"How can people be so heartless?How can people be so cruel?Easy to be proudEasy to say noYou know it's e-Easy to say no"Three Dog Night, Easy to be Hard, 1969
Still, I agree with the final lines of today's guest post. It is a first person report on the practical effects of a policy decision by the state of Oregon to make it easy for people to not vaccinate their children against communicable diseases. The author says it is selfish not to get vaccinated.
Three weeks ago I posted the measles vaccination figures reported by the Oregon Health Authority. In right-coded religious communities there is widespread vaccination refusal, which shows up in vaccination rates for the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine of 66 and 78 percent in two local Christian schools. But the bigger problem is in the liberal, college-town of Ashland, the blue dot of Southern Oregon politics. The elementary and middle schools have only 84 and 87 percent vaccination rates, and the public high school, which serves the entire community, has an 82 percent vaccination rate. This is far below "herd immunity" levels, a 95 percent minimum rate. In Ashland, if someone gets measles, there are ample people to spread it to, and for them to spread it yet again.
So what? Isn't this on the unvaccinated? If they are hospitalized and die, well, their decision, their risk.
Not quite. Vaccinations are both self-protection and then something akin to driving on public roads. I don't authorize body autonomy and personal freedom to for people to use their freedom to drive while intoxicated. An infected person and a drunk driver put others at risk.
Today's guest post puts a real-life name and face on victims of that risk. Mike Knox is a high school classmate.
He is a 1972 graduate in psychology and music from Southern Oregon University and a 1976 graduate in social work from Michigan State University. His specialty in social work was geriatrics. He has been playing the tuba since he was a young boy and has been principal tuba of the Rogue Valley Symphony for 49 consecutive years, 54 overall.
He recently wrote his family and friends this bit of background on a disease that he was recently diagnosed as having:
Today's guest post puts a real-life name and face on victims of that risk. Mike Knox is a high school classmate.
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He recently wrote his family and friends this bit of background on a disease that he was recently diagnosed as having:
Multiple Myeloma for a long time has been a short death sentence of 1-5 years. But thanks to the Obama Administration's "Cancer Moonshot" headed by (then) Vice President Biden, many new approaches to treatment have been developed. For example the standard for the last 10-15 years has been a bone marrow transplant. Stem cells were harvested from the bone marrow, reprogrammed to turn them into cells that would guide white blood cells to the cancerous cells. The white blood cells would then latch on to the cancer and kill it. But a very dangerous side effect was that the immune system would be so suppressed that many Myeloma patients would die from common infections. Then chemotherapy began to be available for Myeloma, so one chemo drug plus the transplant was tried. More patients survived. Then two drugs plus transplant. Then three drugs plus transplant. Each time more survived. Just last year four drug regimens were developed, and 95% of patients have survived five years or longer. This was better than the transplant method. Just one more reason to vote Democratic!
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Guest Post by Mike Knox
As a very young child, I had measles. I was probably 12-16 months old. My mother was pregnant, and I had to be kept away from her to protect the new baby. That was successful, but as can be understood, traumatizing for all who were involved, except for my new baby brother, who was born "normal", whatever that means.Now I am 76, and recently had a cancer called Multiple Myeloma. The advanced treatment I underwent at Oregon Health Sciences University is called Autologous Stem Cell Transplant. Skipping the total description, the germane part is that my immune system was killed off, because that is where the myeloma resides, in the blood platelets, which are the home of the immune system.As of today, I have the immune system of a 113-day-old infant. I cannot get the MMR vaccine or any other vaccines until September, when my new immune system is six months of age, and can tolerate the risk.I live in Ashland, a hot spot for anti-vaxxers. So much so that a congressional committee held an investigative hearing here a few years back. I am worried about attending any large gathering, such as the No Kings Demonstration planned for Saturday, June 14. Masks won't protect me. My family can't participate either, lest they become the vector that infects me.I am on anti-viral medications that protect me from Hepatitis B and Herpes Zoster, and an antibiotic that protects me from pneumonia, I still have to be hyper-vigilant. I worry every time I leave my house.I have to worry about molds, mildews, and fungi in addition to viruses and bacteria. When you lose your immune system, your world shrinks. Anti-vaxxers reject the best science available, and in my humble opinion are selfish.
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4 comments:
The post title does not sound harsh and when it comes to health, good judgment is called for. Some years ago, the doctor who edited the UC Berkeley Wellness Letter made the comment that parents who don’t vaccinate their children are guilty of child abuse. He had a good point. It isn’t just their own children they’re endangering, but other people’s.
There are a few people that have legitimate medical reasons for not getting vaccinated, but not enough to affect herd immunity. The spread of measles, a dangerous disease that had been eradicated in the U.S., is just one example of what suckers the public has become for disinformation and crackpot conspiracy theories. What will they bring back next, polio? Their willful ignorance has even turned politics into a disease that’s killing our republic. They should be ashamed, but they have no shame.
I feel sorry for the kids, who have no choice.
Timely and informative, and best wishes. Two points.
Whatever the political bent, anti-science sentiments are profoundly ignorant, to the point of primeval superstition, and we should restrain these individuals in the same way we restrain violent criminals and the mentally ill. They are a danger to themselves and society, and abuse their rights in a liberal democracy.
Second, there is a special place in Hell for those who exploit this ignorance for personal and political gain. Let's all wish them on their way thus.
I attended the League of Women Voters candidate forum for the Ashland School Board race this spring. Each candidate was asked to state his/her position on vaccination requirements for students. None of the candidates, as far as I remember, spoke in favor of seeing to it that the school district vigorously enforces laws that establish these requirements; most of the candidates merely said that vaccine requirements are a matter of state law, implying that the school board's role is passive when it comes to requiring students to be fully vaccinated. State Senator Jeff Golden, whose base is Ashland, is equivocal about mandated vaccination. Is this what Rick Millward means by exploiting ignorance for political gain?
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