Maybe the deniers have never known a five-year-old who died from measles, as I did, and whose parents spent the rest of their lives dealing with the tragedy
Why does a supposedly eradicated childhood disease still make the news?
Welcome to 2024 and the reality of what lurks beneath the surface of society — diseases that have been dismissed as a threat because they have been “eradicated.”
The trolls are still beneath the bridge, brought to the surface by ignorance, disinformation, neglect, mistrust, a growing anti-vaccination movement and sheer vanity. That final quality is a result of an “it can’t happen to me and mine” attitude.
Consider the fatality rate from measles is 0.1 per cent in industrialized countries, rising to 15 per cent in developing countries. That means the chances of transmission increases depending on to whom children are exposed. Under such circumstances, not fully vaccinating children is, in a sense, child endangerment.
There should be consequences. Jail should be the least of the penalties for parents citing “freedom” and ”liberty” for neglecting to have their children immunized.
I’m angry about the rise of measles for the simple reason that a couple of hundred years of science has resulted in the eradication of most of the illnesses that kill children. When Edward Jenner realized in 1770 that milkmaids who had cowpox did not subsequently contract smallpox, it signalled the start of science taking precedence over leeches and witches’ brew.
I’m angry because most of the advances in vaccines came after I had contracted just about every “common” childhood disease — whooping cough, measles, mumps, chickenpox and the true child crippler and killer, polio.