At the top of the growing list of recent American tragedies is news that a child has died of measles in Texas, and dozens more were badly sickened by a disease the United States once eradicated.
Americans regularly are saddened and perplexed by news of the deaths of children in seemingly far-away places, succumbing to “third world” maladies such as starvation, scurvy — or measles.
In a nation where cancer has never been more treatable, and even curable, where human skeletal joints are routinely replaced and myriad debilitating ailments are routinely corralled by medical science, Texas is plagued by measles.
The death count has been relatively low, in part, because medical science has advanced far enough to capably save people from this lethal and highly contagious respiratory disease.
The upwards of 160 documented measles cases in western Texas is a testament to the folly of Americans taken in by nefarious anti-vaccination propaganda, which has led to this.
Physicians there, sometimes seeing measles cases for the first time, report having to intubate extremely sick children and treat many for critical dehydration.
Texas, like most states, including Colorado, requires children to prove they’ve been inoculated for measles, mumps and rubella before being permitted to start school each year. The problem is that some states, including Colorado, make it too easy for parents to obtain a nonmedical exemption from school vaccine requirements, or schools simply don’t check or force compliance.
Colorado is among the states with red-lights flashing on the public health dashboard.
Only 93.6% of children were inoculated for measles during the last school year, down 0.2% from the already-dismal numbers for the year before that. Federal health officials consider anything below 95% inoculation rates to create a community health danger for the lack of “herd immunity” which prevents outbreaks.
And Colorado’s school vaccination rates remained dismal even after state lawmakers finally made it at least a little more difficult for parents to exempt their children from vaccination without medical exemption. In Colorado, like Texas, parents can “opt out” of school vaccination mandates if they personally “don’t believe” in vaccines.
If that sounds like a recipe for disaster when so much vaccine disinformation and propaganda pervades the public info-verse, Texas is proof that it is.
Compounded with the alarming appointment of prolific vaccine denier Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the post, of all things, Secretary of Health, the opportunity for plague and yet another deadly pandemic grows nearly every day.
Already known for promoting debunked conspiracy theories for years while he made millions as a lawyer linked to anti-vax lawsuits, he doubled down on what a danger he is to the nation by weighing in on the measles crisis in a statement provided to FoxNews. He said that, under his direction, the federal government would promote Vitamin A as an effective treatment for measles for unvaccinated children.
Immediately, legitimate scientists and physicians across the country called out the clear quakery Kennedy was promoting.
“In fact, relying on vitamin A instead of the vaccine is not only dangerous and ineffective, but it puts children at serious risk,” Sue Kressly, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in a statement to the Washington Post. “Taking too much vitamin A can cause serious health problems, including liver damage.”
The widespread danger includes children in Colorado.
Shockingly, Colorado ranks near the bottom of states for rates of child immunization compliance even though the state boasts one of the highest proportions of highly educated parents in the nation.
But a large number of parents, and previous state lawmakers, have fallen victim to a pervasive ruse undermining immunization rates and public health.
That deceit is a regularly discredited study run by a discredited doctor who fallaciously tied autism to childhood vaccinations. The U.S. media irresponsibly published the claims despite experts exposing the author’s poor science, helping to legitimize them.
There is not one reputable pediatrician, pediatric organization, hospital, clinic or researcher that does not vehemently work to debunk the autism lie and plead with parents to vaccinate their children.
Real scientists and medical professionals are unequivocal: The purported autism danger of childhood vaccines are lies. Dangerous lies. The vaccines are safe and amazingly effective. While vaccine technology has greatly improved over the past decades, the science of vaccination is more than a century old.
Now, huge swaths of the public are at dire risk across the nation.
Measles is not an inconvenience. It is obviously deadly to children and adults with compromised immune systems who depend on “the herd” to remain disease free through mass immunization. It can be deadly to healthy children, too.
But state lawmakers in Colorado have succumbed to ignorant parent pressure and continue to allow anyone to keep from vaccinating their child and attend public schools without a valid medical reason.
Before 2020, it was actually easier to say that you didn’t want to vaccinate your child than it was to prove that you already have.
That changed, slightly, with state Senate Bill 20-163. The measure required parents seeking an exemption because they don’t feel good about vaccines to watch an educational video, and if they persisted in seeking an exemption, to sign a paper.
That’s it. Exemptions flourish in Colorado.
But even the lack of so-called “personal exemptions” haven’t been helpful. In 2018, California ended its non-medical exemption program, requiring anyone attending public schools to prove they’re vaccinated, unless they have a valid medical-exception.
The state still lags behind the goal of herd-immunity, pretty much on par with Colorado. The reason, experts say, is that schools are either unable or unwilling to comply with the vaccination mandate.
And measles isn’t the only remote-nation malady simmering beneath the public surface. Whooping cough, RSV and other communicable ailments continue to keep hold or gain ground across the nation because of an irrational fear or disinterest in vaccines.
Colorado lawmakers should immediately adopt a California mandate, not only for public schools, but for public community venues, including recreation centers, pools and league sports.
This would not force stubborn or irresponsible parents to vaccinate their children, but it would require them to follow this age-old safe and sound medical advice in order to join the herd without putting innocent people at unnecessary risk of illness or even death.
We do not allow children to bring firearms, knives or other dangerous substances and items to school. Few things are as dangerous or deadly as measles, and the public has every right to expect communal schools and public activities are protected from needless disasters by such a simple precaution.
Colorado should not wait until a plague of deadly measles or some other preventable malady races through a Colorado community to do the sound and scientifically indisputable right thing.
