Newsletters

POSTED: April 29th, 2019
POSTED IN: EM Pulse - The Official Newsletter of MOCEP, March/April 2019,

The following is a letter written to legislators from Thomas J. Selva, M.D., FAAP of MU Health Care, Columbia, MO. This letter was written in response to House Bill 711 that was heard in the House Health and Mental Health Committee in early April.

The bill would allow children who have not received vaccinations to attend all schools and colleges. It would also prohibit physicians and all other healthcare professionals from choosing to not see children that have not been vaccinated.

In our country we are at a pivotal point in time – a time when our memories have faded from what once was a scourge and a threat to our children.  Because of childhood vaccination programs we have extended the lifespan of humanity.  Because of childhood vaccination programs we have ended what only a century ago guaranteed a 50/50 chance you would grow to adulthood with your sibling.  Because of childhood vaccines we have seen countless lives saved.  Because of childhood vaccines we have forgotten the despair and destruction that results when children are infected and die. 

We have forgotten.

Nature has not forgotten.  The diseases we vaccinate against are alive and well.  Just within this past decade when there have been shortages of vaccines against Hemophilus Influenza Type B the disease resurfaced in the under-immunized population.  This a disease that, like a thief in the night, damages the brain, the airway, articular surfaces of joints – the damage done long before parents realize there is a problem.  In my 30-year career I have had to care for many of these children.

Just recently in our country a young child was infected with tetanus from what looked like a benign wound.  Unimmunized by parent choice, this child developed tetany (read…paralysis).  After excellent health care – which cost over 800,000 dollars – he was miraculously saved.  All of this could have been prevented by a vaccine that costs 50 cents!  And yet we stand by and say his parents had a choice.

I have been in practice for over 30 years now as a General Pediatrician.  That is long enough to see Hemophilus Type B put “back in the bottle”.  For polio to be long forgotten.  For Chicken Pox to be something modern medical students will have to read about.  Thirty years is also long enough to see us give more shots – yes.  But expose children to far fewer “toxins” as anti-vaccines proponents like to bring up.  30 years ago, we gave fewer shots but we exposed children to over 3500 antigens.  True, today we give more shots as the vaccines have become more refined and effective – and yet expose our children to less than 140 antigens. 

I see how parents with children affected by autism, diabetes, chronic illnesses will look for a reason.  I am the father of three children with auto-immune issues – 2 with type 1 diabetes and one with auto-immune thyroid disease.  Yet I do not blame these on vaccines.  On the contrary – I am happy to have my children free from chickenpox, measles, mumps, whooping cough, tetanus, diphtheria, hepatitis B and A, and a host of other infections that could have left them severely impaired or worse – not here with me today.

I ask that you listen to the anti-vaccine proponents – they are Americans and have a right to be heard.  Then take the time to get past the moving personal story and listen to the science, to the medical providers who must work ever harder to overcome opinion, compelling stories, and junk science to do what is right. To do what we have sworn an oath to deliver – that which is in the best interest of the child.

I implore you to listen to your oath of office – to do what is right for the people of Missouri.

As a Pediatrician we believe we should not discriminate against those who wish to not immunize their children.  It is growing harder and harder to toe that line as we see more and more families “opt out” – deciding instead to count on others to immunize their children so they can basically “hide in the herd”.  At some point you must take the needs of the population into consideration.  These diseases do and will resurface and if we allow our population to further become unimmunized we will be revisited by the scourges of the past – this time with a much higher cost.

The old adage is true – those who forget history are doomed to relive it.  I implore you to be smarter than that.

Sincerely,

Thomas J. Selva, M.D., FAAP

Professor of Clinical Child Health