The article reflects on the alarming decline in vaccination rates among children, resulting in preventable diseases like measles resurging in communities. The author recounts experiences as a pediatrician, contrasting the past ease of managing illnesses with the current concerns about outbreaks fueled by misinformation. Parents' hesitance to vaccinate due to misleading information poses a serious threat to public health, reinstating fears of preventable serious illnesses and their consequences for children and their families. The author emphasizes the critical importance of reaching the 95% vaccination threshold to protect communities from outbreaks.
But we're back in that scary place now. Immunization rates have dipped low enough in some communities that measles has taken root and spread.
This is a tragedy for this child, their family and their community.
While the vast majority of parents vaccinate their children, misinformation has caused more parents to question the routine vaccinations that we've come to rely on to keep children healthy.
That 95% threshold is important, because at that level, it's unlikely that a single infection will spread.
Collection
[
|
...
]