Post Punk Kitchen Forum

After living a charmed, bohemian lifestyle for years I'm now going back to school. BUT, I have run into a problem: immunization records. My folks don't have them, my doctor passed away years ago, my elementary school doesn't store that stuff after so many decades, etc. I am an ancient crone!

So, the options are either fork over $70-something for a new barrage of shots full of animal blood or... has anyone successfully gotten out of the it based on their veganism?

There's an opt-out for, like, Christian Scientists and other groups who hate science. Honestly, this is not my #1 Biggest Concern in terms of my beliefs. Necessary medicine is necessary, immunizations are up for debate, BUT this would be absolutely unnecessary overkill and that sucks.

So will it work? Do I plead or do I scam (I look very pious!)?

When I was in that same situation, I was able to take a blood test to show that I had the certain antibodies.

Yup this.

You can either have your titers checked or you can write an exemption on religious/moral grounds letter thingy and submit that. If you need some examples you can google 'vaccine exemption letter', change some things around and there ya go.

This is actually better than immunization records. Also, it'll make sure that you're actually protected, if you need to get a booster this will actually say that. Better safe than sorry!

I'd say get antibodies tested, and get immunized for anything you're not clear on (or if you can't get tested for some reason, go ahead and get immunized). Immunization isn't just about protecting you, but also about protecting the people around you (and particularly those with compromised immune systems). Also, meningitis is scary!

I was able to get my dental records from the people who bought my dentist's practice several years after her passing. I don't know if that's standard practice or not though. Getting the titers is easy enough though, like everyone said.

I know you tried your middle school, but did you check with your high school? I graduated 9 years ago and I was able to get them!

Usually if a practice closes the records get sent somewhere. Mine were sent to Iron Mountain when Kaiser Permanente shut down for a long time years ago. So yours are probably still floating around somewhere. I had to get a meningitis immunization when I transferred schools, there was no way around that one since I lived on campus my first year, had no time for apartment hunting before school started.

Yes. Some vaccines may contain some animal products, and they were probably all tested on animals. But when you consider how many people you could infect (causing to suffer an possibly even die) if you aren't vaccinated, getting vaccinated is the more compassionate, responsible, and vegan thing to do.