Infectious diseases are always in the news. We’ve heard about norovirus on cruise ships, Ebola in the United States, and now the media has shifted its focus towards measles, and for good reason.
Last year there were approximately 650 cases of measles in the United States. It only got worse in 2015, as there were 121 reported cases through the first 37 days of the year, putting us on pace to be have well over 1,000 documented cases of measles in the US this year. So why is this disease, which we have a vaccine for, making a comeback? Because parents are choosing not to vaccinate their children.
Listen, I’m all for allowing people to make their own decisions. I do it every day in my line of work. Anyone who has seen me as a patient knows that I typically give three choices to almost every problem. Providing patients with choices gives them a sense of safety and trust. I use the same words as I start off these choices every single time. I begin by saying, “You can do nothing and live with it. It’s not cancer nor infection, it’s not going to kill you and there is nothing that can happen that I can’t make better.”
But in the area of vaccination, of which as an orthopedic surgeon I rarely ever discuss, it is about an infection, not a broken bone or a heel spur. And it’s not just about your children’s infection, it’s about infection of children worldwide.
As I said before, I understand that parents want to be able to make decisions about their children’s health. But it’s not just about your children. See, as the NVIC reports, the measles vaccine is about 98 percent effective. That means if 10,000 kids get the vaccine, about 200 of those children will still be susceptible to the measles virus. 200 “vaccinated” children can still contract and die from this disease if they end up at daycare with a child who has measles. 98 percent is great, but when we willingly choose not to vaccinate, we bring that number down, and that’s putting our kids in danger.
Think of it this way. Parents don’t want to be told what to do in regards to their child’s health, yet Minnesota requires children under the age of 8 to be secured in a federally approved car seat or booster seat when they are riding in the car. The government is literally fining people for failing to keep their children safe, yet you never here any outcry from parents about this. Why is that?
The Walking Dead Example
Anybody who watches the show The Walking Dead know that it’s unlikely that the group will find a cure anytime soon, but let’s imagine for a second that Rick stumbled upon a serum that would prevent his children Carl and Judith from becoming zombies in the event that they were bitten by a walker.
Would Rick toss the the serum aside? After all, it’s not natural.
Of course he wouldn’t. He has the ability to keep his kids safe, and as a result the other children in the group would be safer because they know they’re not going to get infected from Carl or Judith. It’s a win-win.
Please, vaccinate your children.
