Vax Contest - Julia Harrison Vaxed Prior to Dying from Meningococcal Disease

Last week I started the effort to stop a vaccine contest in the Chapel Hill/Carrboro School District: Vaccine Action Alert – Chapel Hill/Carrboro Schools Vaccine Contest. I learned of the contest through a friend. Now I learn from a reader of my blog that Julia Harrison, the woman who tragically contracted Meningococcal Disease and died from it, and in whose memory this vaccine contest is being promoted, was vaccinated against the disease “a few years prior” to contracting it. You can read more from her mother’s bio on the National Meningitis Associations’ web page: http://www.nmaus.org/awareness/pdf/cora_harrison.pdf.

I sent the following message to the school board members and superintendent:

I am writing to follow up on my email below. It has come to my attention that Julia Harrison had been vaxed for Meningococcal Disease a few years before tragically contracting the fatal disease. You can read about it in her mother’s bio posted on the National Meningitis Association’s web page: http://www.nmaus.org/awareness/pdf/cora_harrison.pdf.

I find this information most distressing. Julia was vaxed, she contracted this disease anyway and died. Now there is a mass effort/contest to vax the children in the Chapel Hill/Carrboro school district, when vax didn’t offer any protection to Julia, and the current vax contest exceeds the disease that broke the Harrison’s heart. This vax contest simply makes no sense and I hope that you stop the contest today.

Sincerely,

Laura Combs

I continue to be amazed by the power of community. Without each other, we can't make the world a healthier and safer place. Thank you, everyone!

Comments

[Lawrence]

Get educated -

http://antiantivax.flurf.net/

[Lawrence]

Just to follow-up, vaccines aren't 100% effective - there are always going to be individuals (including immune-compromised children) that need to rely on herd immunity to prevent exposure to these diseases.

We live in a world where air travel is easy - and people travel to a lot of places were these diseases are endemic. How many of the current series of outbreaks were caused by people returning or coming from outside the US & exposed to things like the measles? Most of them.

Again, get educated, get vaccinated and protect your children from diseases that they should never have to suffer through.

http://antiantivax.flurf.net/

[MelodyButler]

She had received the polysaccharide vaccine, that provides protection against four of the five disease strains for only three to five years.It's not that the vaccine didn't offer her any protection, that original vaccine requires a booster to prolong the immunity.