A guest opinion by Lisa McCracken.
I like numbers.
When it seems like nearly every question is answered only with a subjectivity of dubious veracity, I find the reliability of numbers comforting.
Numbers are dispassionate. Numbers are honest. Numbers are neither Republican nor Democrat — they do not lie. Numbers simply are: you either have the correct answer or you don't.
Numbers are not subjective. You can disagree with a correct number until the cows come home but, at the end of the day, you're still wrong. Numbers do not care what you or I believe. They do not care what we feel. Numbers do not give a whit about petty politics.
I had to be comfortable with numbers during my service in the U.S. Navy. Responsible for choreographing the enormously complex logistics of maintaining an air squadron's readiness for war, I knew I had only one chance to get it right. But I knew I could rely on numbers. I knew that, as long as I culled and collated correct data, I could perform my duties properly. The numbers, after all, do not lie.
Let's talk about some numbers that affect all of us.
In the first few days of boot camp in the U.S. military, servicemembers receive a number of mandatory vaccines.
Servicemembers receive a vaccine for the highly contagious adenovirus, types 4 and 7 at a cost of $150 per dose.
Members receive vaccines for influenza at $70 per dose along with MMR (measles, mumps and rubella, infection linked to sterility) at $87 per dose.
Next is the shot for the deadly and crippling polio at $200 per dose, followed by the lethal tetanus-diphtheria at $60 per dose.
Vaccines for the deadly bacterial meningitis/meningoccal disease costs $128 per dose and varicella or chicken pox, which is debilitating and potentially deadly for adults at $170 per dose. This is a newer vaccine and I did not receive it when I entered Navy boot camp in 1999.
Then there is the "peanut butter injection" also known as bicillin, a hardcore antibiotic for serious diseases like the deadly syphilis. I received this $200-per-dose injection twice when I was exposed to deadly strep. This exposure proved fatal to a fellow recruit in the first month of training.
Servicemembers also receive(d) the vaccine for COVID-19 at a cost of $120 per dose.
Altogether, taxpayers foot the bill for roughly $1,200 worth of vaccines to prevent deadly and crippling diseases in each servicemember.
Depending on risk, occupation and area of responsibility, servicemembers might also receive protection from anthrax, cholera, haemophilus influenza type B, Japanese encephalitis, pneumococcal, rabies, smallpox, typhoid fever and yellow fever.
On Jan. 11, 2023, the Pentagon officially rescinded the requirement for our troops in the U.S. to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, giving commanders some discretion for deployment purposes.
What does this mean for the health of the U.S. military?
Will recruits and fleet servicemembers refuse other mandatory vaccines in the future? Will opting out affect their state of readiness? If our enemies become aware of military members refusing vaccines, won't this make our troops vulnerable?
What about the cost to the taxpayers for service-connected disability when members are able to bully their way out of other mandatory vaccines?
Measles and mumps cause sterility. If an individual contracts either while on active duty and suffers sterility, the monthly price tag is upwards of $1000 per month for life. Then add roughly $200 a month for what the military calls "special monthly compensation due to loss of a reproductive organ.
If the servicemember dies from a disease while on active duty, his or her dependents will receive death benefits including a monthly pension. They'll also get medical care for children and college for all dependents.
All of this falls on the taxpayer — all of it could have been avoided with a single $120 vaccine.
What if a servicemember chooses to decline a vaccination for mumps? A member without the long-proven and safe protection from mumps could suffer natural infection with the following complications: inflammation of the testicles (orchitis); this may lead to a decrease in testicular size (testicular atrophy); inflammation of the ovaries (oophoritis) and/or breast tissue (mastitis); inflammation in the pancreas (pancreatitis); inflammation of the brain (encephalitis); inflammation of the tissue covering the brain and spinal cord (meningitis); deafness.
If an active service member contracts mumps and is afflicted with moderate chronic pancreatitis at a 30 percent disability rating and a dependent spouse receives $568.05 every month. Yearly, that cost is $6,816.60 and for the next 50 years of life is $340,830 for one disability claim.
If 200 people refuse the MMR vaccine and suffer chronic pancreatitis, the price tag is over $68 million in their lifetimes.
If 2,000 servicemembers — a conservative number — decline the COVID vaccine and suffer permanent effects, do the math. The figures are staggering.
We all know freedom has a price. But the cost of choosing to decline a simple vaccination is immense. And it's a cost borne not just by those who choose to shun it, but by all U.S. taxpayers — even those who made the responsible choice to receive the vaccine.
All avoidable with a $120 shot.
The numbers do not lie.
Lisa McCracken served eight years in the U.S. Navy, where she managed the complex logistics required to maintain top readiness and safety status for both fixed- and rotary-wing air squadrons. McCracken's administrative skills as a data analyst were underscored by her service commendations and duty evaluations. A political moderate and cancer survivor, McCracken ran unsuccessfully for McMinnville City Council in 2020.