Would you be in favor of a regulation to deny the Zika vaccine to parents who have chosen not to vaccinate their kids?

Why should we be allowed to force our views on someone else, just because we disagree with views they have?

Unless I have been misinformed….

Zika is noticed during pregnancy. The fetus gets the virus from the mother. At that point, vaccine doesn’t even work, and the parent would see no use in vaccination of the already born child if it is already infected. So, the whole question falls.

When it comes to preventing an already born kind from getting infected, that is another problem, and the choice of the parent.

And what’s the point of denying me something I never wanted in the first place?

And therefore punish the innocent children yet to be born?

Not exactly the brainstorm of the century.

Is this even an issue? How likely are antivaxers to get a vaccine?

@Lightlyseared you caught that!

No. That’s a horrible idea.

Vax like this potential Zika vax and like the seasonal flu are completely voluntary unlike the MMR vax which is mandated children get to attend most public schools. Many of the big Pharma are not even taking a second look at developing a Zika vax as many of them took big losses trying to get a viable Ebola vax and by the time they did the Ebola fire was all but out and many feel the same could happen with Zika. Heck 80% of the people who are infected don’t even know it and risking a vax shot and not even have a runny nose will be a hard sell for getting people to take the shot.

That is incredibly stupid.

Zika is practically harmless to a healthy adult. The danger is to an unborn fetus, as the virus causes birth defects.

And for those saying they wouldn’t get the shot anyway: You underestimate the hypocrisy possible in populations that do not subscribe to logic or reason.

@Seek There is no conclusive data/evidence that Zika is a danger to babies. This microcephaly so far is only found with mothers exposed in Brazil and there is strong suspicion that the pesticide pyriproxyfen that they are indiscriminately spraying copious amounts of in Brazil. So far zero cases of Zika associated micocephaly have been found outside woman who are pregnant where this pesticide is being used in Brazil. The ones who are outside this area were and are traveling abroad after being from that area in Brazil.

@Seek “Zika is practically harmless to a healthy adult.”

We absolutely do not know that.

For the record, I’m in favour of making vaccines for things like MMR and HPV mandatory. Everyone should be having their children vaccinated, and if there is a safe and effective Zika vaccine, I think it might be a good idea to make that mandatory as well. I also don’t think people should have to pay out of pocket for it. In Canada, where I live, that would not be a concern.

But I’m not in favour of punishing people for making one bad vaccine decision by denying them a different vaccine. That’s insane on an ethical level, and it hurts herd immunity, which is one of the reasons vaccines exist in the first place.

I’d consider sneaking in a dose of measles vaccine to any anti-vaxer who wanted a Zika shot. ;-)

@dappled_leaves

I haven’t been following this that closely, but I thought I heard about an adult being partially paralyzed as a result of a Zika infection.

A small proportion of people who have zika get Guillain-Barré syndrome. You could probably do with out taking the risk.

@Brian1946 Yes, as @Lightlyseared mentioned there may be a link with GBS, but there is also some discussion of central nervous system damage. I think we just don’t have enough information yet to be able to say, “X is definitely caused by Zika” OR “Zika poses no risk to group Y”. I’ve talked to people who (based on the latter statement) are rushing to regions with Zika in the hope of gaining an immunity while they are still young and healthy. That is foolish, in my opinion.

@Cruiser I’m wondering why you think that Zika only is affecting people who have been in Brazil. Here’s a piece from the NY Times about home-grown occurrences in Florida.

@janbb You may have misunderstood me…I was merely pointing out all cases to date of microcephaly have originated in one area of Brazil where they blanketed the area by air with this pesticide. Zika has been around since 1947 and it is only recently again in Brazil where microcephaly has popped up. I am well aware Zika cases are originating in other areas including the US.

No. That would be extortion.

Obviously, we aren’t going to deny a segment of the population their right to get the vaccine if they want it. The majority (big numbers like over 90%) do get vaccinated for pretty much everything that is scheduled in childhood. Whether people get boosters in adulthood or flu shots every year is a different matter. Remembering that some people legitamtely can’t take some vaccines, that makes the percentage of people randomly refusing vaccines even lower.

A bunch of adults bitching about antivaccine people aren’t up to date themselves with their own shots I would bet. Ask your peers the last time they had a combo tetanus pertussis, or checked their immunity for measles and rubella. My only point is, there seems to be a hysteria that the country is becoming full of people not vaccinated, and it’s not near as scary a number as the media portrays it.

You can protect yourself by getting vaccinated.

I feel pretty sure a Zika vaccine will only be given to a small percentage of the population, much like the flu vaccine. We aren’t going to reach herd immunity so fast.

Zika vaccine will be brand new, and a lot of people don’t like to take drugs or vaccines the first year it is released.