Anti-Vaxxers, I Have Some Advice for You.
I wrote this post almost a year ago and never got around to publishing it. So much has happened in the intervening time with the rise of a global pandemic and I am SMDH at how the words below are ringing eerily true now.
As an unusual school year is starting, and influenza season is just around the corner, vaccination (or the forgoing of it) is a prescient topic. So now is the time to publish this long-overdue post:
My fourteen-year-old son passed on this meme (or is it a Gif? A Tik-Tok? I’ve no idea…) to me the other day:
Yes, non-vaxxing parent, I have some suggestions for you.
Since so many other parents in your community have also chosen not to vaccinate, and your reliance on herd immunity is “shot,” here’s what you can do to protect your beautiful toddler from the very serious consequences a measles infection.
It’s really very simple:
Don’t send your child to preschool or daycare.
Don’t allow her to go on playdates
Don’t even take her to the grocery store.
In short, keep your child at home.
And don’t allow visitors, who may bring measles directly under your roof.
BTW, you (parent) and anyone else who lives in your household can’t leave the house either, lest you or they bring home measles to your child. None of you may not go to work. Or to school. Or out on “date night.” Or to the gym or to church.
In short, you should hermetically seal your nuclear family inside your home if at all possible. But whatever you do,
DO NOT LEAVE YOUR HOME.
and
DO NOT ALLOW ANYONE OUTSIDE YOUR HOME IN.
Because you never know, in times of an outbreak, who has been exposed to the measles or who may be infected and not yet symptomatic. So you cannot take any chances that your nice, clean, unvaxxed child could possibly become infected.
So those are my suggestions for keeping your unvaccinated toddler from getting sick, ever, with the measles. Or mumps. Or rubella.
Or, of course, if remaining isolated strikes you as extreme, you can always do the responsible, humane thing and
VACCINATE YOUR CHILD.
Yes, that advice felt way out there, yet social isolation was where we were just a few months ago. Very few alternative options exist for conquering COVID. And short of a good vaccine, we will continue to exercise some form of social distancing for a long time. So why, when the MMR is safe and reliable, would anyone ask for any other solution to protect their family from a serious disease? My son was shaking his head, too.
We can’t have everything we want. Families who don’t vaccinate can’t expect everyone else to (because they don’t, obviously, or there wouldn’t be this meme-gif-tik-tok parent above…) so they can live their own nasty-vaccine-germ-free lives and never, ever fall ill. Families who do vaccinate can’t expect everyone else to do the right thing to protect their communities (because they don’t). And so these words on precautions against the highly-infectious measles virus extrapolate to COVID: if you are willing to follow the best advice available to prevent the spread of infectious disease, life can resemble something near normal. We can go to work. To school. Even go to a restaurant for date night.
But if best practices are too much trouble, forget normal. Life gets much more complicated and restrictive. If you and yours to stay healthy, that is.
So please, vaccinate fully. Wear a mask. Wash up and keep your distance.
And please don’t complain about it.
So, a COVID vaccine. Can we expect one by the end of 2020? Will it be safe? Should my family get it? All good questions. Watch for a post here on pulseonparenting.com that will bring you the current updates on the possibility of a COVID vaccine.
