PLATFORM : Getting the Shots

The county gives immunizations for free. It’s a matter of how do we get parents to bring them in (before they enroll in school.)

A lot of parents, like middle-class and upper-class parents, think disease doesn’t happen to them. They can’t ignore the others that don’t have a pediatrician thinking for them.

Preschool age children are getting out of their houses and into play groups and day care, and not a lot of it is licensed (which would require shots). Parents should not wait until kindergarten. That means five years of being susceptible, when they’re more likely to have serious complications and death.

During the measles epidemic last year we had 17,026 hospitalizations and 39 deaths--and this is a totally preventable disease. Each case cost $7,000 to $10,000 for that hospitalization. That could pay for hundreds of immunizations. This is the time to say, we’re going to invest up front.