HOLLAND, Mich. - It's a controversial debate that's currently causing students to miss school. More parents are signing waivers to opt their kids out of vaccinations, and in some cases, those kids are getting sick, putting others at risk.
Students at Waukazoo Elementary School who haven’t been immunized, and can’t prove a previous chicken pox diagnosis, can’t come to school until November 2. This comes after parents got a letter on Wednesday about a confirmed case of chickenpox in an unvaccinated student there.
“There does seem to be a sense of fear about vaccines and vaccine side effects," said Marcia Mansaray, an epidemiologist for Ottawa County Department of Public Health. "We find those to be not based on the science that we are aware of.”
The number of chickenpox cases in Ottawa County classrooms this school year is on the rise.
“It is becoming a bigger issue, and it’s taken our schools a little bit by surprise,” Mansaray said.
Since September, there have been five confirmed cases of students with chickenpox at two Ottawa county schools.
“All 5 confirmed cases, 100 percent of them have been unvaccinated,” Mansaray said.
There’s the one confirmed case at Waukazoo Elementary in Holland, and there were four at the Early Childhood Center in Jenison.
“They’re used to us calling them and saying 'such and such a child has this illness and they can't come to school,'" Mansaray said. "But we have not very often been in a situation where we have to say 'and these additional children cannot come to school for the next 21 days either.'”
The number of waivers parents sign to opt their kids out of vaccinations is also on the rise.
“In bold it says they understand this could could involve exclusion if there's a case of one of these diseases in their school," Mansaray said. "We have 18 currently excluded right now.”
This spurred superintendents in the county to take action.
“We’re meeting with superintendents at the request of superintendents so that they can make a plan because this is new for them," Mansaray said. "They need to know what their educational responsibilities are when we have to exclude a large numbers of kids.”
Bottom line, Mansaray recommends students get vaccinated. She and said the chickenpox vaccine is very safe, and very effective.
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