The college my daughter attends is having a mumps outbreak — four confirmed cases. All the students who contracted mumps were vaccinated. Apparently, the MMR vaccine does not provide full protection for all kids vaccinated: Sad! If there were no mumps vaccine, hundreds of kids experiencing the symptoms of mumps, which of course would be: Terrible!
The interesting part of this story involves the students who were never vaccinated. Some of them are survivors of childhood cancer or other diseases that affect their immune systems. The others had parents who believed that their special snowflakes shouldn’t be exposed to those terrible vaccinations. Both groups of kids are being sent home for 28 days by Student Health, since mumps is especially contagious, and the doctors don’t want to risk having an outbreak spread via students who have no resistance to the virus.
For the kids who had cancer or some other illness that compromised their immune system, this will be yet more evidence that God doesn’t exist. I hope they will go home to a nurturing family who will help them through yet another shitty consequence of their disease.
For the kids of parents who thought it was a good idea to skip immunizing them, my fondest wish is that they realize that their parents are shitheads.
We live in a terrible world full of awful things. The best among us try, as much as they can with the many limitations imposed upon them by the human condition, to make the world a tiny bit better. Every single advance they make is thwarted by stupidity and willful ignorance. I am sure that the dumbshits among us – who seem to be outnumbering everyone else – will take this outbreak as another example of why vaccines aren’t worth the effort. Even so, the best of us will try to make a better vaccine – until they’re unfunded or eliminated by some other means.