Forum: Pharmacists vaccinating kids
June 6, 2012 7:08PM
Updated: July 8, 2012 6:55PM
I wish to congratulate the Legislature and the Quinn administration on the timely compromise allowing pharmacists to vaccinate children ages 10 and older. Widening the pool of health professionals authorized to administer vaccines will ensure that more schoolchildren and adolescents are immunized against serious illness. This is an example where Springfield got it right.
Expanding access to vaccinations is critically important now because Illinois is experiencing a resurgence in pertussis (commonly referred to as whooping cough) in schoolchildren. The disease is a serious, flu-like illness that can be life-threatening for some children, especially young infants, so it is important that all children be vaccinated.
Booster shots are needed for older children because an immunity to whooping cough wears off over time. Beginning next school year, all public school students entering the sixth and ninth grades will have to receive a Tdap booster to protect against whooping cough, diphtheria and tetanus.
Allowing pharmacists to vaccinate children gives parents a convenient, inexpensive way to meet this new requirement.
David Vite
President and chief executive
Illinois Retail Merchants Association
Impressed with program
I commend Community High School District 218 on its innovative reading program “Cradle to the Classroom.” It is so true! The education of a child begins in the womb and continues on as the child grows.
Reading is the most important ingredient in the recipe for a productive life. The basics of education are learned in a child’s formative years. Reading is a source of knowledge, inspiration, adventure, comfort and joy. A successful life needs a strong foundation.
The doors of opportunity are opened if you are able to read the signs. You can email, text, blog, search, etc., if you are able to read.
A big “thank you” is extended to all those involved in ensuring a child’s ability to read. Keep up the good work School District 218!
Marlene Jeziorski
Oak Lawn
Get tough with scofflaws
The state cigarette tax is being raised by $1 per pack to help reduce the state’s budget hole and avoid deeper Medicaid cuts. Instead of paying the tax, more smokers will just cross state lines to get their cigarettes cheaper. And the state doesn’t get as much revenue as it expected.
I have an idea for raising revenue without imposing another tax hike. I have noticed many cars belonging to homeowners in the Southland have out-of-state license plates. My neighbor of two years has three cars registered in Florida but resides here.
That’s $99 per car times three, or $297 per year, or $594 for two years. That’s what they owe the state of Illinois.
Why doesn’t this state see how much it can bring in by going after all the people who have been dodging license registration fees over the past 10 years? Let’s recoup those losses.
Martin Cusack
Oak Forest
Chicago should bid on 2020 Olympics
I know that former Chicago Mayor Richard Daley said Chicago wouldn’t enter a bid for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games, but he’s not in office anymore. My hat’s off to everyone who had anything to do with the huge task of preparing for and handling the NATO Summit and the numerous demonstrations by protesters.
I believe the International Olympic Committee thought Chicago couldn’t host a huge event. I hope some of the leaders who visited here for the summit will suggest that the IOC award Chicago the 2020 Games if Chicago throws its hat in the ring.
Chicago can handle the Summer Olympics, but more important are the jobs and visitors those games will attract before, during and after they’re played.
Let’s remember, too, how Chicago won the bid in the early 1900s only to have it taken back and given to St. Louis because it was having a World’s Fair. That wasn’t fair, and it backfired. Time to make things right.
Carl F. Rollberg
Calumet Park
