Kentucky teen who sued over school ban for refusing chickenpox vaccination now has chickenpox

[Jose Garcia]

Source: NBC News

A northern Kentucky teenager banned from school for refusing the chickenpox vaccination due to his religious beliefs has come down with the childhood malady, his attorney said Wednesday.

Jerome Kunkel, a student at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Assumption Academy, first started showing chickenpox symptoms last week and hopes to have recovered by next week, a lawyer for the 18-year-old told NBC News.

Kunkel and his family have no regrets about their decision to not be vaccinated.

"These are deeply held religious beliefs, they're sincerely held beliefs," family attorney Christopher Wiest said. "From their perspective, they always recognized they were running the risk of getting it, and they were OK with it."

Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1003271

[Drum]

1. Thoughts & prayers. n/t

[FakeNoose]

33. It was God's will

... I'm sure of it.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

68. Exactly WHAT religious objection are they claiming ?

I've never read any mention in the bible about vaccinations being against the will of god, so what IS their complaint ?

[TNNurse]

39. Not even going to think or pray.

[NurseJackie]

55. LOL!

[Quackers]

2. Since he didn't believe in the vaccination to prevent it

Then he doesn’t believe in any medical care to treat it, right?

[Haggis for Breakfast]

67. Are they as willing to get polio, too ?

[kimbutgar]

3. Having Chicken pox is a terrible experience

Itchy scabs and you are really uncomfortable. I hope this kid suffers for his stupidity.

[Submariner]

10. The Calamine Lotion industry must be making millions this chicken pox season

[TexasBushwhacker]

52. And the older you get them the worse it is

A friend's teenage daughter even had blisters on her anus.

[BigmanPigman]

56. I had them after my boyfriend got them.

I was in my 30s and got a gamma globulin shot (sp?) after he got his and I was exposed so mine weren't as bad as his. I counted his (really) and he had over 500 of them. About 3 months later a friend and coworker got them too. This was in the 90s before the vaccine.

That kid got KARMA along with his chicken pox.

[dlk]

4. Religious Freedom Aside, When is it Okay to Infect Others Because of Your Religious Beliefs?

Freely practicing religion is one thing. Freely infecting others because of religion is not. Chicken Pox in adults can be extremely serious.

[bitterross]

31. According to the Xtian-Taliban it's their right to force their religion on you anytime all the time

It's their God's will you know.

[dlk]

32. Another Version of Fascism Wrapped in a Shroud of Religion

We need to hear more about freedom from religion, as our country was founded on that idea.

[RKP5637]

50. Exactly!!! And as you say, IMO, much of religion is "Fascism Wrapped in a Shroud of Religion."

Often dominant sociopaths (and some psychopaths) wanting to coerce/force/persecute/torture people into their political religions. Today they tend to use psychological torture more than physical torture ... but physical torture is certainly abundant in some areas.

[keithbvadu2]

46. Religious freedom? ...

Religious freedom? ...

Cool: I must / cannot do it because of my religious beliefs.
..... I decide for myself.

Cool?: You must / cannot do it because of my religious beliefs.
..... I decide for you.

Uncool?: I must / cannot do it because of your religious beliefs.
..... You decide for me?

[trixie2]

58. My mom always said,

"Your rights end where others begin".

[LiberalArkie]

5. May the shingles be with him

[RKP5637]

8. Yep, Shingles are a lot of fun. I wonder if he wants Polio too? n/t

[mbusby]

37. I had...

...both measles, chicken pox and polio when I was young. Sure wished I had a cure back then.

[RKP5637]

49. Same here. Thankfully, I never got polio. Chicken pox for me was horrible, and then later in

life I had shingles. I've gotten the vaccine for Shingles. I never want to have that again. I don't understand these folks that want to avoid vaccines. I think a lot of it is based on outright ignorance and a refusal to learn.

[skylucy]

54. LOL! Thread winner!

[leftieNanner]

6. This is assuming

that Jerome won't have any long term lasting results from his contracting this disease.

So what happens if he gets the mumps and becomes sterile?

Polio - in an iron lung?

And the myriad of other life altering consequences for this choice?

More importantly, he can infect others who are MEDICALLY UNABLE to be vaccinated!

Idiot.

[Hav]

18. There will be lasting consequences

It stays dormant in your body forever. Something effecting your immune system or sometimes only stress can lead to another outbreak. It's like a virus infection affecting your whole body and that is how you feel with it after a few days. Highly contagious and also painful like open wounds once the rash opens up.

[leftieNanner]

21. You are so right

I had the chicken pox as a child (no vaccine available then) and also shingles as an adult. Hideous experience!

My internist recommended the new shingles vaccine to me during my physical recently. Apparently, the new one is better. Less likely to actually give you shingles.

[zipplewrath]

24. Similar story

I got one "poc" when I was an infant, too early to be vaccinated. When I was 12 I got the Shingles. When I was 21, I got cold sores. All connected to that one "poc" when I was an infant. I've gotten the shingles vaccine, but mostly that means I probably won't get them on my optic nerve and go blind. But as I get older, the odds increase that I'll get the shingles again. By the way, they really hurt. Really.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

42. Cold sores.

Not sure what they do about them these days, but some decades ago, someone who got cold sores frequently was advised to get a small pox vaccination every six months. Have no idea that they have done ever since that became unavailable.

[zipplewrath]

44. Acyclovir

It reduces the frequency significantly. Of course as I get older, it may become less effective.
L-Lysine helps too.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

57. Thank you.

I've long wondered what the replacement was.

[dixiegrrrrl]

62. L-Lysine is so effective against cold sores,

I take it regularly, but it did not prevent a massive case of shingles.

[unblock]

7. what's the "religious" objection to vaccines?

i get that some people might not understand the medical efficacy or the risks, or they might mistakenly believe that they cause autism or sterility or something idiotic like that, but those aren't "religious" objections.

outside of christian scientists, who object to just about all things medical, what's the religious objection?

[RKP5637]

12. Pray it away, I guess. Damn brainwashed backward fools. I'm so F'en fed up with this crap, my

religion says. What a crock! They need to get a life, wake up and join the 21st century.

[Gregory Peccary]

14. The article says.....

"Some ultraconservative Catholics oppose chickenpox vaccinations because it was developed in the 1960s from cell lines of two aborted fetuses."

Oh the horror.

[unblock]

26. i'm sure the souls of those aborted fetuses are rejoicing in heaven at the thought

that many are suffering in their honor, lest something good come from their abortions....

or is that not how to play this religion thing? not sure....

[uriel1972]

64. without baptisms the fetus' would end up in purgatory

I think according to RCC doctrine. Although I'm no expert.

[Buzz cook]

41. I'm betting that's bullsh@t

And it turns out I'm loosing that bet.
https://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/articles/human-cell-strains-vaccine-development

Although it was Rubella not chicken pox that was developed in the sixties. Several more vaccines have been developed from human tissue in the mean time, including chicken pox. The article doesn't say that these later vaccines were developed from fetal cells. But it is a possibility.

However there is this from the National Catholic Bioethics Center.

One is morally free to use the vaccine regardless of its historical association with abortion. The reason is that the risk to public health, if one chooses not to vaccinate, outweighs the legitimate concern about the origins of the vaccine. This is especially important for parents, who have a moral obligation to protect the life and health of their children and those around them.

Interesting ethical question if you believe all abortions are evil. No ethical problem if you agree that the abortion of a probably defective fetus is justifiable.

"In 1941, Australian ophthalmologist Norman Gregg first realized that congenital cataracts in babies were the result of their mothers being infected with rubella during pregnancy. Along with cataracts, it was eventually determined that congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) could also cause deafness, heart disease, encephalitis, mental retardation, and pneumonia, among many other conditions. "

[Cold War Spook]

53. Some may agree with me, others may not.

In regards to not following a religious belief. I had a discussion with my sister's orthodox Rabbi about breaking a religious law on moral and ethical grounds. It is against the Jewish religion to drive or use a phone on the Sabbath. If there is an accident with injuries in front of your home on the Sabbath and no one who is not an orthodox Jew is around you must do whatever is necessary to protect the injured whether it is calling 911 or if necessary driving the injured to a hospital. The sin would be to not do anything. Not having your children vaccinated is the sin.

[Fozzledick]

60. That reminds me of the story my Grandmother used to tell

about the day her Father drove his wagon on the Sabbath.

One of his neighbors broke his leg and the nearest doctor was in a town several miles away, so he loaded him in his wagon and drove him there as quickly as possible.

Afterwards some of his neighbors criticized him for driving his wagon on the Sabbath, but he just replied that he thought the Lord would understand.

[TreasonousBastard]

15. From the linked article...

Some ultraconservative Catholics oppose chickenpox vaccinations because it was developed in the 1960s from cell lines of two aborted fetuses.

And there are even weirder ones out there.

[Dave Starsky]

20. They claim that God created everything.

They tend to forget that "everything" also includes doctors, hospitals, epidemiologists, scientists, etc.

[Gregory Peccary]

23. Cmon now

We all know Satan creates the vaccines. God only gets credit for the good things!

[Dave Starsky]

25. Indeed. That is, if you consider life-threatening diseases...

A good thing, which I guess they do!

[LiberalLovinLug]

28. Good question

I suspect its more that "religious" folks with those kinds of extreme beliefs, also are big government conspiracy theory nuts. All mixed up with the belief that the big bad gub'mint is a secular institution that is always trying to block their rights and their beliefs (Like the "war on Christmas, forcing schools to remove the Lord's prayer, etc). Mostly home schoolers who don't even trust public schools not brainwashing their children with pro-liberal big gub'mint indoctrination. Thus, anything initiated by the gub'mint MUST BE inherently evil and anti-Christian.

[3Hotdogs]

9. See? He was right. He didn't need no fuckin' vacine. He now has the same level of immunity he woulda

gotten from the vaccine.

[mopinko]

19. and now he can contemplate the shingles vaccine.

[3Hotdogs]

45. And if Jesus thought vaccines were a good idea, the Apostiles would'a been vaccinated.

Do ya read. "Blessed are the vaccinated..." anywhere?

[Dave Starsky]

22. And itching and painful pustules on his balls!

Ha ha! Joke's on you, pro-vaxxers!

[Mendocino]

11. Chik-fil-a-pox

[Gregory Peccary]

13. good ole' Walton Kentucky, yeehaw! Located in-between the towns of Beaverlick and Grants Lick.

[TreasonousBastard]

16. Nope, nope nope. I'm NOT gonna say it.

[lagomorph777]

17. A pox on anti-vaxers, I say. Anti-Vax is a Putin plot.

Hey, it seems to be working!

[nini]

27. good.. i hope it sterlizes him

I'm over these idiots.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

43. It's mumps that can sterlize a male.

Not chicken pox.

[nini]

47. I knew that really

I still want him to be sterile

[Jake Stern]

29. I'll let the great Nelson Muntz give the response

Last edited Wed May 8, 2019, 07:56 PM - Edit history (1)

The schadenfreude is well deserved with this sniveling little shit.

[Freethinker65]

30. If this teen infects others too young or immunocompromised to get the vaccine, I would sue.

[lapfog_1]

34. well, he is 18 so...

FACT: Measles can be prevented with a safe and effective vaccine. FACT: The risk of death from measles is higher for adults and infants than for children. ... FACT: Measles can cause life-threatening pneumonia and brain inflammation, middle-ear infection, severe diarrhea, and sometimes death.

[progressoid]

35. His chickenpox lawyer?

/revision/latest?cb=20090822141314

[sakabatou]

36. Let me get my Planck-scale violin for him

[GeorgeGist]

38. Maybe he'll become sterile ...

and unable to pass on his family's sincerely held beliefs.

[jpak]

40. Let's hope he is smart enough to get his shingles vax when he's older

yup

[keithbvadu2]

48. Expose him to pornography?

Expose him to pornography?

Some folks religion/personal beliefs are ok with pornography.

Share a few pics of republican example of family values Melania.

[Dave Starsky]

61. He's 18 years old. He's been exposed to pornography.

He is well familiar with it.

[keithbvadu2]

65. No, No! Of course not. He is too faithful to look at porn and protected by his parents.

No, No! Of course not. He is too faithful to look at porn and protected by his parents.

Sarcasm?

[Dave Starsky]

69. As Jeff Goldblum says in Jurassic Park...

Life... finds a way!

[The Genealogist]

51. Enjoy shingles in a few years, dumbass!

I had chicken pox when I was in 8th grade. It wasnt too miserable I my case, honestly. But boy do I dread shingles in a few years.

[Coventina]

59. I laughed out loud!!!

Dumbass!

[Initech]

63. File this under "D'oh!!!!"

Gee, you think this would happen?

[tclambert]

66. Karma for the win.

[Danmel]

70. The Catholic church does not oppose vaccinations

Last edited Thu May 9, 2019, 04:40 PM - Edit history (1)

The official position of the church is that if vaccines that do not derive from fetal cell lines are available, they are preffered over vaccines that may have been cultured in fetal cells. However, if no alternative is available, it is better to be vaccinated to protect your health and the health of those around you. The attenuation from the development of the vaccine to now mitigates in favor of vaccination.
Likewise in Judaism for medications or vaccines that may contain porcine gelatin. It is not being "consumed" in the way a piece of bacon is consumed.
The obligation is to live by the commandments, not die by them.