Measles is back and vaccinated children are suffering the consequences, too

By Tina Tan

Earlier this spring, a family brought their child into a Provo, Utah, pediatrician’s office with a runny nose and a fever. Doctors treated it as strep throat. 

But the child returned – and then returned again.

By the time they received a measles diagnosis, as many as 300 patients had passed through that waiting room, including more than 30 infants too young to have received their first vaccine dose.

This scene is playing out across the country right now, and it reveals a broader truth that gets lost in the debates about individual vaccination decisions. Measles does not just sicken children. It erodes the healthcare system that every child depends on – whether or not they were ever exposed to the virus.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has already reported more than 1,800 measles cases across the United States this year — what some initially dismissed as isolated outbreaks has become a sustained national crisis. 

As a pediatrician, I worry about the thousands of children sick from a preventable disease. 

While measles may initially present as flu-like symptoms or a rash, the long-term consequences are harrowing. 

But I also worry about other children’s care — I know that families who did all they could to avoid the disease will pay the price anyway.

When someone with measles enters a pediatric practice, the ripple effects are immediate and expensive. Nurses are pulled into contact tracing. Physicians must redesign intake and isolation procedures in real time. Well-child visits get delayed. Developmental screenings are postponed. Vaccination appointments are rescheduled. Families avoid bringing children in for routine care out of fear of exposure.

There is, however, a clear way to prevent further spread: vaccination. 

The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine remains one of the most effective tools in modern medicine. Two doses are 97 percent effective at preventing infection. Most parents recognize and act on this: A new national survey found that 96 percent of parents trust their child’s pediatrician on vaccine recommendations.

To parents, my message is straightforward: Your instinct to protect your child is correct, and your trust in your physician is warranted. Keep vaccination appointments. Bring questions to your pediatrician, not to social media and not to political figures whose relationship with scientific evidence has become unpredictable.

To policymakers, I am more direct: Stop politicizing the tools that protect children. Vaccine access must remain simple, insurance-covered and guided by independent medical experts. Two-thirds of voters say they would support a candidate who protects vaccine access over one who seeks to roll it back. 

Measles outmaneuvered the exposed families in Provo and other hotspots around the country, disrupting care for countless families. Prevention starts with a simple commitment to stop treating children’s health as an acceptable casualty of ideological confusion.

This was originally published in the Washington Examiner.The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the writer and not necessarily those of the AFRO.

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