Re: “Just vaccinate the children,” editorial, Feb. 20.
A serious issue is well articulated in the editorial, but it underrates the problem.
Reportable infectious diseases affect children and adults. Certainly, the attention focused on children at risk is well warranted. But what about adults who are not informed by their doctors that protection afforded by childhood immunizations disappears with age?
I contracted pertussis (whooping cough) in late 2017. I had never been told that I was not protected by vaccinations from my youth. In no other province would that have happened.
B.C. does not pay for an adult booster shot, so doctors here do not recommend this protection as a matter of course.
You do not want pertussis as an adult, believe me. Doctors in B.C. need to be guided by risk to citizens rather than a decision not to fund a booster.
You do not want to experience whooping cough, but as an adult in B.C., you are at higher risk than residents of any other province.
And on the subject of the editorial: No vaccination, no access to public education.
John Treleaven
Sidney
