There is an outbreak of Rubella aka German Measles in a small Ontario town near where I grew up. Rubella you might ask? Aren't there vaccinations to prevent Rubella? Well yes actually there are.
The interesting thing about vaccinations in Ontario is, that you aren't obligated to receive one even tho they are freely available, and by that I mean available AND free. Some people however CHOOSE not to be vaccinated and in this case apparently, MANY people chose not to be vaccinated due to religious beliefs. The outbreak originated in a school of course .... a religious school where 60% of the students were unvaccinated due to their beliefs. Now I should be clear their religion doesn't specifically ban vaccinations it just doesn't endorse them either ... take away from that what you will. People are people and if they are ambivalent about vaccinations in the first place what do you want to bet they aren't exactly vigorous about obtaining them.
I can just hear the conversations among the mothers in their churches, you know the conversations ... one mom telling her third or fourth hand vaccination story about some anonymous kid suffering brain damage due to an ambiguous shot, usually a vaccination but could be a flu shot depending on the conversation. These horror stories seem to get worse with every telling and the usual outcome is everyone privy to said conversation going away determined to avoid THAT fate. Vaccination for my kid? NO WAY.
Well this time it has come back and bit them in the ass. Their kids are getting sick. I wonder how they feel about vaccinations now. There are 83 cases in the community already up from 56 yesterday. Over 350 kids are being kept home from school to try and stop the spread of what should never have been a threat in the first place if they weren't so darn suspicious of medicine and science. But I think I do know how they feel.
When I was a kid (a long time ago) there was a polio scare in our area. I remember it being a big deal and everyone had to be revaccinated. My memory is somewhat shaky cause I was a kid but this stands out for me cause my father was a doctor. If I remember correctly the outbreak was because of a group of people who had declined to be vaccinated against polio due to their religious beliefs. I can't be sure it is the SAME group involved in this more recent case but the outbreak DID occur near Norwich and Woodstock if my memory isn't playing tricks on me, the same communities affected today. Now the articles I have read do not identify the religious group involved in this Rubella outbreak but I have a hunch it might involve a rather large mennonite community in the area.
So how do they feel? Based on the earlier case as well as this one in the same general area I would say their opinions haven't changed one bit regarding vaccinations and that sometime in the future we will be reporting that yet another outbreak of a preventable disease has occured in their community. Should we feel sorry for them? I don't know. They go into this willingly. They risk the greater community as well. This disease while not terribly severe for children is quite serious for adults and especially pregnant women and their unborn children. So I just don't know. I DO know I feel sorry for the kids who got sick and I hope they all recover quickly with no complications. I DO hope they grow up with a different attitude about getting THEIR kids protected after having experienced this ordeal. I just don't think they will.
Resource Link
IA
No comments:
Post a Comment