Chicken Pox!

Tonight is the school Christmas pageant. It involves all of the kids from the pre-kindergarten 2-year old class to the sixth graders. Russ and I have been working in Louisa's class which is the pre-K 4 year olds. Normally there are 9 kids in the class, only 2 of which are native English speakers. One boy, Domynikas, is actually nearly 6 but he just started coming to the school, doesn't speak English, and his parents (apparently a "Lithuanian thing") want him to be 7 when he is in kindergarten. About a month ago, one of the boys with limited English, Lukas, was absent for nearly 2 weeks because he had chicken pox. Two of the kids in the class, Louisa and Ugne (pronounced oognah, she's the only other girl in the class) have been immunized for chicken pox. Ugnius (pronounced oognus, he's one of the boys with pretty fair English) had chicken pox when he was younger. Well, now there will be only 4 children representing their class in the pageant because all the rest are out with chicken pox: Povilas, Jokubas, Julius (pronounced Yoo-lus), Oliver (the little chap from England), and Domynikas will all be having an extra-long vacation from school. In the US, there are some quite heated opinions about immunizing. Salk, Sabin, and others in the medical field were certainly sincere in their efforts to ease some of the tragedies of childhood illnesses like measles, mumps, polio, and even chicken pox, which are even a problem to adults at times. Many people who are opposed to immunizations are too young to have known people who have had devastating, long-term affects from these once all-too common diseases. True, there are on occasion problems with reactions to the serum itself. But I have to seriously question whether widespread illness is preferable. I don't know why these kids have not had immunizations: expense, availability, lack of awareness, or belief. But I feel bad for the kids who are missing all of the holiday festivities.