Public Health and Vaccines
By Albert B. Kelly
As a mayor, the issue of public health and community
wellness is at the top of my list as I imagine it is for most mayors in their
respective communities. This general category of health and wellness includes everything
from crime prevention and more recreation to obesity and clean drinking water. One
area that gets less attention locally but speaks to health and wellness is the
topic of vaccines and the illnesses they prevent.
I’m mindful of the fact that there is division these days on
the subject of vaccines. I come from a generation that didn’t question
vaccines, perhaps a generation that was the first to not live in dread of
certain illnesses and diseases like polio, tuberculosis, measles, mumps, and
rubella. I don’t know much about the history of vaccines, but I would guess
that things really got rolling in the post-war period up through the 1970’s.
I am part of a generation that saw vaccines as an unmitigated
good- something that allowed people to live healthier and longer lives. Even if
we didn’t give much thought to the topic, on some gut level we viewed vaccines
as evidence of the wonders of science and the people responsible as heroes.
Everyone got vaccinated back then and it seemed like we were well on our way to
eradicating certain diseases from the face of the earth.
Not so much today- we’re going backwards. A growing number
of people view all vaccines with a great deal of suspicion believing that
vaccinations cause other unintended illnesses and conditions. I’m not a
scientist or doctor so I won’t venture into the science but I will say that as
a mayor, concerned with the health and wellness of my community, I am concerned
by the confusion and division over vaccines and the reappearance of diseases
that seemed well in hand a generation ago.
The obvious thing that comes to mind is the yearly flu
vaccine. I mention this because each year we hit flu season and we never know
when a given year will morph into something more, something beyond the usual
such as a pandemic that impacts businesses, schools, public services,
transportation and everything in between. Granted, flu vaccines are a bit of a
guess from season to season and they’re not perfect, you can still get sick,
but the chances are good that being vaccinated will make the flu less severe if
you do get it.
Beyond the flu, there are increased outbreaks of measles in
various places. In November, in Ocean County, roughly a dozen people came down
with the measles which was part of a larger cluster of outbreaks that included
Brooklyn and Rockland County, New York. They traced these outbreaks to an
international traveler which suggests that just one person can trigger an
outbreak wherever they encounter segments of unvaccinated people.
The list of vaccine- preventable diseases is growing, but
the most common include measles, mumps, polio, whooping cough, rubella, and
diphtheria. When you consider international travel combined with the growing
number of people who refuse vaccinations for themselves and their children, it
is likely that in the near future we will experience large outbreaks our great
grandparents would have given anything to avoid.
The additional worries are the new and emerging diseases,
along with the hybrids, that we’re just now finding out about. As we speak, something
called acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) is floating around in several states
including NJ. First diagnosed in 2014, its impacts are much like polio and it
mostly impacts younger children. Doctors don’t know exactly what causes it or
how to prevent it and who knows what’s next on the horizon.
My point is that we need to control those diseases we can
control and when it comes to being vaccinated, make our decisions for ourselves
and our children on objective and verifiable data as opposed to anecdotal
evidence and misinformation.
I don’t have a specific dog in the fight, except to say that
as a mayor, I want the residents in my community to be healthy and well where people
are able to go about their daily lives so that businesses are open, customers
are shopping, students are in class, teachers are teaching, buses and taxies
are running, public offices are open, police are out on patrol, and the
healthcare facilities are not overwhelmed. We’ve got enough challenges these
days, as we start the New Year vaccine- preventable diseases shouldn’t be among
them.