The vast majority of parents in Colorado don’t have to stay up at night worrying about the single measles case in Pueblo sparking a statewide outbreak because their children have received both doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine.
The vaccine is 97% effective at preventing infection from the dangerous virus, and an estimated 75% to 91% of Coloradans have been vaccinated.
For parents who have delayed or refused the MMR vaccine for their children, now is the best time to act because the vaccine can take up to two weeks to provide full immunity. The measles outbreak in West Texas rapidly grew from a localized spread among a highly unvaccinated religious community to 422 cases across multiple counties.
We are sympathetic to the vaccine-hesitant. No one wants to put their children in harm’s way, and vaccine injuries, while very rare, are real and well-documented.
But the MMR vaccine has been studied for decades and is among the safest vaccines. This one should be a no-brainer for parents who weigh the vaccine risk against the measles infection risk. The data is clear. The risk of adverse reaction to the vaccine is far lower than the risk of the virus.
From the vaccine, only 2.5 in 100,000 develop transient thrombocytopenia – an easily treatable, temporary autoimmune reaction. From a measles infection, more than 1 in 1,000 children develop brain swelling that can cause an array of dangerous, lifelong complications.
Many studies have shown no increased risk of Guillain-Barre Syndrome (a virus- or vaccine-sparked attack on the spinal column) with the commonly used MMR vaccine, and there is no documented link (aside from sad anecdotal stories that seem to be coincidences) between the MMR vaccines and the onset of neurological conditions associated with autism. While an estimated 7 out of every 100,000 people infected with measles during a resurgence in 1989 went on to contract the fatal side-effect of measles years later known as subacute sclerosing panencephalitis.
We are addressing these statistics of vaccine injury, not to stoke fear, but to address the reasons for vaccine hesitancy in the face of those who have historically encouraged Americans to forego vaccines. With devastating cuts being made this week to Health and Human Services, individuals are going to have to play a bigger role in community health than ever before.
Fortunately, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has recently changed his tune about the MMR vaccine, writing early last month in a “call to action” that “vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons.”
Indeed, most babies don’t receive their first dose of the MMR until 12 months of age, making newborns, who are at higher risk of severe illness, highly vulnerable to infection. Additionally, pregnant women who are unvaccinated can pass measles on to their newborns or give birth prematurely.
Kennedy has spent much of his life casting doubt on the safety of vaccines, so we are hopeful his words will carry extra weight with the vaccine-hesitant. Simply put, the measles vaccine saves lives and while a very small minority may be injured by the vaccine — including almost 1 in a million who suffer a severe allergic reaction — the benefits far outweigh the risks.
The Denver Post has for years advocated for vaccine requirements in public schools, but we have also supported giving parents who are opposed for any reason the ability to opt out of the vaccination schedule. In other words, the hurdle to not vaccinate children must be at least as high as the hurdle to vaccinate children. Parents who want to opt out should have an equal amount of paperwork to file as those who get their vaccine records from their pediatrician to prove compliance. Laziness is never an excuse not to get a life-saving vaccine.
Colorado has seen gains in areas where previously there were sub-optimal child vaccination rates. For example, Boulder Valley School District has gone from 84% of incoming kindergartners being fully vaccinated in 2017 to 94% in 2023. Unfortunately, Pueblo City School District — with schools near where the single measles case was documented this week — has gone in the opposite direction, with 84% of kindergartners getting vaccinated in 2017 compared to 76% in 2021 and 80% in 2022. Incoming kindergartners in 2023 jumped back up to 84%, but that is still a rate that would allow the virus to circulate in a school.
Kennedy’s bid for president in 2024 was fueled in part by Americans who fear the U.S. government is hiding information from them, whether it’s the Central Intelligence Agency hiding plots against American citizens or the Food and Drug Administration hiding data about harmful chemicals in food.
Kennedy’s approach to these issues has helped fuel harmful conspiracies, but hopefully, now that he is on the inside with a first-hand look at how Health and Human Services operate, he can now play an important role in alleviating those fears.
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