The controversy over vaccinations has created pockets of measles virus outbreaks in many parts of the country, including the New York area, and although the entire medical community will tell parents that immunization is key to public health, there are still pockets of parents who resist recommendations. Our health writer Jamie Lober has written a well-researched piece on this important topic and I urge every parent to read it and absorb the importance of the content.
We are so lucky to have these vaccines and I can tell you first-hand that my childhood was not so fortunate. There were outbreaks of all these viruses and I for one had all of them, and some of them more than once. It wasn’t fun, and I missed a lot of school, and being a kid home sick for a week or two means someone has to be there to take care of you, so it causes all kinds of disruptions in both health and practical family planning.
When it came time for our pediatrician to vaccinate our daughter, there was no question but that modern science offered great options and we were on board. She wasn’t always thrilled about it, but they worked and she is a super healthy person. I myself have had some recent vaccines and I’m grateful for their availability.
Summer camps are well represented in this issue, and thinking ahead to the medical forms one fills out when sending a child to camp, I actually don’t think there is a camp that will accept a child who is not fully vaccinated. And by the way, please check out the camp options this month, next month, and the months ahead leading into summer, and sign up on our website to be a subscriber to our newsletters.
Have a great month. Thanks for reading!
