As summer comes to an end, many of us look forward with bittersweet anticipation to a school year filled with growth and excitement. And while we prepare for the school year, keeping our children safe is at the top of our priority list.
An extension of this includes protecting them from communicable diseases like whooping cough and measles. If your child will be entering Kindergarten or 7th grade this year, they will need to get their vaccines, unless an exemption if filed with your local health department.
There is a common misconception that exempting your children from immunizations only affects those that are not immunized. This is simply not true. Our children spend six-to-seven hours a day learning, playing and eating together. Expectedly, the rate of sick visits increases dramatically when the school year begins because children share germs, and illness spreads rapidly throughout close-knit school environments.
Among those most at risk are immunocompromised children. These children and families have spent holidays and birthdays in hospitals and have endured procedures with brave faces and hope for the future. Additionally, many children in school have brand new brothers or sisters at home. Babies have growing immune systems and their tiny bodies are susceptible to the most awful consequences of diseases, such as whooping cough and measles.
Pope John Paul II once said, “A society will be judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members.” A plethora of research over decades has proven time and again that vaccines are safe and effective. They are the single most important public health accomplishment on this earth.
Vaccines save lives, and when a high percentage of the population are immunized, we create a protective cocoon for immunocompromised children and infants in our community. Immunization exemption rates are very high in several school districts across Utah, making community immunity non-existent. These exemptions put those weakest among us at risk. It is our ethical responsibility to protect every child.
Please, if you have decided not to immunize your child, then you are personally accountable for knowing the signs and symptoms of diseases that can harm others. Keep your children home from school when they are sick. Additionally, during an outbreak, your children should not go to church, parks, movies, libraries and grocery stores for at least 21 days.
Disease outbreaks cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars to contain. In 2018, parents will be required by law to watch an educational module prior to exempting their children. This module focuses on how to decrease the spread of infection, however, the most effective way to protect your children and the community from communicable diseases is by getting vaccinated. Vaccines work.
Lacey Eden is a nurse practitioner in a pediatric office. She serves on the Utah County Immunization Coalition and has traveled to Washington, D.C. on behalf of Shot at Life to help promote immunization awareness.