My one-room country school was closed for a month because all the students had measles. My father, in his 50s, caught measles from me and was bedfast for several weeks.
RFK Jr.’s impact on HHS so far has some worried
RFK Jr. reluctance to endorse the measles vaccine amid a deadly outbreak raised red flags.
- Vaccinations benefit both individuals and the community, similar to following traffic laws or fire safety regulations.
- The recent resurgence of measles is attributed to unvaccinated individuals, highlighting the importance of widespread vaccination.
- The author urges parents to vaccinate their children to protect them and the community from preventable diseases.
I believe most parents making the decision to vaccinate or not vaccinate their children have not experienced the disease because they themselves were vaccinated. They were born after the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine was introduced in 1968.
There are many things we do that may or may not benefit us individually, but we do them because our communities work better. We obey the speed limits (mostly). We register our cars and buy insurance so if we cause an injury to someone else, our insurance will compensate them. When we fly, we go through the screening process. We do not shout “fire” in a crowded theater. When a physician prescribes a medicine for us, we expect that we will get what is being prescribed and it will do what the doctor says it will. We do not play loud music late at night that might disturb our neighbors. It is called public health.
In 2000, measles had been declared eliminated
Getting vaccinations against common communicable diseases: measles, mumps, rubella, pertussis, chicken pox, polio, hepatitis, pneumonia, influenza, COVID-19 and more is much the same. It is ‘public health’ as well as individual immunity.
Vaccinations are done both to protect an individual against a disease and often to protect the community from that disease. Measles vaccinations are a great example. Measles vaccines can provide lifetime protection from the disease. When enough of us are vaccinated, measles cannot find enough vulnerable victims to spread the disease. Two doses of the vaccine confer lifetime immunity as does having the disease.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: “Measles was declared eliminated from the United States in 2000. This meant the absence of the continuous spread of disease was greater than 12 months. This was thanks to a highly effective vaccination program in the United States, as well as better measles control in the Americas region.”
So why do we have more than 700 reported cases in the U.S.A. now? It is because parents decided to not have their children vaccinated for them. Now there are enough unvaccinated people to sustain the spread of the disease. It can be stopped just by everybody getting vaccinated. The vaccines have minor side effects, but autism is not one of them.
I am old enough to have had the illnesses the vaccines protect against
I’m old enough to have had measles, rubella, chicken pox, whooping cough and probably some of the other common communicable diseases before some vaccines were available. I missed a month of my first-grade schooling when I had whooping-cough (pertussis). My one-room country school was closed for a month because all the students had measles. My father, in his 50s, caught measles from me and was bedfast for several weeks and considered near death. That was a very scary time.
Please get the vaccinations. Don’t stop with the measles. Do not subject your children to unnecessary communicable diseases. Follow the recommended schedule for the vaccinations and rest assured that you have done the best for your children.
Roberta Waddle lives in Fayetteville.
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