By John Lindstrom
Publisher
Posted: March 28, 2019 1:31 PM

Measles is back upon us and the state has now had more cases than it has had nearly a generation. Measles. A disease once nearly eradicated in this state and nation is back upon us. Could something, anything, good come from this?

Yes, actually. People might start to get their kids vaccinated again.

This reporter has written about vaccinations, been frank about how the question of vaccinations has pushed his sense of objectivity to the limit.

This reporter has written of Michigan's critical role in vaccinations, especially the polio vaccine. I have written how following a live national press conference in the 1950s that announced how the new polio vaccine worked and was safe church bells rang and special services were held in thanksgiving that such a devastating disease was brought to heel. Now people claim religious objections to vaccines, then church bells rang in celebration a vaccine had been found.

This reporter has also written how when the news of the polio vaccine was announced, his mother wept because her kids would now be safe from polio when kids she knew growing up outside Cleveland were struck down.

At least 22 cases of measles have been confirmed in Michigan in the last several weeks. There could be more cases that have not yet been confirmed.

So far as we know all these cases result from exposure to one infected person. One person, visiting the state, visiting south Oakland County who went to dozens of places during that visit and potentially exposed who knows how many people.

And now we have to consider how many people the newly infected people have in turn exposed.

Measles is a miserable disease. I know. I had it before a vaccine was available. The complications it can wreak on a small body are serious, deadly serious. Children die from measles.

Michigan has a lousy vaccination rate. Yes, thankfully, most parents do vaccinate their children. Yes, there are some people, a relatively small number, who have medical sensitivities or allergies to vaccines. Which makes it all the more critical that parents get their kids vaccinated to protect both them and those few who legitimately cannot be vaccinated.

The state has a major campaign to encourage vaccination, spurred on by a mother whose own unvaccinated child died of pertussis, a vaccine-preventable disease. The state now requires parents who would object to vaccines get information on vaccines before making their final refusal to enroll in school. These have helped improve the state's vaccination rate from dismal to lousy.

But measles might move more parents to act. Because nothing spurs action like fear.

How sad it is to have write that. How sad it is that a person cannot be persuaded by science and logic and a sense that if nothing else their child has a right to be free from a deadly disease if that is possible. How sad that one has to be scared to act, and how gallingly grateful must we be that they were scared to act.

Right now in Michigan the warnings have come true. Doctors and health officials and scientists and parents all warned what could happen if too few people were vaccinated and a disease entered into that situation. We have more cases of measles now than we have had in 25 years. In 2018 we had more cases of measles than we had had since 1994. What kind of a record to we want to reach in 2020 and beyond?

How about this record: no cases of measles, or pertussis, or mumps or chickenpox, or any of the other vaccine-preventable diseases? If that happened, then something good did come from something very bad. Be the right kind of statistic, get your kids vaccinated.