{"id":9499,"date":"2019-02-07T21:38:55","date_gmt":"2019-02-08T05:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=9499"},"modified":"2019-02-07T21:54:45","modified_gmt":"2019-02-08T05:54:45","slug":"opinion-only-you-can-avoid-highly-preventable-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/opinion-only-you-can-avoid-highly-preventable-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Only YOU can avoid highly-preventable disease"},"content":{"rendered":"

Caity Healy<\/strong> | Editor-in-Chief<\/span><\/p>\n

As of Tuesday, Feb. 5, the list of confirmed cases of the measles in Washington since the first day of 2019 reached 50, according to doh.wa.gov<\/a>. Of those 50, 34 were between the ages 1 to 10. And, of those 50, 42 were unvaccinated. On Jan. 25, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency. If only there were some way this could have been widely prevented.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Measles Mumps Rubella (MMR) vaccine is about 97 percent effective after receiving both doses, per cdc.gov<\/a>. Despite this statistic, people are still choosing not to receive the vaccine. And, in some cases, these people are also choosing not to vaccinate their children. <\/span><\/p>\n

The measles are highly contagious; it can be contracted by entering a room that someone with measles left up to two hours prior, according to cdc.gov<\/a>. As the list of exposure locations continues to grow and grow, I can\u2019t help but worry. I worry for the child who had no choice. I worry for the infant who is not old enough to get their vaccine yet. I worry for those who are already ill who, if infected, could face serious complications. I worry for those who are pregnant, who, if infected, could also face serious complications. I worry for those who simply cannot afford the vaccine for themselves or their child. <\/span><\/p>\n

I might sound like I\u2019m being dramatic, but let\u2019s be honest. This is ridiculous. It\u2019s 2019, the MMR vaccine has been around since 1967. How this is still a problem, especially to this extent, blows my mind. While it\u2019s uncommon to die from the measles, it can lead to other serious illnesses, such as pneumonia, which could be deadly for children or those with compromised immune systems.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I heard of the outbreak, my first thought went to my sister Meagan Hess, who has an 11-month old baby \u2014 too young for the MMR vaccine.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have to constantly check the exposure sites to make sure it wasn\u2019t somewhere I\u2019ve been with my daughter,\u201d Hess said. \u201cAnytime we go anywhere, out to dinner for example, it\u2019s in the back of my mind \u2014 what if someone with the measles is here and we just exposed our daughter because we wanted to go on a family date?\u201d Among the list of exposure sites: Hess\u2019s workplace. She couldn\u2019t even go to work without worrying that she or someone else had been exposed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hess explained what she wished she could tell someone who chooses not to vaccinate: \u201cEverything has risks \u2026 but think about the greater risks of not getting the vaccine \u2026 think about how this will impact your child.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Hess\u2019s final thought on the situation was, \u201cYes, it\u2019s your choice. But when your choice is impacting all those babies whose parents don\u2019t yet have the option to give their child the vaccine, it becomes a greater responsibility than your own choice for your child.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Personally, I can\u2019t understand why someone would choose to not vaccinate their children. I have yet to hear a single reason why this would be okay. <\/span><\/p>\n

Another mother I know explained that she didn\u2019t want to \u201cinfect\u201d her child through the vaccine. And, instead, said she would rather risk them getting the disease and dealing with that afterwards. I was in awe. She added that she didn\u2019t trust the hospital. If you don\u2019t trust them to give your child the vaccine, are you going to trust them to save your child\u2019s life when they contract a highly-preventable disease? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Other people choose not to vaccinate because of a fraudulent study that linked vaccinations to autism. This study has been disproven. No links have been found between the ingredients in vaccines and autism. Yet, people still make this connection. Based on their own experiences or by coincidental occurrences? Maybe. But still not worth risking a life over. And, even if this were true, using this as your reasoning would mean that you would rather your child contract deadly diseases that could literally kill them than have them get a life-saving vaccine that you believe could lead to autism.<\/span><\/p>\n

For those who are considering the vaccine but haven\u2019t received it yet, don\u2019t just take my word for it. Do your own research. What you\u2019ll find is that it is incredibly rare for a vaccine to cause any complication. <\/span><\/p>\n

As of Feb. 5, the number of confirmed cases in Oregon still sits at one. But even that is one too many. On Feb. 1, an email was sent out to all Western students from Beth Scroggins, the Director of the Student Health and Counseling Center, stating that waived students could be removed from classes if an outbreak occurs. Let\u2019s hope it doesn\u2019t actually reach this point.<\/span><\/p>\n

Please vaccinate. I know I sound like a Bob Barker \u201cspay and neuter\u201d PSA, but it\u2019s true. Vaccinations can and do save lives. <\/span><\/p>\n

For the most current list of exposure sites, visit clark.wa.gov<\/a>, which is updated frequently.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contact the author at chealy16@wou.edu<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Caity Healy | Editor-in-Chief As of Tuesday, Feb. 5, the list of confirmed cases of the measles in Washington since the first day of 2019 reached 50, according to doh.wa.gov. Of those 50, 34 were between the ages 1 to 10. And, of those 50, 42 were unvaccinated. On Jan. 25, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1094,"featured_media":8951,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"modified_by":"The Western Howl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}