Senior citizens are among what the CDC considers an especially vulnerable population. Image from Shutterstock.
While the country squabbles over the corpse of Charlie Kirk, vaccine skepticism is quietly taking hold. Prejudice and flippant attitudes toward immunization persist despite breakthrough mRNA vaccines that brought COVID-19 under relative control. In Texas, the recent outbreak of measles, once constrained by robust immunization programs, infected 762 people, killing two children. At least 28 people are confirmed infected with tuberculosis in coastal Maine. Debilitating illnesses with severe symptoms and catastrophic consequences are re-establishing themselves in a time when they’re entirely preventable.
Florida is aiming to repeal immunization mandates for residents, including schoolchildren. The state’s Surgeon General recently compared immunization requirements to slavery. Once the cradle of medical miracles, when it comes to standard vaccinations, the United States seems to be backpedaling. Is California an exception? For how long?
Wait—haven’t we seen this before?
Like I have to explain to Midwestern relatives, California is not Blue Through-and-Through. Much of the diligent masking and ready embrace of vaccination the state became known for started in the Bay Area. San Francisco famously declared shelter-in-place long before other cities followed as COVID–19 swept the United States. Comparatively, SF saw slower rates of infection than Los Angeles as officials extended shelter-in-place orders indefinitely. LA County deaths far exceeded the rest of California with 36,317 to date. Orange County takes a distant second place with 8,235 losses, and right behind: San Bernardino County with 8,144.
I bring this up to highlight the fragility of our biology and how terribly enmeshed it is in American politics. That entanglement has dangerous, real-life consequences, felt immediately here on the ground. For instance, according to NPR, the latest COVID booster has revived vaccine anxieties. Rob Stein recently wrote, “Most people have stopped getting vaccinated, and most parents don't inoculate their kids.”
Other vulnerable people include infants and those with immunodeficiencies, chronic respiratory illness, blood disorders and more. Image from Shutterstock.
Given our tendency to live in close quarters, it takes so little to tip the scales from well to infirm. This latest wave of reluctance towards immunization may produce consequences sooner than later. Like Erin Allday from the SF Chronicle reported: “As national leaders, including the United States’ own health secretary, argue about and frequently dismiss the value of vaccines across all ages, public health experts say the fallout could be as immediate as this winter: A decline in immunizations for the flu, COVID and RSV could result in an uptick in respiratory illnesses and deaths. Or the damage may be felt years or even decades from now, when vaccine-preventable diseases manifest in infants born to unvaccinated mothers.”
Old diseases resurfacing: measles, polio, even bubonic plague
Emergency physician and Clinical Assoc. Professor for George Washington University Dr. Leana Wen worries old diseases will make themselves anew. “Countries that were once polio-free have had polio outbreaks due to interruptions in childhood immunization programs caused by war and conflict,” Dr. Wen told CNN. “Measles outbreaks have occurred in countries where measles had been eliminated, due to falling vaccine coverage.”
Measles is extremely contagious, among the most pathogenic preventable illnesses around. “If one person has it, up to 9 out of 10 people nearby will become infected if they’re not protected.” By comparison, an individual with COVID gives the illness to 2.5 other people on average. H1N1, a.k.a. swine flu, spreads at an estimated rate of 1.7.
Even the plague is back, the same illness behind millions of agonizing deaths worldwide throughout history.
“After an incubation period of 3 to 7 days, you experience sudden, violent flu symptoms. You develop smooth, painful lesions on your groin, armpits, and neck, which are known as buboes: the Black Plague’s calling card. Then, internal bleeding turns your fingers and toes black, and you start vomiting blood. As the disease progresses, you lapse into constant seizures, confusion and coma, then you die in total mind-numbing agony.”
Fleas in the American West can carry Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes plague. In August, a California resident tested positive for the medieval disease after a camping trip at Lake Tahoe. A vaccine for plague exists, but thankfully antibiotics like doxycycline can defeat an epidemic of plague, if one should arise. But antibiotics should be reserved for treatment and never used as a first line of defense. That’s how you create drug-resistant bacteria, widening the window for new, persistent outbreaks. Meanwhile, ignorance and other illnesses are threatening public health.
A common enemy
Right now, immunization rates for Kindergarteners in California are at 95% per the San Francisco Chronicle. That’s hundreds of thousands of kids way less likely to suffer chickenpox, meningitis, tuberculosis, diphtheria, measles, mumps, rubella and more. But such a safeguard only works if everyone agrees to it. COVID and the flu are not our only foes.
Anti-vaccine politicos like Secretary of Health & Human Services Robert F. Kennedy are fighting immunization efforts tooth and nail. One unlikable orange man to another, Trump appointed the gravelly-voiced RFK in November 2024 shortly after the election. Kennedy swiftly cleaned house, replacing every national vaccine advisory board member with anti-vaccination sycophants. RFK has repeatedly undermined immunization efforts, threatening to deny federal vaccination funds to states that don’t allow religious exemption. At the top of his shit list: California.
As broader understanding of vaccination wanes, Kennedy continues to actualize his anti-vaccine beliefs, putting millions of American lives at risk. “When you hear the leader of HHS saying these things about vaccines, it really undermines the confidence people might have,” argues infectious disease expert Dr. Yvonne Maldonado. (SF Chronicle) “It makes this a political issue, and it’s not a political issue.”
Is California safe from a preventable resurgence of bygone diseases? Yes, for now, but tomorrow isn’t promised. You remember how fast COVID-19 traveled the world. Like it happened overnight. In the meantime, hundreds of planes carry passengers from Florida to California every week.
Get. Immunized.
