And The Winner Is...
Everyone is talking about the Emmys this week: is Modern Family really funnier than 30 Rock? Is Claire Danes really more dramatic than Glenn Close? Is there really an award for “Host For A Reality Or Reality Competition Program”? Really?
As a dad who has spent hours on the couch with his kids and watching Nickelodeon and The Disney Channel, I was most invested in the Outstanding Children’s Program category. Would it be Victorious (Fame meets Welcome Back Kotter) or iCarly (Laverne And Shirley meet an iPhone)? I was shocked when the winner was Wizards of Waverly Place (Harry Potter meets Married With Children)! Honestly, watching any of these shows I’d love to meet just one fresh idea.
Ups And Downs
This week the American Academy of Pediatrics Council On Sports Medicine And Fitness officially went on the record as opposing fun. To be fair, it wasn’t any old sort of fun, just the kind of fun that causes around 100,000 pediatric injuries a year and, occasionally, quadriplegia and death. That’s right, the AAP reiterated its opposition to trampolines, for those of you who weren’t listening in 1977, 1981, and 1999.
What’s different now? For one thing, a flood of inexpensive imports has opened up trampoline ownership to everyone, not just that rich family down the street that also has the swimming pool, the dirt bikes, and the dueling pistols. For another thing, widespread use of padding and protective netting has given parents a false sense of security, leading them to believe there’s no way 12 kids bouncing around and turning flips over each other could possibly hurt themselves.
In an interview, Arch Adams, president of Fun Spot Trampolines in Hartwell, GA, countered, “It’s one of the few forms of exercise kids want to do.” Okay, he’s got us there. He went on to remind parents to always heed the warnings printed on every trampoline: only allow one jumper at a time; absolutely no somersaults, and adult supervision is essential. Now who’s no fun?
Eye Of The Needle
A report in this week’s New England Journal Of Medicine points the way to increasing childhood vaccination rates: make it harder for unvaccinated children to attend school. Researchers compared vaccination rates of children in states with only a religious exemption for required vaccines versus states that also allowed a philosophical exemption. For those confused about the difference, a philosophical exemption is, “I would rather risk my child suffering death or permanent disability than to protect him against preventable diseases.” A religious exemption is, “I would rather risk my child suffering death or permanent disability than to protect him against preventable diseases, amen.”
In states that allowed philosophical exemptions, rates of vaccine refusal were over 2.5 times as high as in the states with only religious exemptions. Vaccine rates also improved when parents had to obtain and fill out a government form to forgo vaccination rather than scrawl out a few hand-written lines on a Post-it note. Based on these results, I propose that future vaccine exemption laws require a notarized statement directly from the parent’s deity of choice, submitted on papyrus, vellum, or a stone tablet. We wouldn’t want to get too picky.
