April 11 • 2019 5
jn

W

hen I was a kid, I’
d barely 
heard of the measles. 
It was just a chant, a 
game that went “The cat’
s got the 
measles, the measles, the measles, 
the measles …”
But now I find 
myself involved 
in conversations 
everywhere I go 
about the measles, 
blood titers, 
immunity and 
anti-vaxxers. It’
s all 
anyone talks about 
these days. People 
are nervous. Some folks with 
weakened immune systems or little 
babies are literally holed up in their 
homes, too afraid to leave because 
who knows what they’
d come in 
contact with? They don’
t want to be 
next. 
Every few days, Michigan health 
officials release the latest tallied 
confirmed cases. It sat at 23 cases 
for a while and we held a collective 
breath. Would that be it? Was the 
outbreak contained? Are we safe 
now? But nope, it went up to 30 
cases … now 34 … and climbing. 
The thing I find most concerning 
is that a person who was exposed 
might come down with the virus 
but symptoms only appear 7-14 
days and even as long as 21 days 

after exposure … and they’
re 
contagious up to four days before 
the tell-tale spots even appear! 
So, someone might be walking 
around with it, going merrily about 
his life, thinking he’
s just got an 
ordinary cold, spreading the illness 
to many others, without even 
realizing it. And you can’
t really 
blame him — no one puts his life 
on hold for a little cold. No one 
thinks he’
s got the measles until the 
rash comes. 
So, what should we do? How 
do we stop it? Must we barricade 
ourselves in our houses and avoid 
civilization until the outbreak is 
over?
The general vibe I get is that life 
goes on. Sure, the outbreak is a 
huge concern for everyone in the 
community, but we do what we have 
to do. People lined up in droves 
to get those booster shots, even 
bringing their cleaning ladies along 
to get one, too — but after that, it’
s 
out of our hands. We did what we 
could, the rest is up to God. 
I’
m also discovering that 
sometimes too much information 
is stressful. I know someone who 
had four booster shots over her 30 
years and her blood titers were still 
low — she’
s still not fully immune! 
Wouldn’
t she have had more peace 
of mind if she hadn’t checked? The 

poor woman’
s a wreck! 
I’
d been immunized as a kid, 
but got my titers checked and 
discovered I wasn’
t immune after 
all. Ran off to get a booster shot. 
My brother surprised me recently 
with a lovely visit. After exclaiming 
how nice it was to see him, I 
dragged him off to Young Israel 
and got him a really nice welcome 
present in his upper arm, too. 
I find it ironic that this issue is 
being discussed all around town 
as we’
re getting ready for Pesach. 
There’
s a Midrash that says the 
second plague began with an 
enormous frog that hopped out 
of the Nile River. Every time the 
Egyptians hit it, little frogs jumped 
out of its mouth until the entire 
country was overrun with frogs. 
I sincerely hope the measles won’
t 
reach plague proportions and the 
outbreak will end soon, but it’
s just 
interesting that, likewise, here all 
it took was just one person to start 
something massive. It’
s a scary 
thought. (And also uplifting — you 
never know the tremendous reach 
of even just a single person!)
But enough with the 
philosophizing ... I’
ve got plenty 
more cleaning to do for Pesach — 
and I’
ll start by shopping, which 
should just about clean out my bank 
account! ■

essay
Measles: Life Goes On

Rochel Burstyn
Contributing Writer

views

Promoting Civil Protest

We should support protests by 
Gazans of their terrorist govern-
ment, even if the individual protest-
ers do not otherwise meet with our 
approval. 
 It is easy for Americans to pro-
test. We know what to do and how 
to do it effectively. We recognize 
that protest is part of the political 
culture needed for effective gov-
ernment. Most importantly, we 
need not fear the government will 
retaliate against us or our families. 
This is not true for Gazans, ruled by 
Hamas, which regularly kills its own 
people, including protestors.

To bring about peace in Middle 
Eastern countries, we must find 
ways to change their political cul-
ture to embrace the basic attributes 
of civilization today — represen-
tative government, respecting the 
rule of law, freedom of speech, 
religion and political association, 
and tolerance of opposing points 
of view. These ideals exist to any 
extent only in Israel, and although 
they are imperfect there and in the 
U.S., there are still thousands of 
organizations working to strengthen 
them. In contrast, there appears to 
be little activity of this type in Gaza, 
the West Bank, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, 
Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria or 

Yemen.
What can we as Americans 
actually do, since we cannot easily 
change the dictatorial governments 
above? We can decide that working 
from the “bottom up” is important 
and start to do something. We can 
work with Americans from these 
countries to figure out how to pro-
mote these civilized ideals, even if 
in small ways, or to protest their 
evil governmental activity. We can 
communicate with our elected offi-
cials. It will take decades to claim 
victory, but it’
s time to begin.

Nat Pernick, M.D.

Huntington Woods

letters

For information, 
contact Tracey Proghovnick 

(248) 661-1836 
jslmi.org

A Balancing Act

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Weight shifts provide strength and 


apart and slowly shift your weight side to 


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and healthy matters. And it is never 

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