newborn baby to hospital for urgent hepatitis B injections, despite the parents' opposition to vaccinations.
Brisbane Supreme Court Justice Jean Dalton made the order last year - but only published her reasons on Friday - after doctors made an urgent application to give the child two preventative vaccines.
During the application the court heard the baby, which was just 40 hours old at the time, had a 20 per cent chance of being infected with the virus, of which the mother has a chronic form.
If the baby was infected, it was almost certain to develop a chronic infection and would be at risk of cancer and liver disease.
The parents opposed the application on the grounds they did not agree with vaccination because of religious beliefs.
The father also had philosophical concerns about the financial agendas of pharmaceutical companies in distributing these drugs, the court heard.
The parents argued the percentage chance of the baby being infected was low enough to risk not giving it the injections, which had to be delivered within 48 hours of birth.
However Justice Dalton said that the immediate welfare of the child outweighed the parents' concerns, and ordered they take the baby to hospital immediately.
Justice Dalton refused to make orders about a future vaccination schedule for the virus, advising the parents to seek legal assistance if they wished to continue their dispute against treatment.
Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10806809
Peshawar to punish parents for refusing polio vaccines
The Peshawar district government plans to act against parents who refuse to let their children receive oral polio vaccine.
“I have issued directives to the executive district officer for health to pinpoint the parents who are reluctant to immunise their children against polio,” Peshawar District Co-ordination Officer Muhammad Javid Marwat told Central Asia Online August 23.
Authorities will charge offenders with violating the maintenance-of-public-order law, he said.
Officials have planned vaccination campaigns for August 28, September 4 and September 10 in the high-risk councils (neighbourhoods) of Peshawar, he said. Medics will try to reach more than 5,000 children whose parents have resisted vaccinations, he said.
Source: Central Asia Online, 24 August 2012 - http://centralasiaonline.com/en_GB/articles/caii/newsbriefs/2012/08/24/newsbrief-09
Parents refusing polio vaccination to face jail
The political administration of Khyber Agency on Friday warned parents that they would be sent to the lock-up if they refused to administer oral polio vaccine to their children under the age of five years.
The warning was issued during a meeting of the local administration and health department officials with the elders and clerics of Landi Kotal.
The meeting was told that the political administration was concerned about high incidence of polio in Khyber Agency and wanted to effectively check it.
Political tehsildar Arshad Afridi said stern action would be taken against the people declining immunisation of their children and if necessary, they would be put behind bars.
He urged religious scholars and prayer leaders to educate the people on importance of vaccination against polio during Friday sermons and day-to-day interactions with the public.
Speaking on the occasion, World Health Organisation representative in Fata Dr Wazir Akbar said clerics could play a very effective role in eradication of polio from Fata as they were heard and believed by the people of tribal areas.
“Religious scholars could be a great help in convincing the people opposed to vaccination of their children in Khyber Agency,” he said.
Source: http://dawn.com/2012/11/17/parents-refusing-polio-vaccination-to-face-jail/
Newborn Seized and Force Vaccinated after Mother Refused Hep B Vaccination
The Home School Legal Defense Association is taking on the case of a Pennsylvania couple whose baby daughter was briefly removed from their custody at birth because the mother refused to approve a Hepatitis B shot right away.
According to the site, Scott and Jodi Ferris had planned on a home birth, but went to Hershey Medical Center on advice of their midwife when Jodi went into labor prematurely. The baby was born in the ambulance in the hospital parking lot. Jodi Ferris claimed that hospital staff were unresponsive when she asked them about the baby and vague when she asked what an injection they had given her was for. Hospital officials insisted on holding the baby for 48 hours and eventually admitted they were doing so because they were afraid they might get sued if the baby was released.
The HSLDA further reports that a social worker then visited Jodi Ferris and said she was investigating allegations that had been made against the couple, but said she wasn't legally allowed to tell Jodi what the allegations were. When Jodi declined to answer questions, the social worker allegedly threatened to take the baby right away. The social worker implied that the problem involved the Ferrises' refusal to approve a vitamin K shot for their baby daughter. Jodi replied that no one had asked her about the shot and she had heard hospital workers say they already had given the baby the shot. Hospital workers then allegedly wanted permission to give the baby a Hepatitis B shot, which Jodi Ferris said she would agree to only if they tested her and the baby to see if either of them was positive. The hospital said this wasn't possible and they needed to give the baby the shot anyway. When Jodi Farris asked if the situation could wait until her husband returned to the hospital, the social worker left the room and called the police. Hospital workers took custody of the baby without a court order, claiming she was suffering from an illness or injury. The social worker approved the Hepatitis B shot without permission from the parents.
Police then allegedly made Jodi Ferris get up from her hospital bed and escorted her out of the building and off hospital grounds because she had refused to sign a "safety plan." She was told she could return every three hours to nurse the baby, so spent the night in a Wal-Mart parking lot. The baby was returned to her parents' custody at a custody hearing the next morning.
The HSLDA said it's taking the case because it believes the social worker and the hospital workers both abused their power here and because it is concerned about an erosion of parental rights. It is asking for donations on its website to help it pursue a lawsuit against the hospital and the social services agency.
So what's going on here? I would hope this isn't typical of social service investigations, but I've heard enough horror stories to think it's not unheard of either.
I would speculate that Scott and Jodi Ferris, who home school their older children, were already on the social worker's and the nurses' radar before mother and daughter were wheeled into the hospital. Many doctors look askance at women who plan to give birth at home and use a midwife instead of a OBGYN and think it puts the baby at risk of death or injury. The Ferrises may have been known to hospital staff already for their beliefs in home births and use of a midwife, particularly since they have older children. I wonder if a nurse on the maternity ward was just waiting for an opportunity to report this family.
A number of social workers are also suspicious of home schoolers. Parents are legally permitted to refuse vaccines for a child for reasons of religious belief and/or personal conviction in all but two states; Pennsylvania law explicitly permits parents to refuse the Vitamin K and Hepatitis B injections on religious grounds. However, doctors and social workers both tend to frown on parents who question vaccinations, despite that law.
In short, Scott and Jodi Ferris are apparently on the fringe, which left them vulnerable to this sort of harassment by doctors and social workers and that isn't acceptable.
Social work is undoubtedly a thankless job, since they're accused for being too intrusive or for not doing enough. However, this appears to be a case where the social worker was clearly intrusive and there was absolutely no reason for the parents to lose custody of their baby even for a few hours. I wish the HSLDA and the Ferrises success in their lawsuit. This shouldn't be allowed to happen again in any state, ever again.
Source: Minot Daily News, 28th March 2012 http://www.minotdailynews.com/page/blogs.detail/display/783/Pennsylvania-social-worker-and-hospital-face-HSLDA-lawsuit-after-seizing-custody-of-newborn.html
Over 600 students suspended over immunization records
Waterloo Region Public Health has handed out over 600 suspension orders to students who have not updated their immunization records.
The region had warned over 1,700 students on May 1, telling them they had until today to prove they had updated their records.
Linda Black, the manager of the region’s vaccine preventable disease program, says students who have been suspended can return to class once they have proven their records are updated.
“If they come to us and do that, we’ll provide them with a slip and it gets them back to school,” said Black.
Provincial law allows public health departments to suspend students from attending school for up to 20 days or until their immunization records are updated.
Source: CBS News, 7th May 2013. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/story/2013/05/07/over-600-waterloo-region-students-suspended-because-of-immunization-records.html
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