Readers: Children Should Be Required To Be Vaccinated

As a child of the  60s (barely) and 70s I received all the normal vaccines available at that time, so the news that some parents today don’t get their kids vaccinated came as a shock. The measles has returned to the US as a result:

Scientifically, there is no debate. The measles vaccine is effective. Most of those who contract measles, unsurprisingly, are those who are unvaccinated. 

But a conversation about the current measles outbreak brings up other ideas — on personal and religious freedoms, skepticism of scientific findings, reach of government regulations — that are inherently political. And here is where the arguments arise. (CNN – Measles outbreak: How bad is it?)

Kids too young or too sick to receive the vaccine are placed at risk by healthy but unvaccinated kids.  Here are the results from the Sunday Poll:

Q: When it comes to childhood diseases like measles, mumps and whooping cough, should all children be required to get vaccinations?

1. Democrat: require vaccines 18 [51.43%]
2. Independent: require vaccines 10 [28.57%]
3. Republican: require vaccines 4 [11.43%]
4. Independent: allow opt-out 2 [5.71%]
5. Democrat: allow opt-out 1 [2.86%]
6. Tie: 0 [0%]
   1. Republican: allow opt-out
   2. Democrat: don’t know/decline to answer
   3. Republican: don’t know/decline to answer
   4. Independent: don’t know/decline to answer

Over 91% —  across the political spectrum — agreed with requiring vaccines. This is different than a recent national poll where only 60% supported requiring, with 37% for opt-outs.   Nationally Democrats favored requiring vaccines at a higher rate (65%) than Republicans (58%) and Independents (48%).  Not enough votes here to draw any conclusions other than Democrats make up over half the readership.

— Steve Patterson

Thankfully Biondi Wasn’t Allowed To Immediately Raze The Pevely Building

A few years ago Saint Louis University was determined to raze the Pevely Dairy building at Chouteau & Grand (see Pevely Dairy Fate to be Decided Today, or Not?). The city said they could raze the building — once they apply for a building permit for the medical building they intended to build to the South — the site of the Pevely Dairy was to be lawn and driveway. Many of us who fought against demolition felt defeated, eventually they’d submit plans for an awful new building set far back from the road and the historic warehouse would come down.

However, their project didn’t go forward! Thankfully the city’s Preservation Board had the good sense to require a real project before allowing the demolition. See SLU May Pass on Pevely Site for New Medical Facility.

So now it’s three years later, Biondi is no longer SLU’s president.  Maybe I missed it, but I haven’t see any news about the fate of the building and the acres of vacant land to the south. I’d love to see it get a new use as part of a larger project. I’d also like to see the big red letters spelling PEVELY returned to the rooftop sign. Pevely Hall?

— Steve Patterson

We’re Not Going To Be An NFL City, That’s OK

Over the last few weeks, listening to others and reading,  I’ve come to realize a few things about the NFL and the St. Louis Rams:

1. The NFL does appeal to many, providing instant cache for a city/region.
2. Even though the number of games are limited, the financial benefits to the region are very real.
3. Kroenke wants the Rams in LA — his investment substantially increase in value.
4. Kroenke is a real estate developer, he enjoys building stuff and owning it.
5. Kroenke wants more than a stadium plus parking, he wants to build an experience — and to profit from it. See #4 above.
6. Kroenke appears willing to move the Rams without approval of his fellow NFL owners.
7. St. Louis advocates of a new NFL stadium are setting us up for a big fall when we’re no longer an NFL city.
8. The first 4 decades of the NFL St. Louis wasn’t an NFL city, we had our first NFL team for 28 years (1960-1987). We’ve been an NFL city only half years the NFL has been a league!
9. St. Louis stands a good chance of getting an Major League Soccer (MLS) team. St. Louis has a rich history of European football.
10. Soccer players don’t like playing in NFL stadiums, see Playing MLS games in NFL stadiums.
11. 13 of the MLS’ 19 teams (68%) play in soccer-specific stadiums, with seating ranging from 18,086 to 27,000. See MLS’ Soccer-Specific Stadiums and Major League Soccer’s Stadium Revolution.
12. Soccer fans like to tailgate, but also prefer a downtown location. Those who don’t tailgate like pubs.
13. The largest record attendance (48,263) at Busch Stadium was not baseball, but a soccer match in May 2013.
14. In May 2014  St. Louis became an expansion city for Division III soccer, the Saint Louis FC’s home opener is Saturday April 11th, at the 6,000+ seat Soccer Park in Fenton.
15. A 20,000-25,000 seat soccer-specific stadium could possibly be built in the North Riverfront area without razing any historic buildings or displacing residents, businesses.
16. After the Rams return to LA, an MLS expansion team could play in the Edward Jones Dome while a new outdoor stadium is being built.
17. The smaller-sized MLS stadium would fit much easier into the North Riverfront, parking would be less and could be in a combination of garages and surface.

Based on the above I think we as a city/region/state should:

1. Accept that the Rams will leave, the cost to retain them or entice another team to move here is just too high a price to pay given the benefits. Move on knowing we have baseball & hockey.
2. Encourage the Blues owners to get an NBA team to play in the Scottrade Center.
3. Use this as an opportunity to put our efforts into getting a Division I MLS team, while supporting our new Division III team.
4. Develop a plan to continue the ongoing efforts in the North Riverfront area, creating a mixed-use neighborhood in the remaining buildings and building new to infill the gaps.

I’ve accepted that St. Louis will not be an NFL city, just like it wasn’t when I moved here nearly 25 years ago. Our best years of population growth and prosperity were well before NFL arrived in St. Louis.

— Steve Patterson

Sunday Poll: Should All Children Be Required To Get Vaccinations Against Diseases Like Measles, Mumps, Whopping Cough?

Measles, once largely eradicated in the US, is back:

Ninety-four people have now been infected with measles across eight states; 67 of those cases are linked to the Disneyland park.

“We don’t know exactly how this outbreak started but we do think it was likely a person infected with measles overseas,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Schuchat says the reason for the outbreak is because people are failing to get vaccinated. (Time)

This recent outbreak has intensified the debate on vaccinations, making it a great topic for today’s poll.  Here’s the exact poll question:

When it comes to childhood diseases like measles, mumps and whooping cough, should all children be required to get vaccinations?

I’m trying something different today, for each of the three answers I’m asking you to select one based on your political view (Democrat, Independent, Republican) — this will permit comparison to a national poll.  The Sunday poll is at the top of the right sidebar, is open until 8pm.

On an unrelated health note, it was seven years ago today that I had a massive hemorrhagic stroke, the statistics aren’t pretty:

• Stroke is the No. 3 cause of death in the U.S., behind heart disease (with which it is closely linked) and cancer.
• Stroke affects more than 700,000 individuals annually in the United States (approximately one person every 45 seconds). About 500,000 of these are first attacks, and 200,000 are recurrent attacks.
• Someone in the U.S. dies every 3.3 minutes from stroke
• Stroke is the leading cause of disability among adults in the U.S.
• While subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) represents only about 7 percent of all strokes, it is the most deadly — with more than a 50 percent fatality rate. Of the survivors, approximately half will suffer permanent disability.

I was very fortunate, enjoy today’s game!

— Steve Patterson