A health official came in and spoke with my class today. She spoke on the importance of vaccination, outbreak protocols, what diseases must always be reported, and how many diseases are currently affecting Massachusetts. For the most part Massachusetts has a relatively high vaccination rate as schools require children to be vaccinated prior to enrollment. The only way around this is with religious or medical exemption. Currently Massachusetts is seeing a wave of people claiming that their religion bars them from receiving vaccination. Some areas are seeing up to 20% of people go unvaccinated. This is very troubling and potentially very dangerous. With that many vulnerable people and outbreak is only waiting to happen. The health official didn’t know what to make of this religious exception trend, however speculation is that anti-vaxxers are creating false statements to avoid vaccination. She also talked about the trouble of tracking down the cause of outbreaks and who may have been exposed to an outbreak. They have to track down everyone and confirm that they are either immune, don’t have the disease, or they are quarantined. It takes a lot of people and a lot of time to complete all of these tasks. That is why many infectious diseases, if even suspected to be found, must be immediately reported by law in order to avoid a public health crisis.
Recent comments