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Steve Ross: Educated parents needed

Steve Ross

— What a gracious and lovely sentiment in Ms. Shara Ludlum’s letter to the editor (“Start vaccinating,” Nov. 2 Steamboat Today). It is so refreshing to hear from a remarkable woman and mother who witnessed firsthand the ravages of a vaccine-preventable disease.

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s website has a host of similar parents whose children were infected by vaccine-preventable diseases, and on the Children’s Hospital of Colorado website, our own fearless governor took the step of describing his family’s ordeal with infant B. pertussis. The New York Times has several editorials this year on the safety of childhood vaccines.

It was heartbreaking to read the really nasty, vicious anonymous comments to a really thoughtful letter. One hopes that their parents get a refund on the money spent on their respective educations. Everyone knows that vaccines were the cause of the Greek debt crisis, global warming and Kim Kardashian.



Medical scholars have identified vaccines as the greatest breakthrough in modern medicine. The Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins, Harvard and the University of Colorado all vigorously encourage and support vaccinations of adults and children. Last month, the Children’s Hospital of Colorado tooted its own horn about all the physicians getting a flu vaccine. Warren Buffett gave the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation $35 billion for vaccines for children in Third World nations. If it is any comfort to the wingnuts of Yampa Valley, most, if not all, of the physicians lose money by providing vaccines. We provide them because vaccines are a staggering breakthrough in medicine and save the lives of millions of innocent children each year.

Ms. Ludlum is a magnificent parent for writing such a compelling and caring letter. Yampa Valley could use more of such thoughtful and educated parents.



Steve Ross, MD, FAAP

Steamboat Springs


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