Pro-Vaccine

I was recently in a room with three of my co-workers and the subject of vaccinations and the anti-vaccine movement came up.  These are well-educated people, one with a couple of teen or pre-teen boys, one newly married and one single.  Neither the newly married or single men have children.  I didn't really get to voice my opinion as we were interrupted in some way and never got back to the subject.  So I'm going to take this opportunity to do so.

I had both the measles and mumps as a child.  There wasn't a vaccine, so it wasn't uncommon to actually get the diseases.  My children were vaccinated.  They received all their recommended vaccinations at the recommended ages.  My son had a bad reaction to one of them.  The HIB (hepatitis B) vaccine was brand new to the market, and within 24 hours he had a fever of 104.  The doctor sent us to the hospital for bloodwork and monitoring and, fortunately, we got through that without any lasting effects.

I think children should be vaccinated not only to protect them, but to protect others.  You are a carrier of disease before you know you are sick, potentially infecting everyone you come in intact with and, in the case of measles, leaving a trail of airborne secretions that linger behind you, highly contagious, for two hours.  Two hours.  If you sneeze in an elevator - everyone who enters that elevator for the next two hours could get sick.  Two hours.  One hundred and twenty minutes.   It's totally preventable.

Think about the children who cannot be vaccinated due to compromised immune systems.  I have family members who can't receive immunizations - I certainly want to help protect them.  Think of all the cancer patients whose immune systems are temporarily down.  In the process of working really hard to save their lives, they are putting themselves at risk.  And you are playing with their lives.  It's not fair to them.

I just watched a great show on PBS Nova - called "Vaccines - Calling the Shots".  You can find it here.  It's definitely worth watching.  They explore measles, autism, polio and share both the good and bad stories.  If you're unsure about vaccinating your children, pay attention to the seven week old boy in ICU with whooping cough.  He was too young to be vaccinated, but not too young to catch the virus.  Heartbreaking to see him struggle to breath.  If you think it's not a big deal, loop that section of video for the next hundred and twenty minutes.  See what you think then.

I know there are varying opinions - and I'm open to hearing yours.  In a nice way, please or you risk being deleted.