For a moment,
imagine that you are a new parent of a perfectly healthy baby. You have your
first pediatrician visit and you are asked to sit in the waiting room. A small
child approaches you and points to your infant and excitedly exclaims “baby!”
“Yes, a baby!” you reply, unveiling a small portion of the infants face, to
allow for the older child have a better look. All of a sudden the child has a
coughing fit and you realize they are there for more than just a check-up. “My
mommy thinks I might have the measles.” Although you may have been, your
newborn is too young to be vaccinated. They may have just been exposed to a
potentially fatal disease; a potentially fatal disease that could be prevented
if only that child had been vaccinated.
Children under a
year are typically not given the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella vaccination. This
vaccine is given around twelve and fifteen months. This is one major reason most
pediatricians do not allow patients who have not been vaccinated to be seen at
their practice, even with a religious or philosophical vaccine exemption form.
A lot of talk has
generated over an article published 15 years ago that has since been retracted.
I am talking about Dr. Wakefield’s study linking autism to vaccines. There is
no proof that vaccines cause autism. However, there is a multitude of proof that
choosing to not vaccinate puts you and your community at a higher risk of
developing serious and potentially fatal diseases. Just look at what happened
in Disney land. Immigrants enter this country daily, bringing with them many
diseases we have not seen in many decades. As Americans we have been vaccinated for many of these illnesses (starting at a young age), which has halted the spread in our communities, and in some cases eradicated certain diseases.
On September 29,
1994, polio was declared “eliminated” in the Americas. Since many people have
chosen to not vaccinate, we are seeing polio make a comeback along with
measles. I think most people are not aware of the severity of these illnesses.
In a way, they think they are immune already because they live in America where
the general population is vaccinated.
To me that is not only irresponsible, but also very selfish.
If by chance they are exposed to and contract
measles, do you think that it is fair for these parents to bring their children
to the same waiting room where there may be young children, or individuals with weak immune
systems who are not yet able to be vaccinated or can't be? So to all of
those parents who refuse to vaccinate their children because they are fearful
that there is truth to a fifteen year old “retracted” study, you can not sit
with us!
