Public schools open tomorrow in Mt. Pleasant for 4,962 students. If our city follows the norm, only about 87% (plus or minus 5%) will have received their required inoculations for state-specified diseases. Michigan is only one of 17 states that do not mandate these shots. This suggests that about 645 students will not have them.

Consider a student who has had the shots and one who has not. The student with the shot for a particular disease still runs a small risk (5%) of catching it. The one without the shot may not get the disease. However the student with all his/her shots has only a minuscule chance of contracting a fatal case of a disease for which there has been immunization, while the other has fair chance of catching at least one of the diseases, and contaminating other students.

Don’t let your child face the possibility of catching, say, polio. In 1952 there were 58,000 cases in the United States. Salk vaccine was introduced in 1962, and cases by 1964 fell to only 121.

Michigan requires innoculations for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B, meningococcal, and varicella (chickenpox). Amount of dosage and number of shots varies with age. You can find your child’s immunization history at www.mcir.org or by contacting the regional Michigan Care Improvement Registry office. Contact your family doctor if you have questions about the efficacy of immunization."