Recent editorials from South Carolina newspapers:

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Sept. 30

The Post and Courier on the importance of immunization in the wake of a mumps outbreak at a South Carolina college:

Used to be, conspiracy theories and other fringe ideas were out there on the fringe. You had to go looking for them, and most people didn’t.

Now, crazy comes looking for us. In innocent Google searches. On cable TV talk shows. In our Facebook feeds. And because we live in a world where people increasingly think it’s perfectly fine to ignore experts when they hear some cockamamie idea they’d rather believe, it can be dangerous not just to the people who believe thoroughly discredited claims _ like the one that says childhood immunizations cause autism _ but to the rest of us as well.

We got a reminder of that last week when DHEC announced there was a mumps outbreak at the College of Charleston, and college officials acknowledged that nearly 200 students haven’t been vaccinated for the highly contagious disease because they turned in waivers claiming they had a “religious” objection to the mumps, measles and rubella vaccine.

S.C. colleges are allowed to make their own decisions about whether to enroll students who aren’t vaccinated against childhood diseases, but it’s not uncommon for them to follow the lead of the Legislature, which allows unvaccinated children to attend school if their parents sign a form “stating that one or more immunizations conflicts with their religious beliefs.”

A tiny portion of the population really does object to vaccines based on firmly held religious beliefs. But the number of “religious” objections in South Carolina and across the nation has grown even as participation in actual religious practices has declined. Between 2014 and 2018, the number of S.C. school students who were exempt from vaccinations for religious reasons increased by nearly 20,000. That’s out of a total student population of 796,000.

We don’t believe it’s a coincidence that the increase has coincided with anti-vax propaganda proliferating, and becoming fashionable. But even if it is a coincidence and the exemptions really are for religious objections, the fact is that the increase is dangerous.

Some people can’t be vaccinated for medical reasons _ including infants. And vaccinations aren’t 100 percent effective. That means we’re all at risk of infection when we come into contact with people who haven’t been vaccinated.

So the more infectious a disease is, the more important it is for everybody who can get vaccinated to get vaccinated _ to create what doctors call “herd immunity” and reduce the chance that those who can’t be vaccinated will be infected.

Mumps, measles and rubella are highly infectious and highly deadly. The measles virus, for example, can live for two hours in the air; 90 percent of the unvaccinated people nearby will be infected if one infected person coughs.

We’re fortunate that the College of Charleston outbreak was detected quickly and seems to be under control. But we might not be so lucky next time. With the number of exemptions rising, it’s time for the Legislature to change our law: Unless they have medical exemptions, those without vaccinations should be barred from our public schools, and our public colleges.

Parents should still have the right to refuse vaccinations for their children, but their children shouldn’t be allowed to put the rest of us at risk.

Online: https://www.postandcourier.com

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Sept. 26

The Times and Democrat on increasing rates of violence against women in South Carolina:

For a society that professes to celebrate women, disturbing realities remain.

A new national survey concluded that one in 16 U.S. women say their first sexual experience was forced or coerced intercourse in their early teens.

The experiences of 3.3 million women between ages 18 and 44 amount to rape, according to the authors of the study published in the medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

And too often, violence against women goes beyond rape _ resulting in death. South Carolina continues to have a real problem with men killing women.

The state ranked fifth in the nation in the rate of women murdered by men, with a rate of 2.01 per 100,000, according to the new Violence Policy Center study titled “When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2017 Homicide Data.”

South Carolina tied for fifth with Tennessee, and has ranked in the top 10 states for the rate of women murdered by men every year since the VPC began tracking this issue in 1998.

Disturbingly, the problem has grown worse.

From 1996 to 2017, the rate of women murdered by men in single-victim/single-offender incidents dropped from 1.57 per 100,000 women in 1996 to 1.29 per 100,000 women in 2017, a decrease of 18%. Since reaching its low of 1.08 in 2014, the rate has increased in each of the last three years, with 2017’s rate of 1.29 up 19% since 2014.

The new study uses 2017 data, the most recent year for which information is available. It covers homicides involving one female murder victim and one male offender, and uses data from the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Report.

And as with rape, too often a woman is victimized by a man who professes to be closest to her.

The study found that nationwide, 92% of women killed by men were murdered by someone they knew and that the most common weapon used was a gun.

VPC Legislative Director Kristen Rand states, “Women are most likely to be murdered with a gun wielded not by a stranger but by someone they know. In many instances the murderer is an intimate partner of the victim. It is important to know these facts in order to identify effective strategies to prevent homicides against women.”

Each year the VPC releases the report in advance of Domestic Violence Awareness Month in October. This year, its release comes following the February 2019 expiration of the federal Violence Against Women Act.

A bill to reauthorize VAWA, which provides vital resources to combat violence and assistance to victims, has passed the U.S. House and is awaiting action in the Senate - which should move expeditiously to reauthorize it.

As Rand states: “One critical step is for the U.S. Senate to follow the lead of the House of Representatives and pass legislation to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act.”

Online: https://thetandd.com

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Sept. 24

The (Greenwood) Index-Journal on the threat of hurricanes stretching into autumn months:

There are no warnings, but now is no time to let your guard down _ especially if you are among those who remember what happened 30 years ago.

We are, of course, referencing hurricane season. It ain’t over till it’s over, right? And all one must do is conjure up the memories _ made vivid in archival photos, stories and video _ of Hurricane Hugo and the devastating path it carved across South Carolina and even up through Charlotte, a city that, oddly enough, was a destination spot for those seeking refuge from the storm.

Yes, in 30 years forecasters have been able to predict weather and storm patterns better, but the fact remains that major storms are not beholden to any forecasters’ predictions. They might be considered fickle, but they are a force to be reckoned with.

It is not unusual when forecasts turn out to be wrong, when hurricanes wind up having less of an impact as expected or predicted, for people to grow weary of The Weather Channel and all the others who report and prognosticate around the clock.

Yes, they can be wrong about the path of the storm, the strength of the storm when it makes landfall. But they can also be correct. Or more correct than wrong.

And that is all the more reason to, in spite of the occasional miscues and, listen and heed the advice of the so-called experts. Frankly, be glad when they are wrong, especially if your home or business was initially eyed for a direct or near-direct hit.

We can and should be glad we have not seen the likes of another Hugo, but that hardly precludes the possibility of a storm that equals Hugo’s record-setting damage.

Sure, fall has officially arrived, but step outdoors and try to convince yourself that it doesn’t still feel like summer. And then remember that the official hurricane season doesn’t come to a close until Nov. 30.

Be aware. And be smart.

Online: https://www.index-journal.com

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