ANALYSIS/OPINION:
Parents of babies and young children already know: Germs that float in the classroom don’t stay in the classroom. And that’s especially the case with viral infections such as the flu, measles, mumps, chicken pox and the like.
So we need to find out whether the adults who come in contact with our children have had their shots — or whether they are potential conduits.
We mandate that schoolchildren be vaccinated. Teachers, au pairs, child care providers and others in close contact with our children should prove they have received their shots, too.
Now, ordinarily I wouldn’t propose federal, state or local bureaucracies peep into our health records or ignore such federal civil rights rules as HIPAA, which protects the privacy of a person’s health information. For certain, I hesitated considerably before even clicking the keyboard to type the previous paragraph.
The federal Department of Health and Human Services released a bulletin during the Ebola scare, and rightly so.
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The U.S. measles outbreak has not been contained, and on Monday it was reported to be spreading in Canada.
Like Ebola, which can be deadly, viral “childhood” diseases such as measles can take down a classroom, household or a community because parents and adults can be hit with the same bugs that kids bring home from school and day care centers, especially if those children’s caretakers haven’t been inoculated against them.
Authorities in some places are taking action.
State legislatures are in fast and furious mode to revisit laws in light of the measles outbreak.
In Washington, as in cities across the nation, parents exercise due diligence regarding their children’s vaccination records. This occurs mostly because public and private schools urge us to keep track of such matters or risk children losing value class time. The measles scare, which began in 2014 and is still in our midst, has many Americans families on edge, and rightly so.
We thought we had tackled childhood communicative diseases with the necessary science, decades of early warning signals, and readily available vaccines and immunizations. Yet we have not.
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In the United States, more than 120 cases of measles have been reported in 17 states and D.C.
In Canada, which also has a strident vaccination program, outbreaks have been reported in Ontario, where on Monday authorities estimated 1,300 teens and parents face potential infection after attending a faith-based event called “Acquire the Fire” during the first week of February.
Also, a measles outbreak in Quebec has been linked to Disneyland in Southern California. Canadian health authorities are urging adults to not merely check their children’s immunization records but also their own.
The American Federation of Teachers urged its “teachers, paraprofessionals, public employees and healthcare workers — who all could be at greater risk — to consult with their healthcare providers on possible boosters and re-immunizations.” What a smart move.
The list should others who come in contact with children and college-age teens and adults — especially school bus drivers, day care and child care workers, coaches and recreation center employees. And whether you’re on the high end of the income scale and have an au pair or are on the low end and have a babysitter, they need shots, too.
Beware, however: HIPAA, whose official name is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, means that for the most part you cannot ask but an employee can voluntarily tell.
As I said, we thought we had licked the childhood diseases thing, and to a large degree we have.
But the much younger generation is teaching and taking care of our children and many in the generation have not been vaccinated. They are mentoring our kids, baby-sitting our kids and selling them tickets at theaters, movie houses, skating rinks and bowling allies. The unvaccinated also are playing and coaching sports and, as 1,300 people in Ontario have found out, sitting among our families while rejoicing in God’s words.
We want parents to prove their children have been inoculated and/or exempted. There’s no reason why adults who come in close contact with children shouldn’t do the same.
Here again, virulent germs that float in a classroom, schoolhouse or school bus don’t stay put.
• Deborah Simmons can be reached at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.
• Deborah Simmons can be reached at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.
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