Dean
It’s 2018 and there are still parents who refuse, for one reason or another, to vaccinate their children. But those parents are only thinking of their own children, and really not taking into consideration the necessary role herd immunity plays in the health of kids who simply can’t get vaccinated.
Recently, Nicole Stellon O’Donnell, an author and the mother of a little girl with cancer, wrote a thread on Twitter that went viral, in which she explains just how dangerous unvaccinated kids were to her own daughter when she was undergoing chemotherapy.
Dear parents of children who do not have cancer: a casual measles exposure in a grocery store caused the following things to happen when my child was in chemotherapy:
— Nicole Stellon O’Donnell (@SteamLaundry) November 21, 2018
Her 8-year-old daughter was exposed to measles at the grocery store and had to be quarantined for an entire month.
1: My daughter was quarantined for one month. It’s enough to be bald and chemo stricken at 8, but add being unable to leave the house.
— Nicole Stellon O’Donnell (@SteamLaundry) November 21, 2018
Her daughter’s exposure meant that, at the hospital, the infusion room had to be shut down, disrupting the treatment of the other children with cancer who were there for chemotherapy.
2: When we arrived at ped/onc they had to cancel appointments and shut down the infusion room while they sorted out the details of her exposure. The treatment of all the other patients (children with cancer) that afternoon was disrupted.
— Nicole Stellon O’Donnell (@SteamLaundry) November 21, 2018
3: The exam room we were in had to be shut down and given a “terminal cleaning,” disrupting the ped/onc department’s ability to serve other outpatient children with cancer.
— Nicole Stellon O’Donnell (@SteamLaundry) November 21, 2018
Her daughter was forced to wear a mask on the flight home, which isn’t ideal for any 8-year-old girl who doesn’t want to be stared at (plus, keep in mind that the girl had already lost all her hair, including eyelashes and eyebrows).
4: On the flight home she had to wear a mask. This may not seem like a big deal, but imagine being eight, bald, skeletal, without eyebrows and eyelashes *and* having to wear a face mask in public.
— Nicole Stellon O’Donnell (@SteamLaundry) November 21, 2018
There was also a chance that her daughter’s exposure could mean other kids receiving treatment would have to get painful shots to boost white blood cell counts, but that, at least, didn’t happen.
5: There was a possibility that other children could have been required to have shots of Neulasta to boost their white blood cell counts. The side effects include terrible bone pain. Fortunately, my daughter’s WBC count was high enough that no children had to go through that.
— Nicole Stellon O’Donnell (@SteamLaundry) November 21, 2018
6: Our oncology team spent much time working with state epidemiologists to decide what to do. Both for our child and all the other children in the clinic that day. I cried with relief when the told me none of the other children had to take Neulasta.
— Nicole Stellon O’Donnell (@SteamLaundry) November 21, 2018
Fortunately, the exposure happened during the summer, meaning the little girl didn’t have to miss school.
We were lucky it was summer. She didn’t have to miss school. She had missed three months while we lived 350 miles away during the first months of chemo. She would have been crushed to miss more.
— Nicole Stellon O’Donnell (@SteamLaundry) November 21, 2018
Please #vaccinate your kids. Please get your #flushot. It’s an act of compassion for the many children who need herd immunity because their immune systems are not working. #VaccinesWork
— Nicole Stellon O’Donnell (@SteamLaundry) November 21, 2018
O’Donnell sums it up by urging parents to vaccinate their kids because it’s an “act of compassion for the many children who need herd immunity because their immune systems are not working.”
Some people jumped in to thank O’Donnell for her thread, and to share their own stories.
From someone who is going through chemo, please get yourself and your kids vacimated, even if you don’t think that it is effective. I’m worried every time I have to pick up my 7 year old at school.
— Stephen Battista (@StephenBattista) November 22, 2018
And other people reiterated the importance of her statement.
It’s not about you. It’s about being part of the wall that protects those whose immune systems aren’t up to the task.
About protecting your infant from the far more common diseases like whooping cough.
There is risk in everything.— Katie Brewer (@Palitato) November 24, 2018
Seriously, parents, please get your kids vaccinated.
