Whooping Cough Outbreak Shuts Down East Bay School

Classes are canceled at a private school in El Sobrante due to a whooping cough outbreak.

[Donna]

Childhood immunizations for pertusis are supposed to protect against this. What's up??????

[In Response]

A perfect example of why parents need to vacinate their children. Too many parents are not following the vacination schedule and are filling out forms to be exempted from vacinating their kids. This is the parents fault.

[Cory Woods]

I am a student at this waldorf school, and i feel that the comments that have been left are accusing too much. as an 11th grader at the school we dont have the same amount of contact with the kindergardeners (who mainly had it). recently we were told that faculty had it also. and it started to spread to a lot of other kids (even if they had the vaccine). Pertussis isnt fully preventable, even if you have been vaccinated recently. so just chill.

[Dan Dugan]

Waldorf schools frequently host epidemics of preventable diseases as a consequence of their guru Rudolf Steiner's teaching that childhood diseases are necessary for development.
Europe is contending with a measles epidemic that spread from a Swiss Waldorf school and has already resulted in a death.
To Waldorf student Cory Woods: look up "herd immunity" in Wikipedia to understand how an imperfect vaccine can protect almost everyone.
http://www.waldorfcritics.org

[Bill Hicks]

Life is like a ride in an amusment park,and when you go on it you think it's real because thats how powerful our minds are,and the ride goes up and down around and around it has thrills and chills and its very brightly colored and its very loud and its fun for a while,some have been on the ride for a long time, they begin to question is this real?or is this just a ride, and other people have remembered and they come back to us and they say "HEY DON'T WORRY, DON'T BE AFRAID EVER CAUSE THIS IS JUST A RIDE" and we kill those people "SHUT HIM UP, I'VE GOT A LOT INVESTED IN THIS RIDE, SHUT HIM UP!LOOK AT MY FACE OF WORRY, LOOK AT MY BIG BANK ACCOUNT, AND MY FAMILY THIS HAS TO BE REAL....it's just a ride,but will kill those good guys that try to tell us that,you ever notice that?and let the demons run amuck,but it doesn't matter cause its just a ride and we can change it anytime we want, its only a choice, no effort, no work, no job, no savings of money, just a choice right now between FEAR and LOVE

[Sarah]

For all you know it was started by an immunized student or teacher. People who think that vaccination work need to do their own research and not just listen to the paid for propoganda. Quit watching so much tv and open some books.

[dove]

this is the fun

[Ari A]

I just read an article about another school that was not Waldorf and was mostly vaccinated that had to be shut down for pertussis in the last couple of years. I feel as though the media and / or the Public Health department is trying to make an example of our school (and I don't mean in a good way.) I am a mother of 2 daughters who attend the East Bay Waldorf School and although my girls are vaccinated, I respect other parent's decision not to. I am quite disturbed by the media and public reaction. The parents here are highly educated people and vaccination is no guarantee of immunity. Do the research before you judge.
And consequently, waldorfcritics.org has a gross amount of misinformation and / or distortions of the truth. Just FYI...

[JSM]

People out there who are bashing the school and their philosophies need to tone it down a notch. Some of the language is inappropriate. There are kids from this school reading these posts.

I am not affiliated with this school, was just reading the news, and was surprised to see the hostility posted here. Grow up, grownups.

[Katie]

There are certain communities like Waldorf/Anthroposophical communities that encourage parents to avoid vaccinations. Anthroposophists' reasons have NOTHING to do with autism. They believe children will contract these diseases for "karmic" reasons. Please take a look at what has been happening in Boulder Colorado for years. Yes, they are still have a hard time controlling whooping cough there and, I believe, it was traced to a Waldorf school as well.

Yes, imperfect vax work but only if the herd is immunized. Please keep in mind whooping cough is very contagious and can be fatal to infants.

[anonymous]

the media has totally portrayed the school wrong. it is a very good school. even tho this is probably not your first thought after seeing this, any parents should check it out for their kids. i am 15 years old and have been there since 3rd grade. it is an AWESOME alternative school. CHECK IT!

i ♥ it there!

[anonymous]

Donna wrote:

Childhood immunizations for pertusis are supposed to protect against this. What's up??????

it helps prevent it, but its not 100%. also it makes the symptoms less so it is harder to tell if the child has it.

[anonymous]

Dan Dugan wrote:

Waldorf schools frequently host epidemics of preventable diseases as a consequence of their guru Rudolf Steiner's teaching that childhood diseases are necessary for development.
Europe is contending with a measles epidemic that spread from a Swiss Waldorf school and has already resulted in a death.
To Waldorf student Cory Woods: look up "herd immunity" in Wikipedia to understand how an imperfect vaccine can protect almost everyone.
http://www.waldorfcritics.org

all cory was saying is that it is not as big a deal as the media is making it. they medias job is to get interesting stories, so they found a semi-interesting one and just embellished it.

[anonymous]

Sarah wrote:

For all you know it was started by an immunized student or teacher. People who think that vaccination work need to do their own research and not just listen to the paid for propoganda. Quit watching so much tv and open some books.

THANK YOU!
your awesome!

[Katie]

Before you state that it "is not as big a deal as the media is making it" perhaps you should look up the possible complications that can occur, especially in infants.

I am glad you like your school but that is not the subject of the article nor a point of contention.

I sincerely hope that no infants or elderly persons connected to this school contract whooping cough.

Herd immunity is a big deal. As another poster noted, Europe is facing a measles outbreak linked to a Waldorf school. When communities refuse to immunize they do not only endanger themselves exactly because immunizations are not one hundred percent effective. Please educate yourselves about herd immunity.

[Thebee]

Dan Dugan has suggested his WC-site as general information about Waldorf education.

For an introduction on this, see http://americans4waldorf.org/OnPLANS.html

[Amy]

You are an 11th grader who doesn't know where to put capital letters. That is quite scary. It obviously doesn't say much for the education at your school.