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Anna Fontaine

Current Event 1

SOWK 222- 001

19 February 2019

Current Event: Measles Outbreak

I decided to look on NPR for my current event. I use NPR as my main news source

because I trust the information. An article that caught my attention was one titled, In A Measles

Outbreak, Demand For Vaccine Spikes. I was interested in this article because there has been a

large population of people refusing to vaccinate their children in fear it may cause autism, brain

damage, or behavioral problems. Parents also may not vaccinate their children due to religious

reasons, personal beliefs, or just hesitation for fear of side effects. Many schools require your

child to be vaccinated to attend the school. According to Foden-Vencil (2019), “Washington and

Oregon are two of 17 states that let children go to school unvaccinated because of personal

beliefs.” So currently 17 states do not require vaccination to attend school, which increases the

risk of an outbreak, or affecting innocent persons.

Foden-Vencil (2019) focuses her article in Oregon and Washington because of a recent

spike in measles cases. There have currently been 50 people infected with measles across

Washington and Oregon. This is increasing the number of vaccines demanded. Administrator of

Sea Mar Community Health Center, Shawn Brannan, has had to order 10 times as much vaccine

as usual. Brannan says that, “many patients are from the former Soviet Union, where distrust of

government runs deep.” But there are still a wide variety of patients who had their own reasons

to not get the vaccine. Brannan also states that many people look up side effects or warnings
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online, causing people to not get the vaccine. I have to wonder why an outbreak like this makes

people want to get the vaccine? Why not get the vaccine in order to prevent the outbreak?

Foden-Vencil (2019) then discusses that Oregon law allows children 15 or older to

consent to health care, so nurse practitioner Nancy Casey helps administer vaccines to children

who have not received the vaccination yet. She states, “It’s helping them be advocates.” And I

agree, these children have to stand up for themselves and their health care. The last part of the

article, and I think the most important to note, is a focus on Washington resident, Shona Carter.

Carter has leukemia and has to have a bone marrow transplant. She basically has to adapt to

diseases all over again, while also not being able to get vaccines right away because she is too

weak to fight off any vaccine. This is scary for her because if she contracted measles, she has a

higher risk of death. When a vaccine is recommended, there is a reason. There are so many

factors into what creates these recommendations, and we need think of others who could be

affected by this retaliation with anti-vaccination groups. Also, the CDC website states that

vaccines show no link to causing autism.

I think this article relates to our class discussion on Legitimization while developing

social policies. An example we talked about was the Ryan White Act, which was created because

White contracted HIV through blood transfusion. The Ryan White Act influenced how the

United States funds people with HIV. This relates to the measles outbreak because society has an

understanding of how measles impacts our health. If the U.S. is creating a mandatory vaccination

for children to attend school, we need to trust that this is a legitimized health issue. Anthony

Ciolli (2008) wrote an article titled, Mandatory School Vaccinations: The Role of Tort Law,

explaining why vaccines are mandatory for attending school. He says, “States institute

mandatory immunization requirements as a prerequisite to public school enrollment because it is

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the most efficient method of perpetuating herd immunity.” Herd immunity is when a high

percentage of a community have been immunized from a disease and that disease cannot live in

that community, thus protecting others with a weak immune system.

The population that is affected in this article are immigrants who have previously had a

distrust in their government. Another population affected are those who have a weak immune

system. Those like Shona Carter, who have cancer, or those who have HIV/AIDS, have a blood

disorder, or an innocent child of a parent who refused to vaccinate their child are going to be the

most affected by this anti-vaccination movement and outbreaks. Many values and ethics are

ignored in this societal failure. We are failing each other by assuming these myths we hear or see

by unreliable news sources. According to the National Association of Social Workers (NASW),

social workers have values and ethics to uphold. In the article, In A Measles Outbreak, Demand

For Vaccine Spikes, we are presented multiple values that have been failed. Social justice,

integrity and most importantly competence have been withheld from our community. I think this

article does well in discussing the dignity and worth of the person. Foden-Vencil (2019) explains

how people who do not get vaccinations are affecting others in the community. We as a

community have to look out and advocate for each other.

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Sources

Ciolli, Anthony. (2008, September). Mandatory School Vaccinations: The Role of Tort Law.

Retrieved from, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2553651/.

Foden-Vencil, Kristian. (2019, February 11). In A Measles Outbreak, Demand For Vaccine

Spikes. Retrieved from, https://www.npr.org/2019/02/11/692825201/in-a-measles-

outbreak-demand-for-vaccine-spikes.

Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism. (2015, October 27). Retrieved from,

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/concerns/autism.html.