We’re into week 8 of the measles epidemic in Samoa and as I am writing this 48 people have died 1 adult, 47 children and over 3000 people reported infected. These figures are growing rapidly every day, and every day my Facebook feed is flooded with images of children in ICU, families desperately lining up to vaccinate their children, and photos of children who have lost their battle against the illness and parents sobbing over their small bodies. How did we fail our most vulnerable? There will be no funny quips in this blog post, there will be no funny anecdotes about our life in Samoa. This post will be a small insight into our life in Samoa during a State of Emergency during the measles epidemic of 2019.
When whispers of the measles virus began presenting itself in Samoa, I like most people didn’t think much of it. There were anecdotal reports of people returning from Auckland with measles but there wasn’t much thought about it. Life went on as normal, shopping, cleaning, beach days, movies, working – you know the normal routine of life kept turning. We were busy at school and as always there were plenty of children with snotty noses, coughs and random fevers, like I said normal preschool life. Then rumour and conjecture turned into news reports of more and more children presenting at the hospital with suspected measles. Conversations turned as always to the signs and symptoms of the virus and how to spot it and the anti-vaccination rhetoric that has been spreading like wildfire in Samoa through social media. Again, we talked, we pontificated, and life went on day by day, but honestly, I don’t think we took it seriously. Then 2 children and 1 adult died. In a blink of an eye it became very serious. Every time a child coughed, had a runny nose or was sent home with a fever our first thought was ‘is it measles?’. It moved quickly through the community and on a Wednesday evening, as I sat at home, I received a screen grab from Facebook announcing all preschools in Samoa were ordered to close. That Friday we closed our preschool. That was on the 30th of October. We were in the middle of an amazing learning journey, we were building space rockets and dreaming up adventures into outer space and then nothing ... just silence. All the laughter had stopped, the hustle and bustle of the children had ceased and worst of all, we never got to say goodbye. They just left. Two weeks later all schools in Samoa were closed. Some parents complained “what about our children’s education? They’ll fall behind!”, most parents were fully supportive of the Government’s decision. Is it possible we all started to feel what was to come? Initially the numbers of infected grew slowly, but that was not an indication of what was to come. Then the floodgates opened and the reality of it started to sink in. The Government announced a State of Emergency banning all gatherings of children under 19, all Universities were closed, church services cancelled and up sprung the ‘natural’ healers spruiking alternative remedies to cure measles. I don’t have a problem with natural remedies, I honestly believe Western and traditional therapies can work together to provide a holistic approach to healing. However, in this instance no amount of traditional massage, fasting or bullshit filtered water is going to cure a sick child who is presenting with severe complications associated with the measles virus. Coupled with this is the increase in anti-vax rhetoric which has been floating around social media, calling on people to ‘hide their children’ from the teams of medical staff driving around aiming to vaccinate children. It is now mandatory for all children to be vaccinated, a legal requirement. I am honestly unsure how they can implement this, but there are medical teams driving around with police officers vaccinating all children. Yes this sounds extreme and when the white van arrived at the school last week with two police officers in the van it was confronting to see. Yet for one popular anti-vaxxer this was prime cannon fodder for her to criticise the Samoan Government, comparing them to ‘Nazi Germany’ poisoning the children of Samoa with shonky vaccines made in India. Her ignorance is absolutely astounding – to compare the measures taken by the Samoan Government in a time of emergency – aimed at protecting the population of Samoa to Nazi Germany is offensive. It is offensive to the Jewish community and survivors of the Holocaust, it is offensive to the medical staff and support staff in the hospitals and clinics around Samoa working day and night trying to save children’s lives and last but certainly not least it is offensive to the families who have lost their babies to this preventable disease. We are angry and we are heartbroken. How has this affected our lives? Everyday I turn on my phone and I get an update – more babies have died. We don’t take our children out, especially in places we know will have large amounts of people. My daughters have started to display physical signs of anxiety. My youngest has started to pick and bite her nails all the time, she struggles to go to sleep at night and is looking for constant physical comfort asking for hugs and reassurance. After I post this, I know for a fact that the numbers I have written in this will have risen and that saddens us all. Vaccinations save lives end of story.
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