Anti-vaccination selfishness

In the 1960s I taught children who had severe birth defects caused by their mothers’ exposure to Rubella (German measles) in the first trimester.

Rubella is so mild that many people, including pregnant women, do not realize they have been infected. The children I taught had mobility problems, heart disease, developmental delays, defective vision and profound hearing loss. Some were deaf and blind. All required special attention at home and in special school classes. Most would require care all their lives.

You know those mothers would have taken a vaccination, had it existed at the time, to have saved their children from a lifetime of constant care.

Though this current outbreak of Rubeola measles in Washington state does not have congenital effects, it is unpleasant and can be deadly.

I find those adults refusing to be vaccinated, and parents who refuse childhood inoculations, to be both selfish and dangerous. What right do they have to possibly contract and pass on a highly contagious disease, especially one that is so easily prevented?

Consuelo Larrabee

Spokane