Vaccinations

By Joe Rector

This year has already kicked the behinds of folks. The weather has been … wintry, complete with snow and endless rain. Around here, winter hasn’t been this rough in several years. We’ve also had to deal with some downright nasty viruses. One, in particular, leaves its victims struggling for as long as a month. A stomach bug has locked a few friends in their bathrooms, or at least they have been close enough to the water closet to avoid a terrible accident when the next cramp hits.

We’re a sickly nation this year. I can’t imagine what our predicaments would be if many of us hadn’t been vaccinated. The thoughts of anything like the covid pandemic hitting spikes our anxieties. For some reason, debates are swirling about vaccinations, but I don’t understand the problem.

At six months old, Jim and I came down with cases of chicken pox. Although our parents suffered through our outbreaks and itching and crying and even squalling, I am thankful that I wasn’t old enough to know what was going on.

Before we were school age, the mumps hit us. This time, Mother also fell ill, and I remember the concern for her since adults don’t handle such illnesses as well as children.

The measles came along during our elementary school years. I remember looking in the mirror at the rash that covered my entire body. What the differences are between German measles and the more serious red measles is a mystery to me. All I remember is suffering from a fever and not being able to watch television for fear that our eyesight might be affected.

The reason that we contracted these diseases had nothing to do with parent neglect. It seemed that as a child, we were on the way to the doctor’s office for another vaccination every couple of weeks. On the first day of school, other first graders were rounded up and taken to the gym. They’d not completed all the vaccinations necessary for attending public school. Some cried and others cursed their parents, but in the end, every child was protected from the spread of diseases due to those shots.

Back then, we also had to have a TB test. We’d stand in line in the gym as health department nurses injected something into the backs of our forearms. Most of us feared the shot, but the ones who freaked out tested positive when the shot sites reddened and/or swelled.

Polio vaccines were the most important back in the day. We all knew children who had been stricken with that disease, and it scared the hell out of us. Of course, we were overjoyed when the shots were replaced with sugar cubes.

I don’t understand the hesitancy of folks to vaccinate their children. Parents would never allow little ones to play on a busy street, nor would they allow those youngsters to play with guns. However, too many people are now questioning the effectiveness of vaccination. Some declare they do more harm than good. The new Secretary of HHS has called into question the effectiveness and safety of vaccinations, but he did make sure his children received those protections. I’m not a scientist, nor have I spent time diving into the pool of information about vaccinations. However, I know that for years, these shots have protected generations against diseases that kill.

Yes, Americans have freedom of choice. At the same time, that freedom ends when it upends the freedoms of others from being exposed to dangerous diseases. Sometimes, the public welfare dictates the adherence to health guidelines set by folks who have spent their careers combatting harmful things.

Let’s hope the measles outbreak makes a quick exit and that no more lives are negatively affected or lost. At the same time, let’s all think of what is best for the entire country in all disagreements. That includes immunizing children from life-threatening diseases.