There’s a major measles outbreak happening in the Vancouver, Washington, area — mostly in Clark County (35 cases so far). Clark County has a low vaccination rate, but San Juan County is even lower. In 2017 in Clark County 25.9 percent of the kids under 2 years old met Washington’s HEDIS Combo 10 immunization requirement, including at least one measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) immunization. In San Juan County we’re just over half that at 14.3 percent. If measles ends up here in SJC it could endanger a lot of folks. We would also see unvaccinated kids being required to stay home from school, which really disturbs the school schedule and the lives of working parents.

If you and your kids aren’t vaccinated your children for MMR, please do it. This is about the health of our whole community. In years 2000 to 2010 the entire USA averaged about 60 measles cases per year. Thirty-five in Clark County is big scary news considering that measles is highly contagious; someone can literally cough in a room and infect people who enter the room an hour later.

Chris Greacen

Lopez Island School Board Member