Good and bad on vaccinations
Asurvey by the state Department of Health shows that the percentage of Oklahoma kindergarteners who were up to date on their vaccines last year increased a bit from the previous year. That's encouraging.
However, the news is tempered by an increase in the percentage of children granted exemptions from at least one vaccine. As Oklahoma Watch noted, this was at least the third consecutive year Oklahoma's overall exemption rate has increased. That's distressing.
The exemption rate for Oklahoma kindergarteners in 2018-19 was 2.6%, the Health Department said. It was 2.2% the prior year and 1.9% in 2016-17.
State law requires kindergarten students to be vaccinated for several diseases including measles and chickenpox. However, exemptions can be granted for medical, religious or philosophical reasons. Efforts in the Legislature to remove the last of those exemptions have failed in the face of strong opposition from grassroots parent groups.
The more kids who go unvaccinated, the less safe others are. This year the United States has seen more reported measles cases than in any year since 1992 — for a disease that was declared eliminated in 2000.
“We know that vaccinations are among the most effective ways to protect against serious diseases,” said Tom Bates, interim commissioner of the state Health Department. Sadly, too many Oklahomans are opting not to take advantage.
Attorney's speech argument misses mark
A local attorney recently lost his bid to use tweets by President Trump to stop a trial for his client, a Mexican native who faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of illegally re-entering the country. The attorney contended that a fair trial for his client was impossible due to Trump's “inflammatory, racist” comments about illegal immigrants, but the federal court judge rejected the argument. Trump is “poisoning the well,” the attorney said after the ruling. “If a prosecutor can't talk about a case, the president shouldn't be able to.” That argument isn't valid. Judges may, and often do, issue gag orders as part of the legal process. Trump is under no such constraints. His tweets, so often tasteless and ill-advised, fall under the category of same constitutionally protected free speech the attorney used in saying the president “needs to keep his mouth shut.”
Whoopi Goldberg's laudable rejection
Reacting to a story in The Hollywood Reporter about a fundraiser for President Trump, actress Debra Messing urged the paper to publish the list of attendees. “The public has a right to know,” Messing tweeted. Her “Will & Grace” co-star Eric McCormack followed with a tweet saying the list would be helpful “so the rest of us can be clear about who we don't wanna work with.” Credit Whoopi Goldberg for forcefully rejecting this effort. During an episode of “The View,” Goldberg noted the damage inflicted by the Hollywood blacklists of the late 1940s and 1950s. “In this country, people can vote for who they want to,” she said. “That is one of the great rights of this country. You don't have to like it, but we don't go after people because we don't like who they voted for. We don't go after them that way.” Well said.
Worthwhile effort to better serve taxpayers
Many Oklahomans no doubt share Tom Bates' view that government has “got to stop giving people the runaround.” Bates made the comment after being tapped by Gov. Kevin Stitt to come up with a better way to meld services provided by the state's health and human services agencies. Bates, a former assistant attorney general, has spent the past 17 months as interim commissioner of the Department of Health. In his new job, he'll work with the heads of that agency and the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, the state's mental health agency, the Office of Juvenile Affairs and the Department of Human Services. “Around the state, we make Oklahomans go to multiple offices and multiple websites just to get the services they are entitled to, and it's all very confusing,” Bates said. “It's not how you'd run a business, and it's not how we should run state government.” Amen.
Town gives WW II veteran a proper sendoff
We offer a tip of the cap to the good people of Perry who turned out Wednesday to honor a local resident and World War II veteran who died with no surviving relatives. Herman White died Aug. 11 at age 97. As The Oklahoman's Josh Dulaney wrote, White lost his wife in 1998 and his only son a year later. On learning White had no family, the funeral director began a push for a proper sendoff, and word spread via social media. The funeral Wednesday morning was attended by hundreds, from Perry, across Oklahoma and even outside the state. The service included the reading of Scriptures, along with proclamations by Gov. Kevin Stitt and President Trump, a salute by the Navy Honor Guard and a bugler playing “Taps.” A proper sendoff, indeed.
Funding to help fight opioid problem
The Trump administration is distributing $1.8 billion nationwide to help states fight problems they face with opioids. Oklahoma's piece of the pie is $11.8 million, which will go to the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuses Services and to the Department of Health. The mental health agency will get roughly $7.6 million and use it to continue funding programs to prevent, treat and provide recovery services related to opioid abuse disorder. The Health Department plans to use its $4.2 million to improve data collection on drug overdoses, educate the public to reduce the stigma associated with substance abuse disorders, train and educate clinicians about pain management best practices, and other initiatives. This infusion of federal funding stands to do considerable good for Oklahoma.