As mayor of Bridgeton, public health and community wellness top my list of issues. I imagine it is the same for most mayors in their respective communities. I include in this general category everything from crime prevention, to recreation opportunities, to rising obesity rates, to ensuring clean drinking water.
One area that gets less attention by local officials but speaks to health and wellness is vaccines and the illnesses they prevent.
I know there is division these days on the subject of vaccinations. I come from a generation that didn't question the safety of vaccines, perhaps because my generation was the first to not live in dread of diseases like polio, tuberculosis, measles, mumps, and rubella. I don't know much about the history of vaccines, but things really got rolling in the post-World-War-II period.
My generation saw vaccines as an unmitigated good; something that allowed people to live healthier and longer lives. We viewed vaccines as evidence of the wonders of science and viewed the people responsible for them as heroes. Everyone in the developed world got vaccinated back then, and it seemed like we were well on our way to eradicating certain diseases from the face of the Earth.
Not so much today. We're going backwards. A growing number of people view all vaccines with great suspicion, believing that some cause unintended illnesses and conditions. I'm not a scientist or doctor, so I won't venture into the science. But I will say that as a mayor concerned with the health of my community, I am concerned by the confusion and division over vaccines and the U.S. reappearance of diseases that seemed well in hand years ago.
What comes to mind obviously right now is the yearly flu vaccine. Each year, when cold weather comes, we hit flu season and we never know when the outbreak will morph into something unusually severe. Widespread influenza impacts businesses, schools, public services, transportation and everything else. Granted, flu vaccines are a bit of a guess from season to season, and they're not perfect. Sometimes, vaccinated people will still get sick, but chances are good that the shot will make the flu less severe, if you do get it.
In addition to the flu, there are increased outbreaks of measles in various places. In November, in Ocean County, more than a dozen people came down with the measles, and the figure has climbed to at least 24 cases statewide. This outbreak was linked to larger clusters of measles in Brooklyn and Rockland County, New York. Health officials traced the initial case there to an international traveler -- which suggests that just one person can trigger an outbreak wherever they encounter groups of unvaccinated people.
The list of vaccine-preventable diseases is growing, but the most common are measles, mumps, polio, whooping cough, rubella and diphtheria. When you consider high rates of international travel, combined with the growing number of people who refuse vaccinations for themselves and their children, it is possible that we will soon experience large outbreaks that our great-grandparents would have given anything to avoid.
Additional worries come from new and emerging diseases that we're just finding out about now. Something called acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) is floating around several states, including New Jersey. First diagnosed in 2014, its symptoms are similar to polio, and it mostly impacts younger children. Doctors don't know exactly what causes AFM or how to prevent it. Who knows what's next on the horizon?
My point is that we need to control those diseases we can control. When it comes to being vaccinated, we should make our decisions for ourselves and our children on objective, verifiable data as opposed to anecdotal evidence and misinformation.
I don't have a specific dog in this fight, except that as a mayor, I want residents in my community to be healthy and well. I want them to be able to go about their daily lives so that businesses are open, customers are shopping, students are in class, teachers are teaching, buses and taxicabs are running, public offices are open, police are on patrol and health-care facilities are not overwhelmed.
We've got enough challenges these days as we start the new year. Diseases that can be prevented with vaccines shouldn't be among them.
Albert B. Kelly is mayor of Bridgeton. Contact him by phone at 856-455-3230 Ext. 200.
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