Measles Outbreak

Television news and The Times have been full of the bad news regarding the measles epidemic that is sweeping Southern California.

The concern voiced in all the news accounts seems to center on the thought that this is an age of medical miracles and that epidemics such as these ought to have been done away with by vaccines.

Let me shed a little light on the subject, not as a medical professional, which I’m not, but as a mom, which I am.

Both of our kids were given the routine series of measles shots, along with all the other inoculations, when they were toddlers. It was the mid-’70s, and the shots were prescribed according to the medical standard of that time. Then, when they were in elementary school, the standard changed, so I got them each another measles vaccine. Time for high school and guess what? The standard changed again. You can’t argue with medical expertise, nor with a school nurse who isn’t going to let your kid stay in school without the shot, so they each got another one.

Our son is in his senior year at a performing arts school in Michigan where there is also a measles epidemic. We got the word: Get him inoculated over spring break or he can’t come back to school. He went to the doctor’s office. A nurse gave him the shot. It cost $40.

It doesn’t take a math whiz to figure out why some kids aren’t getting these add-on vaccines. I wonder how many kids aren’t getting the shots because their folks can’t afford it. Maybe what’s needed is a return to the low-cost inoculations like the ones that we baby boomers were given against polio in the ‘50s. If it prevents these kinds of outbreaks, it’s certainly worth considering.

JOANNE S. REYNOLDS

Corona del Mar