Living the Sweetlife : Study the facts
So ya’ll can call me old school but I am really having a hard time having patience with this measles thing; as a mother, as an educated person and as a doctor’s daughter. I am wondering why no one is demanding that in any public space if you have chosen to not get vaccinated then you are not allowed to be there. We certainly have isolated smokers to the point that there is barely a public space where that behavior is possible because we as a society have learned that smoking endangers lives and you can not impose your bad choices on the rest of the population. What part of spreading a very dangerous communicable disease is any different?
When it is preventable and has been irradiated it’s even more aggravating. When I was a child it was unheard of to question getting vaccinated. You could not go to public school if you did not have your shots and in the light of this latest tragedy it makes me pause to ask why have we not demanded the same rules of a place such as DISNEY? Here’s a little history lesson about this disease.
Measles was identified in the 3rd -10th century by Asian and North African physicians. In 910, Dr. Rhazes published his diagnosis of the disease. Christopher Columbus brought it to the New World and killed as much as 95% of the Native American population over the next 150 years. The 1800’s saw it’s effects as it continued to kill, most notably the King and Queen of Hawaii, who both died within a month of getting it as they were traveling to meet King George IV. “In the late 1800’s the HMS Dido brought it to Fiji and it killed 20,000 people.” We here in the US began to require doctors to report instances of the disease in 1912 and Dr. Thomas Peebles finds the disease in an 11 year old boy named David Edmonston and through his studies he pioneered the vaccine. In 1963, just a few years before I was born, it was made available to each and every child as a regular program for preventive care. I got one and so did Brian and hopefully you did too. In 1998, the year that Victoria Ann was born, there was a report claiming to link the vaccine to autism and later the report was pulled, the doctor lost his license but the public had been ill informed. As a result in 2014, the worse outbreak in two decades erupted with more than 600 cases and now this thing at Disney. This disease killed 145,700 people in 2013.
This is a childhood disease that is preventable. I feel like it is the responsibility of the parents to be informed and to make the best choices for our children. I can not tell you how many conversations that I have had in my studio and amongst other mother friends regarding vaccines and the pros and cons. But seriously, this is out of control. I am, and it is no surprise to my readership, very pro medicine. I am that way for a variety of reasons and in this case it seems imminently obvious that the only choice is to get the measles vaccine. The World Heath organization stated that measles is “one of the leading causes of death amongst young children even though a safe and cost effective vaccine is available.” As a mother, as an educated person and as a doctor’s daughter I want you to make informed decisions especially since the general public seems to be lazy to study the history of a disease that is absolutely preventable.
Take Care of YOU!
Facts and data credit to History of Measles by: Matt Pearce
