5-year-old FrankieElizabeth Warner has been banned P.S. 36 in Staten Island for not receiving a chicken pox vaccine. Sounds reasonable, right? I mean you wouldn't want to put the other children at risk, right? If only it were that simple.
FrankieElizabeth's mother, Elizabeth Wagner, is not opposed to vaccinating her children, but she is following her doctor's advice. FrankieElizabeth's doctor has refused to vaccinate her because Frankie has a sister, Devin, who is a newborn. Their family doctor will not vaccinate FrankieElzabeth for fear that the live virus in the vaccine could put the infant at risk.
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Just to thicken the plot a little bit, you should know that, Elizabeth Wagner (the mother) has an immunodeficiency disease called hypogammaglobulinemia, and it's hereditary. Devin (the infant) may also have the disease which would make exposure to the chicken pox vaccine even more dangerous. There is no way of telling whether the infant has the disease because she can't be tested until she is one, but you can imagine that any mother would worry about putting her infant in danger.
Not everyone agrees with the Wagner's doctor. The New York City Department of Education and the Center for Disease Control consulted and a medical exemption for FrankieElizabeth was denied. So Frankie stays at home missing out on school.
The whole situation is a mess and I feel bad for the mother who is being torn apart by guilt on both sides. On one side her 5-year-old can't go to school, on the other side she has her trusted family doctor telling her that she may be putting her infant at risk if she gets her eldest vaccinated.
I'm not so sure, I agree with the family doctor. ABC News' chief health and medical editor Dr. Richard Besser says,
You vaccinate the people around a baby because the baby doesn't have its own protection. It would be much more dangerous for the older sibling to be unvaccinated and get real chicken pox.
As a parent you have to weigh the risks. What happens if FrankieElizabeth comes down with chicken pox? Then she will surely expose her sister to the virus. I don't know, I'm just glad I'm not the mother in this situation and I hope they find a resolution quickly.
Image via ABCNews.com
