Most of the time I write satire over a range of topics, under various pseudonyms, but it’s time to get serious for a moment, these are troubling times for those of us that know what’s going on in the world, Ebola is still ragging in West Africa even though every American has forgotten about it, there is a bird flu raging through turkeys and chickens throughout the country which has some people on edge, and according to the CDC website there have been 176 cases of Measles reported in the United States already in the year 2015, which is a staggering two thirds of the reported cases in 2014 between January and May, and if this trend of about 200 cases per three months continues we could be looking at nearly one thousand cases in the year 2015, but that number could be much higher as diseases don’t spread linearly but instead spread exponentially, with every person infected acting like the top of a pyramid of infectious people, this is a frightening thought because if each of the infected infects two people and then those people infect two people we are already looking at 3,118 infectious people. As unlikely as this seems it is possible for two reasons: the number of unvaccinated people in the United States, and the number of people that are not up to date on the measles booster. The estimated number of people that are unvaccinated in the United States is about 10% according to a 2013 Scientific American Article, and that number is rising steadily as more and more parents are opting to not have their children vaccinated for unknown reasons. The second reason is that the measles booster actually only lasts 10 years, so many Americans are not 100% immune because it has been more than 10 years since their last booster. The reason it is important to stay up to date on boosters is because vaccines are not perfect and the effectivity lasts a certain amount of time. The immune system is complex and not fully understood, and vaccines are usually very weak strains of viruses and bacteria, so the immune system sometimes needs a reminder of what a particular pathogen looks like so it can refresh its antibodies, and that is why boosters are required
Every doctor and every scientist will attest that if you have a normal immune system and are able to get vaccines that you should, this isn’t a debatable opinion, but should become a rule. The only reason someone shouldn’t get vaccines is when their immune system is not strong enough to fight off the weakened strain of the virus, like in immune deficient children and people with HIV/AIDS. Why should vaccines be required for children to attend school, or be able to things in public is because when they aren’t outbreaks happen and people that have weakened immune systems need to be extra cautious. This is called heard immunity, the concept that after about 95% of a population gets vaccinated (and that 5% are those individuals that are immune deficient) the pathogen will not have the chance to outbreak because if someone contracts it they will most likely be vaccinated and not get sick or infect someone that is not vaccinated. But how do we get people to get vaccinated? This isn’t as simple as imagined however, many people with questions about vaccinations do not go to an expert but instead Google “Vaccinations”, or “Should my child get vaccinated”, or something else along those lines. And when I Googled those terms this is what came up first for both, “Vaccinations”, articles on vaccinations, CDC facts about vaccinations and other reasonable articles about vaccines, but the frieghtening thing here is the related searches, half of which insinuated that vaccines are bad. However when I Googled “Should my Child get vaccinated” look what comes up: Vaccinations for Children: A Must Read – MedicineNet, Vaccines ProCon.org, I’m very scared about my baby’s vaccinations, should she get them all at once or in intervals?, Six Reasons to say NO to Vaccination, Herd Immunity: Three Reasons Why I Don’t Vaccinate My Children… And Why Vaccine Supporters Shouldn’t Care That I Use Vaccine Exemption Forms. Most of these are blogposts by hardcore uneducated vaccine deniers, and when someone has questions they are sadly going to look at blog posts opposed to the CDC or the NIH because it’s a person’s real experience with vaccines. And people that have doubts already are going to support that by only looking at vaccines deniers’ perspective. So that brings us back to the question of how do we get people to vaccinate when all these very infrequent horror stories and deniers are so accessible to someone that has questions.
The answer is complex but simple, as an educated society we need to spam the webs with the benefits of getting vaccinated, we ask parents if their children are vaccinated before allowing our children to play with them, we petition schools to not allow unvaccinated children in, yes some of these steps seem like I’m suggesting infringes on the constitutional right of choice and freedom, but by not getting vaccinated are they not also infringing on the right to a happy and healthy life for those that are immune suppressed? Are they not infringing on the safety of others? Are they not risking an outbreak just because they don’t understand simple genetics? They are doing all of those things, so until at least 95% of Americans are vaccinated we should take these steps.
Soren Bakken-Heck
