Report to the People
15th August 2005
An Outbreak of Irresponsibility
Not that you’re counting the hours or
anything, but it’s only a day (well, a day and a bit), until the kids go back
to school.
Of
course, it doesn’t make you a bad parent if, towards the end of the holidays,
you’re keen for your offspring’s formal education to resume sooner rather
than later. Indeed, any feelings of
guilt we might harbour are firmly put into perspective by the perennial stories
of irresponsible parents abandoning their children and jetting off on holiday.
Most
of us can’t understand this sort of selfishness. We’re used to making sacrifices for our children and trying
to do what’s best for them.
Not
always easy, though. Last week, for
example, we read headlines about a mumps epidemic sweeping Scotland.
In previous years, of course, the headlines were all about the alleged
dangers of the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, MMR.
These
stories, combined with a few politicians seeking easy publicity by demanding
single jabs on the NHS and some doctors seeking easy money by supplying them
privately, left parents confused and the vaccination rate dropping below “herd
immunity” level - the proportion we need vaccinated to
stop a disease taking hold in the wider population.
And
now Scotland is facing the biggest mumps outbreak in 20 years, with those
between 17 and 20, who were born before MMR was fully introduced, most at risk.
It’s difficult enough being a parent these days without the irresponsible making it harder.
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