Go, Mouse
December 23, 2007 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Now that the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services has mandated that children under 5 years old attending licensed day care or preschool beginning must take annual flu and pneumonia vaccines, and that sixth-graders (this will be Charlie next year) take two additional vaccines, one against a fast-killing strain of meningitis and the other a booster of the immunization against tetanus, pertussis and diphtheria, you can be sure that some Jersey parents, and Deirdre Imus (who does not live in New Jersey), are up in arms with a call to “protect New Jersey’s children from additional and unnecessary mercury exposure.” Imus and others refer to themselves as “vaccine safety advocates,” a term that enables them to take their shots (pun intended) and speak out against them too. Imus can claim that she is all for protecting children. It’s not simply vaccines that she is against, but whatever makes vaccines unsafe: “For the record, I have repeatedly acknowledged the importance of vaccinations. There is no question that vaccines have saved many lives but they are not without risks,” as Imus writes.
Orac at Respectful Insolence refutes Imus’ arguments (he has a more….biting/scathing…..term) in her Huffington Post piece. The December 23rd New York Times notes that New Jersey’s Health Department does not support an exemption from vaccines on philosophical grounds “because states that provide that option have had outbreaks.” Parents can “circumvent the vaccine mandates: by receiving a religious exemption, receiving a medical exemption, having their children attend parochial or private schools or having them stay out of the school system entirely.” Noting that, previously, religious exemptions were usually sought by Christian Scientists, the New York Times points out that “verification by a member of the clergy” is not necessary to seek a religious exemption—-the worried parent need look no farther than the Internet to websites put up by parents with sample religious exemption letters. But what would theologians make of the claims in these letters….
The Calling the Shots site cited in the New York Times article is run by a mother in Summit, New Jersey. Go to callingtheshots.info and you are taken to a pink page with two animated unclad cupid-type figures, with shots hovering right over their posteriors. The group behind the website is Children Having Everybody Really Upset ‘Bout the Shots, i.e., CHERUBS. Due to the placement of the (animated) shots, I gather that the cherubs are meant to be analogous to children and, in particular, the children of New Jersey who non-New Jersey non-autism mother Deirdre Imus seeks to protect in her appeal to New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine.
Being myself a mother of an autistic child and a mother who lives in New Jersey, I thank Ms. Imus for her concern about New Jersey’s children.
Being a teacher of Latin to college students in New Jersey I will also point out that “imus” has a sort of Latiny sound (“-mus is the personal ending for the 1st person plural form—the “we” form—of a verb in Latin: Laudamus means “we praise” but laudo means “I praise.”) Indeed, imus has (at least) two meanings in Latin: “We go, when imus is the first person plural, present tense, of the verb “go,” eo, ire, ii, iturum; and also “go, mouse!” when taken as i, mus, with i the second person singular imperative of eo, ire, ii, iturum and mus meaning, indeed, “mouse.”
And there does seem to be a mouse roaring about vaccines, mercury, green cleaning products over the airwaves………..
(Yes, I await some “biting/scathing” comments for my “roaring” a bit above. Best wishes.)
I, mus.
We have lots of kids in our area that do not vaccinate. M has had all of her vaccines but we have never done the flu vaccines. Not for any political or environmental reason though. If she was in school and it was mandatory I would be okay with it. M was late in getting all of her vaccines as a child since she had serious health problems, they were put off for quite a few months. I had major health concerns and developmental concerns before any drug hit her system.
Kristina, your mastery of language derivation is stunning. I continue to be awed by this feature in your writing, as its specificity enlightens me.
Regarding the vaccine issue, I am not convinced.
After all, 4 children, same age, same vaccines, only one with autsim…how do we explain?
My mantra remains….What do we do with the children that are here? We is the operative word. We meaning our nation, our legal system, our medical system.
xR
And now if they could rely more on information derived from studies of ye olde Mus musculus and naturally any H. sapiens (we are so wise) data that are already available, the Go Mice of the world would probably find something real to blather about. Or…not.
Speaking of your work…I read your bio and your work with Virgil, and it made me think of this Onion piece: http://www.theonion.com/content/node/31077
Charlie did not get his vaccines at 5 years and then got them at 8 and it was anti-climactic experience to say the least.
A friend sent me that Onion piece when it came out and I laughed myself off my chair……….
I, mus!
Ite, mures!
Kristina,
Far more biting than usual. I’m surprised.
I do not support mandatory vaccination, and I find it especially offensive when the mandated vaccines do not threaten society as a whole but even worse when it doesn’t have proven efficacy (the flu vaccine in particular).
It is not nearly as offensive if the state has exemptions based on philosophical grounds. Do you know what is covered in New Jersey’s religious exemption, as some states include philosophical reasons under religious exemptions?
I got a chuckle from your latin piece.
NJ’s rules for a religious exemption are here.
Glad you got a chuckle from the Latin…
Wow Kristina. I can always count on you for cogent arguments and a little linguistic fun. Now I’ll always have to think of her as Imouse.
…which sounds like a new Apple product, actually.
Just in time for last-minute holiday gifts…….
No philosophical grounds in NJ at all.