[ad_1]
A teenager who went to school after being excluded for not being vaccinated against chickenpox contracted chicken pox.
After a chickenpox outbreak in a Kentucky high school in March, the Northern Kentucky Department of Health banned students from attending classes unless they could prove that they were vaccinated or vaccinated. immunized against the disease.
Jerome Kunkel made headlines earlier this year after suing the Kentucky Department of Health as a result of the case. His Catholic school then told him that he could not play basketball for the school team because of this policy.
Kunkel's family is opposed to vaccines for moral reasons. His father said at the time that this decision was "a tyranny against our religion, our faith, our country".
"He's penalized for being healthy," said Bill Kunkel at the Seattle Times. "He may never have chickenpox."
He now has chicken pox.
His lawyer, Christopher Wiest, told NBC News that Kunkel had started showing signs of the disease last week and hoped to be cured next week. Chickenpox lasts about 10-14 days.
Once he is no longer contagious and can show that his lesions have healed, he will be able to return to school, the Kentucky Cabinet of Health and Human Services said at NBC. the family. He has not been to school since March 15th.
However, the family does not regret this decision, stating that she did not wish to be vaccinated for religious reasons, because of some vaccines derived from fetal cells legally aborted, which they described as immoral. and sinners.
"These are deep-seated and sincere religious beliefs," said their NBC lawyer. "From their point of view, they always recognized that they were running the risk of getting it and they agreed with that."
"The ban was stupid," he added. "He could have contracted this in March and be back to school now."
Although it may seem unfair that Kunkel missed school to tackle chicken pox later, the ban was on community safety rather than a single individual's safety.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends not to deliberately expose children to chickenpox through "chickenpox festivals," an outdated method of managing the virus before the vaccine, much safer, has not been invented. The chickenpox vaccine was introduced in the 1990s. Thus, many parents will have grown up without them and will feel that if these "holidays" were working for them, it would work for their children – as if modern medicine did not break it.
"The CDC strongly recommends not organizing or participating in these events," says the CDC. "Chicken pox can be serious and can lead to serious or life-threatening complications, even in healthy children." Two doses of vaccine are more than 90% effective in preventing chickenpox.
[ad_2]
Source link