Chicken Pox Vaccinations Offered

The Casper-Natrona County Health Department and the Natrona County School District will offer a chicken pox vaccination clinic this Thursday.

Time and place of vaccinations:

"The health department and the school district are holding a chicken pox vaccination clinic on Thursday, December 2nd, at Kelly Walsh High School from 4 pm to 6:30 pm. The cost of the vaccine is 10 dollars. A parent or legal guardian must accompany the child. Please bring the child's shot records with you."

Robert Harrington with the health department says that a strict reading of the law means that every child enrolled in school should already be fully immunized.

School immunization requirement:

"But the law also says if there's a plan and a series of immunizations in process, that the affected children can be considered as immunized."

Harrington also says there are so many kids in school who aren't fully immunized that kicking them all out would be a problem. So how dangerous is it not to be immunized against chicken pox?

Chicken pox danger:

"Less threatening and less worrisome would be a good description; it's not something to be ignored. Wyoming is the last state to require chicken pox vaccinations in their school programs."

Harrington did note that most cases of chicken pox are not severe, but there are more serious presentations of the disease.

When asked if the school district may at some point stop making exceptions and start kicking kids out of school for not being fully immunized, Harrington said, yes, they just don't know when.

Immunization expropriation:

"There will be, and I won't be able to tell you when it is until after we meet with school people this Friday."