Current Event 5

Ben Davis
March 11, 2019
Core Biology
Current Event 5

Mervosh, Sarah. “An Unvaccinated Boy Got Tetanus. His Hospital Stay: 57 Days and $800,000.”
The New York Times, The New York Times, 9 Mar. 2019,
www.nytimes.com/2019/03/09/well/oregon-child-tetanus-vaccine.html.

For this week's current event I read Sarah Mervosh’s article, “An Unvaccinated Boy Got Tetanus.” The article was mainly about the importance of getting kids vaccinated to prevent them from becoming infected with life-threatening diseases. The text began by telling the story of a six-year-old boy from Oregon who contracted Tetanus after cutting his forehead on a fence. This was the first time the disease had been documented in 30 years. Tetanus is a very avoidable, as long as you get a proper vaccination. The boy from Oregon could have avoided two months of suffering in the hospital if his parents had gotten him a vaccination. The boy suffered from very painful muscle spasms that could be triggered by noises. The article goes on to talk about the dilemma of parents not giving their kids vaccinations. “Parents who do not vaccinate their children have expressed worries about side effects, concerns over cost, moral or religious objections, and fears that vaccines lead to autism — an idea that has been widely debunked.” Parents not vaccinating their kids has led to a measles outbreak across the United States. Many kids as soon as they turn eighteen begin getting vaccinations that they were deprived of as kids. Deadly diseases such as measles and tetanus are completely avoidable through simple vaccinations. Doctors have said, “When you see someone suffer from this disease, you completely understand why we immunize, this should never happen in our country.” The author is touching on the idea of whether vaccinations should be mandatory

Sarah Mervosh’s article has important implications in today's society. If kids like the boy from Oregon continue to not get vaccinations they will contract more deadly diseases like Tetanus. These diseases will spread to other people who have not gotten vaccinations and then the US will have a large population of sick people. This article also touches on the idea of whether kids should be forced to get vaccinations. As of now the decision to have a child vaccinated is left up to the parents, but I think if the child's life is in danger the parents should be forced to have their kids vaccinated. They believe that vaccines give kids autism has been disproven, so clearly, there is no excuse for kids not to be vaccinated.

Overall, Sarah Mervosh wrote a strong article. The most effective thing she did was talk about a controversial issue through the case of a six-year-old child. The telling of this story created sympathy for the side that kids should have to be vaccinated. No child should have to battle against the deadly disease that is tetanus when there is a clear way to stop it. Another thing Mervosh did well was talk about another disease that has spread as a result of people not getting vaccines. Despite the success of Mervosh’s article, there are some things she could work on. For example, she should have gone into more detail about why parents chose to not have their kids be vaccinated. She did not do a good job of telling the other side of the story. Had she done more research this would have been included in the article.