This year’s Humboldt County Grand Jury — that group of citizens tasked with providing independent review of local governmental agencies, and given special investigatory powers under the constitution of the state of California — today issued its first report of the 2015-2016 year. Their topic? Child immunization rates in the Humboldt County school system, and what local governmental authorities are doing to address new state legislation requiring kids to be up-to-date on their immunizations in order to attend public school.
This is an important and interesting topic. It resulted in one of the strangest Humboldt County Grand Jury Reports in recent memory.
The report starts off well enough, noting that Humboldt County’s immunization rates are near the bottom (54th out of 58 California counties) and that not coincidentally we have the state’s second highest rate of pertussis, a potentially deadly infectious disease that was once on the road to eradication. Humboldt County had 58 diagnosed cases of pertussis in 2010, the Grand Jury writes, and 149 diagnosed cases in 2014.
But why are our vaccination rates so low? The Grand Jury has two answers:
• One: It’s hard for some people to find transportation to the clinic.
• Two: Too many parents don’t know about a cool website — www.shotsforschool.org — that can tell you all about current vaccination rates at their kids’ schools.
That is literally the Grand Jury’s diagnosis: Tough to find a ride to the doctor sometimes, the cool website hasn’t made the rounds. This makes the solution so simple! Send the Department of Health and Human Services Mobile Medical Van out to the hinterlands to deliver shots to the kids, and everyone put a link to shotsforschool.org on your websites!
Why does this analysis fail to convince? For one, because many or most of the schools with the lowest vaccination rates in the county aren’t exactly hours from civilization. Three of the five schools with the lowest rates — Coastal Grove Charter School, Fuente Nueva Charter School, Blue Lake Elementary — are well within Humboldt County’s urban center. The first two of those schools are literally walking distance from several different clinics and doctor’s offices.
What the report fails to consider — what it absolutely fails to acknowledge at all, in fact — is the fact that a large proportion of Humboldt County parents stand firm by the discredited notion that the cure, in this case, is worse than the disease. Many people here honestly believe that vaccination is not so much a proven means of eradicating deadly and crippling infectious diseases, but some sort of medico-industrial governmental plot to enslave and poison the minds and bodies of their precious little ones.
This is a real thing that people in Humboldt County and elsewhere believe, and in large numbers. Sadly for everyone, the problem isn’t going to be solved by offering people a lift to the doctor’s office. There’s no easy answer, but the Grand Jury does no one any favors by glossing over the issue.
March 18, 2016
Lost Coast Outpost
By Hank Sims
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