Do you believe vaccines are safe and effective? If you do, you’re at odds with our current secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Remind me again. How did a crackpot conspiracy theorist and anti-vaccine activist end up running the agency whose overall purpose is to safeguard public health? Oh yeah. tRump.
According to the World Health Organization, childhood vaccinations have saved at least 154 million lives over the last 50 years. According to the National Library of Medicine, serious adverse reactions to vaccines are rare. Yet we’re living in an era where vaccinations have become suspect, and science itself is under attack.
At least in SLO County we’re still guided by science and reason. Our Board of Supervisors unanimously and retroactively voted to authorized Health Agency Director Nick Drews to accept an almost $490,000 California Department of Public Health California Immunization Program Grant meant to manage vaccine-preventable diseases.
While tRump and RFKrazy Jr. are firing CDC doctors and scientists, here on the Left Coast, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, and Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson announced the new West Coast Health Alliance to counter the anti-intellectual anti-science stupidity emanating from Washington, D.C.
In SLO County 2nd District Supervisor Bruce Gibson’s newsletter, he described the board’s vote as “taking on RFK Jr.’s quackery.”
The fact that the vote was unanimous and that even the conservative members of the board recognize the importance of vaccination is reassuring. Sure, there are some MAGAts living in SLO County, but they haven’t undermined county government to the point that it’s willing to refuse nearly half a million dollars in public health grant money.
“This is especially crucial now, as Health and Human Services Secretary Kennedy’s reign of science-denial and incompetence at the federal level threatens to undo a century of progress in protecting the public’s health,” Gibson wrote.
As fall approaches, many are thinking about seasonal vaccinations such as the flu and COVID, but the newest COVID vaccine may be hard to come by for most of us. As Dr. Penny Borenstein explained at the Sept. 9 board meeting, “The main thing that has happened to date is the FDA has not licensed the coming vaccine, which has the newest strain, for anyone but individuals over 65 years of age and individuals with an underlying medical condition. That is different than last year and the previous year where anyone 6 months or above had a vaccine available to them and at no cost.”
On top of that, RFKrazy Jr. fired a bunch of highly qualified members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), replacing them with vaccine skeptics. We should all be very worried. It’s not just the people who opt out of vaccinations who are at risk. Increased risks of outbreaks due to low herd immunity can affect us all, including our schoolchildren.
Speaking of which, I remember when I was a wee little Shred, and my mom would bake cupcakes on my birthday for my whole class. My classmates would celebrate my birthday, and everyone got a sweet treat. Win-win!
Well, pump the brakes on forming a memory like that in this generation of children. The Lucia Mar Unified School District just changed its policies to forbid homemade food items for class celebrations. Instead, parents who want to provide snacks for an in-class birth celebration must follow the same Smart Snack Guidelines the school is supposed to follow.
Snack items can’t exceed 175 calories for elementary school students and 250 calories for middle and high schoolers. The item can’t contain more than 35 percent sugar by weight. Goodbye cupcakes! Acceptable snacks include popcorn, tortilla chips, low-calorie granola, Graham crackers, oatmeal bars, fresh fruit, vegetables, Greek yogurt, and string cheese.
Sheesh! Nothing says, “Happy Birthday, Little Shredder” like a baby carrot dipped in Greek yogurt.
Look, I get it. These days every other kid has a food allergy or a helicopter parent who monitors every Oreo, but it feels like we’ve collectively decided that common sense is in such short supply that we need to have rules for every contingency.
Some parents argue that the school district is burdening parents with something the district itself isn’t doing. Nipomo Elementary and Nipomo High parent Jacki Lavender told New Times, “They’re kind of like trying to get the parents to do this before they do it internally. That’s where the frustration comes from. We all need to be more healthy. It’s just a matter of them having too much outreach … when they’re giving our kids stuff that has a lot of sugar, but we’re supposed to use a calculator.”
It’s not just Lucia Mar, either. The San Miguel school district already forbids treats for classroom celebrations. San Luis Coastal is reviewing its policies for a November update and already encouraging class parties to involve non-food items. The Paso Robles school district alsofollows a policy like Lucia Mar’s.
Thirty years from now when today’s third graders are 38 years old and sending their own children to school on their birthdays with low-calorie granola bars or “non-food items,” will they look back with pride at the micromanagement of childhood celebrations and the death of the chocolate cupcake with rainbow sprinkles while their kids contract measles? ∆
The Shredder wants its vaccinations. Hit it with your best shot at shredder@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Student Guide 2025.
You want Make America Healthy Again? Take away your kids’ iPhones and give them bicycles. JFK had his Physical Fitness program and nobody but the most fringe Birchers opposed mandatory vaccinations. Bobby Brainworm is no Jack Kennedy.