Don't try this at home

Would you let your child lick a lollipop that had been licked
by the kid of some stranger you found over the internet?

The internet and social media sites have allowed people with similar interests, no matter how arcane, fringe, or far outside the mainstream, to virtually "meet" and connect with each other all over the world—and even in their own back yards. Before you scurry down to the comment box, I already know what you're going to say, so save yourself the keystrokes.

No, I'm not talking about Progressive Charlestown, I'm talking about some frightening new Facebook groups where parents who refuse to vaccinate their children connect with equally irresponsible people to pass the chickenpox virus among their children.

By Linda Felaco


One group—which thankfully appears to have already been shut down—was actually using the U.S. Postal Service as a disease vector, sending their infected children's saliva and personal items through the U.S. mail to families with uninfected, unvaccinated children.

Hello? Where were these people when the entire country was terrorized by the anthrax mailings? Anyone remember that? People dying, post offices and other government buildings being shut down? Sending viruses through the mail—what a great idea! Not!

Not only is sending infectious agents through the mail illegal—and punishable by up to 20 years in prison—but it's also illegal under federal law to adulterate or tamper with consumer products like lollipops, which has been the favored method of many of the virus mailers, who have their sick child lick a lollipop and then send it to another family. The perpetrators are also potentially exposing unwitting postal employees to the virus who may not have ever been vaccinated or contracted the disease.

And the attempt to infect their unexposed children is likely to fail, specialists in pediatric infectious diseases say, because chickenpox is transmitted most effectively through inhalation rather than saliva. Indeed, the more likely result is that more dangerous viruses such as hepatitis would be passed along this way.

Though it appears that not all of the members of the group are motivated purely by ideology. One Nashville woman was charging $50 for a "fresh batch of pox … shipping of suckers, spit and Q-tips available tomorrow."

I won't go into the pros and cons of the chickenpox vaccine; this is not a medical site and I'm not a physician. I will just point out that by not vaccinating your child, you are (a) relying on the "herd immunity" granted by vaccinated children to protect your child and (b) allowing him or her to potentially serve as a carrier to infect children who can't be vaccinated because they're immune-compromised, being treated for cancer, or have a blood disorder.

And consider this: Viruses evolve very rapidly. By not vaccinating, you're allowing the virus to persist in the environment and develop new ways to evade our immune system. It took many years and many millions of dollars to eradicate smallpox from this planet. Similar efforts to eradicate polio have yet to succeed. Malaria still kills a million children every year. Before the chickenpox vaccine was developed, about 100 children died of the disease in the U.S. every year. Why would we allow a vaccine-preventable disease to persist?