Weekend Reading:
Again this week, measles and vaccinations are all over the news. This article simply explains, why measles is so contagious and so easy to contract. How does it actually invade us? You might be surprised to learn about the miserable measles.
“It’s the most transmissible virus we know,” he says. Measles, it turns out, has a special way of invading that makes it really, really easy to get out of the host—and into other people.
Have you helped anyone recently, like someone you didn’t know? We all need help sometimes, especially when we are towing around some young children. As a mandated reporter, I am required by law to report a situation that puts a child in danger such as leaving a child in a car alone. Many parents do not realize that they can be arrested and their children can be put in protective custody for this type of child endangerment. What would you do if you saw a child in a car alone?
Although there are unfit, abusive parents out there, most of us want to succeed at this, and are doing the best that we can. But we get tired, we get frustrated, we feel isolated and a little desperate sometimes. We all do. So let’s have more empathy and try to help rather than punish parents we see in their less-than-perfect moments. Most people will thank you for it.
What is the bigger picture that parents on both sides of the vaccination issue are worried about? I think, it is the worry about the unspeakable and unbearable loss of a child that puts parents on either side of this dilemma. Now that,”herd immunity” is in jeopardy, unvaccinated children are more at risk of becoming ill and possibly dying or having life long disabilities associated with the measles virus. Where are you in this discussion?
As the measles outbreak gathers worrisome steam in parallel to the explosion of passionate rants both pro and anti-vaccination, I find myself wondering; what is this really about? Rather than get bogged down in the myriad of issues on either side- though at the outset I will say that as a pediatrician I unequivocally recommend vaccination- I will aim to look at the bigger picture.
As the weekend approaches, we are in the middle of a deep freeze here in “Chiberia” as we like to call Chicago at this time of year. So for those of you in the snow belt stay warm and cozy and those of you who are in the sunbelt, ENJOY!