Get Your Child Immunized against Measles!

Not getting your child immunized against measles is stupid and inconsiderate!

Yes, yes….I know there are lots of folks out there who vehemently declare the dangers of vaccinations.  Some of their arguments have a bit of merit and others are just lunatic fringe stuff.  They tout their rights as parents to do what they believe is best for their children, but what about other people’s children?

We live in a society, and we interact with each other regularly.  We have an obligation to protect each other.  I would not have considered avoiding immunization.  If parents want to tinker with some of the timing and not throw too much at a child’s immune system all at once, I give them some lee-way with that.  But, not to immunize at all???  I have no sympathy.

And it has nothing to do with statistics and logic.  On this issue, I have raw emotion.

I was born prior to measles immunizations being available.  I had measles.  I remember the agonizing boredom of spending days in bed in a darkened room with nothing much to do.  I was not allowed to use my eyes, because of concerns about damage to them.  More importantly, even though I was a preschooler, I remember the palpable anxiety in my mother.  I sensed she was in great fear for me, although she did not express this to me verbally.

As I grew older, I came to understand the reason.  I heard the stories of my mother’s baby sister and how thrilled my grandfather was to have another girl.  I heard how she became very ill with measles when she was less than a year old.  My great-aunt talked about accompanying my grandmother to take the baby to the doctor.  They had no car and had to go to the doctor’s office on the streetcar.  The baby had measles with complications, and the doctor could do nothing to save her.  They traveled home on the streetcar with a dying baby.  I visited her grave with my grandfather.  Decades had passed, but he still carefully tended the flowers he planted there each year.  My mother told me of her brother Chuck’s grief.  He was older and in school.  He brought the measles home from school and felt he was responsible for his baby sister’s death.

The baby’s name was Ruth Ellen.  I was given my name in memory of her.

I am an admirer of clear thinking and logic.  I believe in parental rights. 

But, on this issue?

I have seen the far-reaching consequences of measles prior to the availability of immunization.  Don’t give me any argument.  I won’t listen.  Just go get your kid immunized!