– Editorial – - Don’t let fear and politics get in the way of public health
By Editorial Board
Wisconsin is barreling toward a public health crisis, when it comes to routine childhood vaccinations.
The health and well-being of children is being sacrificed at the altar of misinformation, ignorance and political chicanery, undermining public trust in vaccinations, in general.
According to state statistics, in the 2022-23 school year, 10.1 percent of Wisconsin students, did not meet the immunization requirements for age-appropriate schedule of vaccines. These routine vaccinations include protecting from diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, measles, mumps, ella, polio and chickenpox (varicella).
While it is down slightly from 2020-21, when getting in for routine doctors’ visits was a challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic, is is higher than every year in the past decade. According to the non-partisian Wisconsin Policy Forum, the average of 2013 to 2018, was below 8 percent not having their vaccines up to date.
The breakdown also has a socio-economic factor as well, with school districts with higher populations of people living in poverty, having higher rates of students who are behind on their vaccinations. This is especially troubling, since there is a direct correlation between overall health outcome and socio-economic levels.
Poor people have less access to healthcare than more affluent people and face a much higher burden, when having to take off work to care for a child afflicted with a contagious illness, is preventing them from going to school.
Parents in Wisconsin, are able to waive school immunization requirements for health reasons, or for personal or religious convictions. According to the Wisconsin Policy Forum, personal conviction waivers are on the rise and have increased from 2.6 percent of students in 2003, to 4.6 percent in 2023, while at the same time, the health and religious waivers have remained relatively flat.
There are many legitimate reasons why parents may choose not to have their child receive a specific vaccination. However, there is also a significant amount of questionable medical advice available online, that doesn’t come from anyone who has seen the inside of a medical school classroom.
Parents should ask questions of their medical providers. They should challenge their medical providers about whey they are recommending as a course of treatment. These are things responsible parents do. Responsible parents also need to respect the many years of education and training that doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals have to undergo, and the mountain of evidence that proves the safety and efficacy of routine vaccinations, to prevent serious illnesses.
There also needs to be a realization that these illnesses have the potential to be severe, with life-threatening symptoms and long-term consequences. In our modern health bubble, relatively few of us have direct experience with the consequences of these illnesses, if allowed to run rampant.
One need only to look back at death records, or walk through local graveyards and do the math on the number of children who died during outbreaks of these illnesses, in prior decades.
Parents must be responsible and get vaccination information, not from some social media threads. They should instead talk to trusted doctors, nurses and other trained health providers, to get scientifically backed information about the merits and risks of any vaccine.
Members of the Courier Sentinel editorial board include publisher Carol O’Leary, general manager Kris O’Leary and Star News editor Brian Wilson.
