The Return of the Anti-Vaxxer

So... last year a young woman arrived in San Pedro. She was nice but quite kooky. A faux-hippie. Perhaps even a Trustafarian (a young traveller, usually wearing a hippie costume, who is supported by a trust fund).

At some point during her stay here, she managed to get herself pregnant.

Eventually, she came to term and decided to give birth in a most unusual way: in a public "solar" pool with a bunch of hippie friends.

Gross.

Anyway, she gave birth and then hung around for a while, telling everyone who would listen that she wasn't going to vaccinate the child. Also, she passed it around to her hippie friends much like one would pass a joint (if that's your thing). Poor child.

Now, the decision to not vaccinate your child is a personal (if uninformed) one. But it also affects children who can't be vaccinated. Hence, the return of all the diseases that we had supposedly beaten.

Fast forward to yesterday.

I'm walking to the other side of town with friends of mine who became parents just months ago. As we made our way through the dirty, patchouli oil-covered faux-hippie throngs (and their equally stinky dogs) we bumped into the Kooky Mother.

Her baby, now a year old, was naked (because he peed and pooped a lot, she said) and barely attached to her back in what appeared to be an old cloth shopping bag. The child was also small, smaller than my friends' four-month-old.

Kooky Mother immediately wanted to touch the four-month-old. The child's mother was not impressed, as she also knew of Kooky's aversion to all things healthy (and soap).

Kooky Mother suggested a play date and said she'd pop by as she knew where my friends lived. They bristled at the idea.

Eventually, we were on our way. My friends pulled out some hand sanitizer to clean the spot where Kooky Mother touched their baby.

We laughed, but we also felt sad for Kooky's child: its stunted development and the environment in which it was growing up.

Just another day in paradise!

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