Following up the question: Shall I Sign for Measles Vaccine, here is the update. We finally signed the letter, and had Yifan injected the Measles Vaccine.
Few days before, immediately after Beijing reassured everyone that it is voluntary, the kindergarten Yifan attended posted a poster and said, it is mandatory. Although they offered a form of two choices, they said any claim not to inject will be invalid, and should be chose again…. The kindergarten closed at 12:00 at noon in Friday, and ask parents to bring their kids to do the injection.
So, based on the information I collected, although not 100% sure, we feel OK to have it. Hope everything is fine. If anything happens, it is about 100 million kids that we are talking about.
I am fairly certain that, behind the scenes, there were quotas for how many students had to receive the vaccine. This probably filtered down from a higher level to each school and classroom. Charlotte’s teachers were very insistent that students get the vaccination as well. (She did, as well as Maryann.)
The truth about the vaccine is that your child doesn’t need it if everyone else got it. However, if a critical mass does that, then the whole thing falls apart.