Kentucky Judge Rules Against Unvaccinated Student in Lawsuit

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Time


BY ASSOCIATED PRESS 9:52 PM EDT

(WALTON, Ky.) — A Kentucky judge has ruled against a student who sued after he wasn’t allowed to play basketball because he wasn’t vaccinated for chickenpox.

In the lawsuit against the Northern Kentucky Health Department, 18-year-old Jerome Kunkel claimed the vaccine is against his religious beliefs.

WXIX-TV in Cincinnati reports Boone County Circuit Judge James R. Schrand on Tuesday denied Kunkel’s request to return to school activities.

A health department statement said it must protect the whole community, particularly those most susceptible.

Read more: http://time.com/5563225/kentucky-judge-unvaccinated-student-lawsuit/

[More_Cowbell]

1. "Kunkel has been out of school since March 15."

But he was suing because he couldn't play basketball, not because he couldn't go to school. Nice priorities.

[Aristus]

2. I guess 'concern for the health and safety of your fellow human beings' is also against

his religious beliefs.

He sure has shitty religious beliefs...

[Norbert]

8. Pope Benedict okayed several vaccines to be taken

one of which is the chickenpox vaccine.

This kid never had a leg to stand on. So much for 'his' religious beliefs.

[Aussie105]

3. Where

in the Bible does it say 'thou shalt not be vaccinated?'

More an excuse to do what he likes.

We in Australia had a Swine Flu scare a few years back. If you had flu like symptoms, you were supposed to get tested by a doctor, then take 2 weeks off work if positive to prevent it spreading.
Except some younger and fitter female co-worker decided to just carry on regardless, and passed it to me. Got tested, told to stay home for 2 weeks. Not an enjoyable break from work. Some expensive anti-vral drugs involved too, fortunately subsidised by the government. (3 cheers for socialised medicine!)

The anti-vaxxers don't think of the more vulnerable people out there. The young, the old, people with compromised immune systems.

[christx30]

4. Several religions use their, for lack of a better term,

logic to be against vaccinations.

The following denominations do have a theological objection to vaccination:

Church of Christ, Scientist - One of the basic teachings of this denomination is that disease can be cured or prevented by focused prayer. Christian Scientists usually decline all forms of medical intervention, including vaccination.
Dutch Reformed Congregations - This denomination has a tradition of declining immunizations. Some members decline vaccination on the basis that it interferes with divine providence. However, others within the faith accept immunization as a gift from God to be used with gratitude.
Faith healing denominations including:
Faith Tabernacle
Church of the First Born
Faith Assembly
End Time Ministries

[Igel]

10. In addition to the

"God is the healer" view, others point to the source of vaccines in animals that are not to be consumed. Presumably if you don't eat them, you don't want parts injected.

It would be like having a vaccine that required the death of an animal being objected to by vegans.

What gets alternately mentioned and ignored is that below a certain threshold a small percentage of unimmunized individuals doesn't present a risk; that almost every outbreak in the last decade is traceable to unimmunized immigrants (or, in some cases, visitors); that the primary reason for the threshold being exceeded aren't necessarily those on the right, the religious nuts, but people that like "all natural" or "alternative medicine". Some the largest pools of unvaccinated are in upper-middle-class areas among the contrarian educated in blue communities. For Jenny McCarthy there's Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.


I don't know that I've seen convincing numbers on the various groups: health-by-faith, avoid-the-unclean-thing, loony anti-vaxxer right, loony anti-vaxxer left, or immigrants from paradise countries with crappy immunization programs.

[TeamPooka]

5. Letting people die from a preventable disease is against my religious beliefs. nt

[AZ8theist]

6. Letting idiotic parents put my children at risk by not vaccinating theirs is against mine....

[ToxMarz]

7. He should sue his parents for the wrong religious beliefs

They should have been home schooling quiverfuls and problems solved. Could have stayed at home for his unvaccinated education and enough siblings to make a couple basketball teams.

[Javaman]

9. why is knowingly spreading disease to the general population not a crime against humanity? nt