I was one of those lucky children who contracted no typical childhood diseases. The only one I caught was the already-rare scarlet fever, and fortunately, it was a mild case, as scarlet fever in its extreme form can be devastating.
I don’t know why I never got chicken pox (and as an adult, needed to get the varicella vaccine before I got pregnant), but I do know why I never contracted mumps, measles, rubella, diphtheria, pertussis, smallpox or polio.
I was vaccinated.
I was raised in the glory days of vaccines. My parents were adherents. Who would have thought to question the logic behind protecting your children against these terrible communicable diseases, diseases that could cause disfigurement, lifelong trauma and even death?
So when my children were born in the mid-late 90s, there was no question about vaccinations. And when the HPV vaccine was discovered, protecting girls and women against the human papillomavirus, which causes cervical and other genital cancers, and at first it was recommended for girls, and then for boys too, you bet my kids were in line to get their three-dose treatment.
Back when my children were little, I had never heard the terms “herd immunity” or “anti-vaxxers.” In fact, I never suspected that anyone would doubt the need for vaccination. I also had not given any thought to the concept of community responsibility when it comes to personal health.
But now I have.
The measles outbreak at Disneyland in California has raised the specter of vaccination “rights.” Who has the right to invoke personal choice when it comes to the health of their children around a topic that is equally a matter of community concern? Who doesn’t?
Do schools have the right to ban students from attending if they are not vaccinated? All the time, or only when there is another student whose immune system is fragile and they cannot be vaccinated and can’t be exposed to communicable diseases, as in the case with a young boy with leukemia in California?
Do politicians have the right to waffle on the necessity of vaccinations, as Republican Governor Chris Christie and Republican Senator Rand Paul have done over the past couple of days? Should we really let Senator Paul (a PHYSICIAN,) get away with stipulating that vaccinations can lead to mental disorders? And Christie pronouncing that individuals should have the right to make their own decisions about their children because they “own” them? (Methinks I see a pro-choice argument here, from a politician who has opportunistically waffled on the abortion issue.)
What is the pediatrician’s responsibility to the community? To the health of her individual patients?
I’m sputtering as I write this, because it is so crystal clear to me that there is only one answer to all of these questions.
Vaccinations should be required for all healthy children able to receive them. Children should not be allowed to attend school without being vaccinated. If it were up to me, unvaccinated children (at least those unvaccinated by choice) would not be allowed into any public space.
Vaccines do not cause autism – that meme has been scientifically debunked and its leading proponent has had his medical license revoked. Vaccines are critical to the management of infectious diseases in a community. Vaccines are a scientific advancement, one that allows us to lead healthier, longer lives. They are not a choice to be made by an elite few who worry that they are poisoning their children’s bodies, at the expense of the health of those around them.
In addition to my own childhood experience, and growing up with horror stories of children in iron lungs and Franklin Roosevelt’s paralysis and how much luckier we are today having the polio vaccine, I now also have a perspective on the importance of vaccinations around the world. My husband happens to work for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which is funded by the Gates Foundation and sovereign governments. Gavi’s mission is to improve access to new and underused vaccines for children living in the world’s poorest countries.
Since its founding in 2000, Gavi has reached 500 million children with life-saving vaccines, and prevented 7 million deaths. By 2020, it expects to prevent another 6 million deaths around the world.
The numbers are staggering. It is holy work. And while we are not hurdling towards millions of child deaths here in the U.S., we are seeing measles return, after the declaration of its eradication in our country as of 2000. We tend to think of measles as one of the more benign childhood diseases, although in its most virulent form, it too, can be fatal. But what’s next to revisit us? Polio? Not benign. Not in the slightest.
Politicians are arguing that we have the right to do what we want with our children’s bodies. Why don’t we save that argument for women and their personal reproductive choices, and instead focus on our communal responsibility to our children and each other.
The anti-vaccination movement should not get to wave the land of liberty and free choice banner. It’s one thing to not be able to vaccinate your child because of a previous medical condition. And in such a case, so long as everyone else is vaccinating, your sick child will be protected by the herd immunity. But it’s another altogether to take a political stand about something that is so inherently dangerous to our society. Just because you have wealth and privilege, or even just buy into the anti-vax ideologies, does not allow you to take your own road when there is community responsibility – and the health of millions of others – at stake.
Every year I go to the polls to vote. And I tell my kids that voting is my right, my privilege, and my responsibility. I now apply that adage to vaccinating my children – it is my right (to the best medical care we can offer in our country), my privilege (to protect my children from deadly diseases when there is a logical solution) and my responsibility (to make sure my children are protected and take part in the community-wide effort to keep everyone as safe and healthy as possible.)
We are all in this together. Vaccinations are a critical link to the health and future of our children and our world. It is time to squelch the anti-vax movement and end this Lord of the Flies-style self governance. We need politicians and the government and the medical profession to take a clear stand on vaccination.
Or else the red I’m seeing will not only be ire, but instead, dots and speckles and rashes that will carry with them potentially ruinous results.
I am impressed that you can write so eloquently on this subject. The refusal to believe in science has gone from scary to dangerous.
Posted by: Miriam Isserow | 02/03/2015 at 06:42 PM