Yesterday I visited with a mom who had made the personal choice of signing a waiver for vaccinations for her two school-aged children. She cited the lack of these childhood diseases and her assertion that she supported her children's immune systems. I pointed out to her that these diseases had only been held in check because my mom, me and other moms had gotten shots for their kids.
I had the sudden insight that this mom and others who eschew immunizations are operating on the self same personal risk assessment that motivated the immunizing moms years ago. It is the context of public health that has changed. When my mom got shots for us, death and disability stalked the land. It made perfect sense to seek protection for your children. Now that risk is but a distant memory.
My second insight was on how to change the equation of personal risk. I suggested to her that she have their doctor do a titer on her children to assess their immunity. She loved the idea, thinking that it would show how well she was supporting their immunity. A laboratory report with AT RISK OF scrawled all over it would be a compelling piece of real evidence that she was putting her children at personal risk.
Taking the idea further, I feel that any parent who submits a waiver be required to have a titer done on their child. Ideally, this titer would be forwarded to the state and county public health departments which could require that their unimmunized children be excluded from school if there were any cases of these diseases in their state.
Our public health agencies need to be granted greater authority to protect the population against contagion. A case in point is the resurgence of Whooping Cough.(If you have ever heard the characteristic cough of infants who are struck with this often fatal disease as they struggle for breath, you never forget it.) The Oregon State Public Health Department issued a proviso for adults who are exposed to infants to get booster shots. Who among us is not exposed to infants? If you go out in public at all, you are exposing infants. I felt that the proviso ought to have had more muscle.
It is clear that our public health is at risk and authorities need to act intelligently and quickly to prevent these diseases from stalking the land yet again with death and disability of our most vulnerable members.