Bismarck Tribune - North Dakota News - Offering vaccines should be a priority

Offering vaccines should be a priority

Oct 29, 2007 - 07:04:13 CDT

By CAROLYN NELSON
Fargo

Recently I read an editorial in the Tribune, "Vaccinations shouldn't be unaffordable." I couldn't agree more with it.

Children should have access to the best health care available. Ensuring they receive inoculation against deadly diseases should be a priority. If federal funding is not available, our large state budget surplus should be utilized for this cause.

On a personal level, I had measles, mumps and chickenpox when I was small. I lived through the polio period before the Salk vaccine and had friends who were permanently harmed by that disease.

Also, smallpox wiped out American Indian villages in the 1800s, and tuberculosis sent many to sanitariums in the early 1900s.

That was in a different time.

Thanks to access to vaccines, we don't see these sorts of widespread outbreaks and epidemics. We have talented folks using new research techniques who have developed vaccines to prevent the past from happening again.

The least we can do is make them available to all, not just those who have insurance to pay for them. We have the money, and the required amount should go to the health department now. Our kids need to be healthy to learn, and we can help them along by providing vaccines.

It also seems to me that if the Legislature requires certain vaccines for entry into K-12 and higher education, we should share in the expense of it. In the long run, we'll have a healthier society. Healthy children ensure a strong future for one of North Dakota's most important resources: its youth.

(Nelson, a Democrat, represents a Fargo district in the North Dakota Senate. - Editor)

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Comments

hhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmm wrote on Oct 29, 2007 9:16 PM:

" hope you dont think it's me against kids...am all for FREE shots for all kids...that way none will do without..our country has money for everything else..lets invest in our chldren's health...to the hmmm who has used my comment id...i really wonder what and where you came from..to be so cold hearted..thank god you are one of a minority in our state...you seem like a person who had a hard time growing up..and cant get past it..there were many of us..thank god we didnt all turn out like you or we would be living in a horrible place instead of a state where we can afford and should take care of our kids. "

Fact of life wrote on Oct 29, 2007 3:59 PM:

" It's a fact of life that children are punished for their parents not making enough money. Sad, but it's true. Parents don't make enough and the children go without. Anything from clothes, to food, to toys, and even entertainment. Children in other parts of the world starve because their parents don't make enough money. And, children in other countries die because of a lack of medical care because their parents don't make enough money. So when you say they "are gifts from god and should be helped in anyway we can,"; I ask, what are you doing to feed, cloth, and provide medical care to those gifts from God? "

PO3 wrote on Oct 29, 2007 1:06 PM:

" Somehow I just can't be hard enough to deny any little kid their shots. Kids who are poor shouldn't be punished for their parents not making a living for them. All little boy and girl are gifts from god and should be helped in anyway we can, including free shots and immunizations if needed. "

Help the kids wrote on Oct 29, 2007 10:24 AM:

" You would think Governor Hoeven would step in to help. More nothing from a do nothing governor. "

hmmm wrote on Oct 29, 2007 8:49 AM:

" If you can't affored to get your own kids vaccinated than you shouldn't have kids or depend on others to pay for them~! "

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