It’s arthritis, apparently, and it causes me grief when I spend too long cavorting around the lawn with New Boy. I’m reluctant to admit that my former athletic prowess is but a sweet memory.
Fortunately, The Boss is kind enough to run me into the Kialla vet once a month for a couple of shots. He complains that I cost far too much to run, but hey, what better investment could he make than making me feel young again? I should be grateful he isn’t one of those anti-vaxxers.
Speaking of which, I see The Donald’s nominee for Health Secretary, Robert F Kennedy, would likely refuse to pay for my shots — or anybody else’s. His appointment is like putting the wolf in charge of the sheep. He’s planning to make vaccinations harder for Americans.
The lawyer helping him pick officials for his Department of Health and Human Services, Aaron Siri, has already asked the Federal Drug Administration to revoke its approval of the polio vaccine.
Mr Siri has done the same for the hepatitis B vaccine. He has also asked the FDA to “pause” its distribution of 13 other vaccines, including those that cover tetanus, diphtheria, polio and hepatitis A.
Like Mr Kennedy, Mr Siri says he doesn’t want to take vaccines away from people but he wants “transparency in vaccines and to give people choice”.
The trouble is, their scepticism about the safety of childhood vaccines feeds parents’ fears, an increasing number of whom are declining the recommended shots for their children, without really exploring the risks.
The Boss reckons people have forgotten the terrible effects of polio which, until the mid-1950s, killed half-a-million people a year and put many more into iron lungs and wheelchairs. The Salk vaccine was a profound relief for parents and, in the 70 years since, polio disappeared — at least in the West.
Tetanus is another nasty one: it’s a bacterium that lies dormant in soil and animal faeces until it enters the body through a cut. Treatment is needed urgently; it kills up to 20 per cent of people infected. The vaccine averts that risk.
Then there’s diphtheria, an infection that creates a thick, grey membrane over the throat and tonsils, suffocating its victims. Even with treatment, one in 10 people with respiratory diphtheria die from it. Another handy vaccine — another disease people have forgotten about.
Measles is also dangerous for children under five and highly contagious — nine out of 10 people around an infected person will catch measles if they haven’t been vaccinated. It is spread by coughing or sneezing and hangs in a room for hours.
The epidemiologists worry that a 95 per cent vaccine coverage rate is needed to avoid transmission of the measles virus in a community, but it is falling below that, at least in the US, where 280,000 kindergarten students are now unprotected.
They’ve forgotten about rubella too, which is mild in children but can be lethal for pregnant women, potentially causing miscarriage or birth defects. Mumps is another disease that is usually mild in children but can cause infertility in adolescent boys.
I suppose choice is good, and a dog ought to be free to take his chances. But there’s choice — and there’s informed choice. Woof!
12°C