A rant of sorts…

I don’t know why I stopped writing but I have to get back on the horse… especially because I forgot that my account was on auto-renew. Haha!

I have been reading a lot of articles lately about the mom who is an anti-vaxxer who posted on social media asking for advice on how to prevent her child from getting the measles which, in her state of Washington, is quite abundant right now. I live in Utah and we just had a confirmed case of mumps. As a nurse, I feel strongly about protecting your family and other members of your community against disease whenever possible. I have many patients who do not vaccinate their children because they rely solely on the power of herd immunity. That being said, herd immunity declines with each person who is not vaccinated because, eventually, you cant promote immunity if nobody is immune. Right?

Without starting a fire, I think it is safe to say that many of the individuals who have responded to this woman’s social media post were less than kind. Admittedly, I was amused by the comments because most of them were common sense. We have cultivated the technology to eradicate diseases but people still resist participating in the science of it all. I frequently ask myself how it can even be logical to decline protection from disaster. If you were headed into battle would you want a bullet proof vest or a cotton vest? Technology has given us the protection from the bulletproof vest for a reason… to prevent death by bullet. How are vaccines any different? We have flame retardant clothing to reduce burns. We have airbags in our car to reduce injury in the event of a crash. My 13-year-old said, “Mom, it’s like these people are willing to douse themselves in kerosene then walk into a burning building and expect the fireproof clothing of others to save them.” I can’t even disagree with that logic.

Anyway…

In other news, I am working a bazillion hours (or so it seems) and I am starting to feel burned out. I am supposed to have tomorrow off but I have so much to catch up on it won’t be a true day of relaxation. Does anyone else feel that way? I worked from 7am til 1030pm today because someone called off and I ended up covering the shift.

I came home, logged on, and am sitting here putting off the paper I need to write and hoping that I can fall asleep before midnight.

I hope everyone had a productive day.

Til next time…