February 23, 2015 The Vaccination Situation

Hey, I can’t believe it, but it’s already Week 194 of our adventure here. Where have the other 193 weeks gone?

This weeks installment is presented by John Fitness Center, just the thing for those mid-winter blahs. John Fitness, where we say “c’mon in and pitch a fit with us today.” Our special this week: free doughnuts when you’re running on our treadmills. It’s totally calorie-neutral and fun! Just brush the crumbs off the machine when you’re done. Thanks.

If you are ‘of a certain’ age, I’m sure you were as aghast as I was to learn of the diseases (chiefly measles, for now) that are making comebacks due to families, primarily in California, that are refusing to vaccinate their kids because they suspect a link to autism and other conditions. These ‘links’ have been disproven years ago, but people persist in being stupid. Even worse than this are a few politicians who play to people’s fears about ‘big government’ by saying that parents should “have a choice about the immunizations their kids receive.” And what qualifies the parents to make any sort of intelligent choice? Just an internet connection and websites that are more than ready to feed anyone’s dark suspicions about vaccines.

Make me wonder what the conversation would be like if Dr. Jonas Salk was trying to get his polio vaccine to market in today’s murky media climate. I can just see the list of objections:

1. Big government is trying to run our lives.
2. Government-mandated health care doesen’t work.
3. I heard they tried this vaccine on a monkey and it grew a third arm.
4. I do a lot of on-line research and I think this is a mind control shot like they use in dictatorships.
5. I belong to a mom’s chat group on the internet. They say don’t do it!
6. Has Doctor Oz tested this vaccine yet? I’m not doing anything without his say-so.
7. I heard MSNBC endorsed this shot, so I knew right away we shouldn’t give it to our kids.
8. Can’t I just get this shot over my smartphone? Isn’t there an app for that?
9. There are just too many shots for kids. I’m cutting back starting now.

And so it goes. Years ago when the polio vaccine and others came into widespread use there was no internet with its instant access to sometimes dubious websites. Parents just trusted the Docs and made sure the kids got what they should get. Now everyone is an ‘expert’ and can come up with a dozen excuses not to do the right thing.

I remember when the first polio shots were given in the mid ‘50s. This was a huge national event because almost everyone knew kids who had gotten polio. Some even had to spend time in an ‘iron lung.’ See the one at the Barton County Historical Society, if you’re not sure what we’re talking about. The iron lung helped badly paralyzed kids to breathe. So, when Dr. Salk got approval to begin the shots, people eagerly lined up all across the land. His vaccine and the Sabin oral vaccine that followed a couple years later wiped out this dreaded disease. If memory serves, these shots were all free, too; the government just wanted everyone to have them, so the cost was waived.

I see where California and a few other states are seriously considering legislation to force people to get immunizations against communicable disease. It’s too bad that this has to come to that, but sometimes you need a law to protect society against other people’s misguided ideas of what’s right.

Wow, we had winners for all four trivia questions this week. Terry was in first with ‘Up Up and Away’ by the Fifth Dimension as the ‘balloon song’ we asked about. I always liked the Fifth D’s harmonies.

Josie came up with ‘REO’ as the truck line started by Ransom E. Olds. Yep, THAT Olds. That’s the guy we were looking for. Nice work. Vicki guessed John DeLorean and Joe guessed the Dodge Brothers.

Julie gave us Carl Helm as one of the drivers ed teachers in the ‘70s and ‘80s, maybe ‘90s too. Carl is now Superintendent at Chase.

Arlyn correctly indentified L.L.Bean as the national retailer who had sort of a rocky start with a batch of defective boots. He recovered quickly and his company just keeps on selling boots and a lot of other apparel a hundred years later.

Okay, new questions… what state interested Abe Lincoln as a possible retirement home after his White House years?

How hot can an electric space heater be?

Quite a few Presidents over the least 100 years have had at least one pair of these shoes. What shoes?

What surf era song advised guys to go to a certain town because the ratio of girls to guys was exactly double?

Quick plug!! Hope you can attend the Great Bend Jazz Festival this Saturday night (2/28) at the Crest. Great singin’ and playin’ as usual. The fun starts at 7:30.

Have a great week. See if you can make this winter go away.

John