I touched on this quickly in my last post, but I would like to take a moment and look at how the public is responding to the fact that less people are choosing to vaccinate their kids. It might not seem like it at first, but getting vaccinated means as much to that child as it does to numerous children surrounding them.
I mentioned a concerned mother that was quite upset over the danger her children are in. And she isn’t alone.
Mothers everywhere have taken to the internet, voicing their concern to those who choose to go unvaccinated. They have relied for so long on herd immunity to protect their children, and because of the choices of other people, their children are now at risk.
Lisa Vallejos found out that the baby she was expecting had hypo plastic left heart syndrome. In other words, the left side of his heart was underdeveloped and his chances of surviving after birth without medical intervention were small.
“Doctors told Vallejos she had four options: abortion; taking the pregnancy to term and letting nature take its course; putting her baby through three separate reconstructive heart surgeries after birth; or getting him on the transplant waiting list.” (Imam, cnn.com)
In the end, she ended up putting her child on the transplant list. At this point, he is 8 years old, and living a relatively normal life. His health now depends on immunosuppressant drugs, so that his body won’t reject the donor heart.
Because of these circumstances, this little boy is just one of the children all over the country who are unable to be vaccinated for health reasons. He, along with other children in similar situations, are protected so long as those around them are vaccinated. But living in California, Vallejos and her son live in constant fear of the measles outbreak spreading and sending him back to doctor’s appointments, surgeries, and fear.
Lisa Vallejos has been very outspoken about her concerns for her son’s safety, but she’s not the only one.
Emily West, an Oregon native, has a son who has allergic reactions to vaccines shares, “At least try to vaccinate… I have tried, and I did it because it is part of my civic duty.”
Janie Lambert had measles as a child and can remember the severity of the disease: “Most folks my age and older remember the horrors of measles, smallpox, and polio.”
Dr. Thomas Frieden, the director of the CDC vaccinates his kids. He says, “If you don’t get your kid vaccinated, it could be the baby next door, or the kid down the street who has been treated for leukemia, who gets infected and could become seriously ill or even die from this 100% preventable disease.”
At this point, it is up to states and local school boards to decide whether children must be vaccinated in order to attend school. With all of the concerns that are being shared, a new question has been posed: Should the government require children who are able to be vaccinated to do so?
This blog post could not be more perfectly timed. I am not sure how involved you are with THON but two weeks ago there was a basketball game called THON hoops where a significant amount of the families and children were in attendance including myself. I did go visit one of my THON families but thankfully I did not go to the family section because there was a chicken pox outbreak. To the families that this did not spread too, it left the rest in fear and as a result one of my THON families as well as many other families will no longer be attending THON this weekend. This is so heartbreaking to me that if the parents of this child had given them the vaccine, this would not be happening and it would not be taking away this event for the children.
Vaccinations are really important, and it’s a little bit of a spit in the face to the people who developed the vaccinations in the first place. For so many years people had to deal with crippling diseases, and now so many can be avoided if everyone would just go through vaccination. I know some people might be allergic, but for the others it’s important to get the vaccination for the child’s own good as well as the good of everyone around him or her.
I think that it is a really interesting thought that becoming vaccinated is your civic duty. But after I do think about it, it makes complete sense. It is something simple that people can do for themselves and for their children that in turn won’t only protect their families but other ones as well. Kristen Bell recently came out with a statement saying that if someone’s child wasn’t vaccinated to keep them away from her children. I honestly think she is right on and a good parent for saying that.
I, for one, think that vaccination should be government mandated. Like you said in your blog post, it’s the duty of people healthy enough to withstand vaccinating to protect people not healthy enough via herd immunity. Choosing not to is not only selfish–it puts others at risk for very serious, very avoidable diseases. Great blog post! I enjoyed reading it.