Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1133.
Getting immunizations required by schools.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1133.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is something about immunizations.
What are immunizations?
Well, you'll have to listen and find out, won't you?
Let's get started.
Hi, Jenny.
Are you getting your kids ready for school too?
Yes.
As you can see, we're buying lots of school supplies.
Did you get the school letter reminding parents to submit proof of immunization before the first day of school?
I know that your youngest is starting school this year.
Yes, she is, but I'm thinking of getting an exemption.
I'm not sure vaccines are safe, and I don't want to take a chance with her health.
The immunizations required by the school are standard.
Measles, mumps, chickenpox, polio...
All vaccines your other children have had.
But when I looked at the list, there were a few I didn't recognize.
Diphtheria, hepatitis, and rubella.
Who knows what our kids are getting?
The ones you mentioned are standard too.
Don't you remember the outbreak of whooping cough last year?
If our kids had been immunized, they wouldn't have gotten sick.
I've read somewhere that vaccines might be dangerous.
I just don't want to jeopardize their future.
Why is that?
Because your children won't be getting an education.
The school is barring any children who don't get immunized from attending school.
I call that irresponsible.
That's exactly the word that came to my mind.
Jonas begins by saying to Jenny...
Are you getting your kids ready for school too?
I suppose Jonas means here getting your kids prepared to go to school.
Schools in the United States usually start their classes in the fall, in late August or early September.
Jenny says, yes, as you can see, we're buying a lot of school supplies.
School supplies would be things like pencils, notebooks, erasers, pens, that sort of thing.
Jonah says, did you get the school letter?
Reminding parents to submit proof of immunization before the first day of school.
Immunization, I-M-M-U-N-I-Z-A-T-I-O-N, means giving the body the ability to protect itself from a certain disease. either because it has already had that disease or, more likely, because it has received what's called a vaccine.
A vaccine.
V-A-C-C-I-N-E is medicine that is put into your body, that allows your body to fight a particular disease.
Usually, the idea is that the vaccine will prevent you from getting that disease.
Another way to look at this is that the vaccine is the medicine that is put in your body to prevent you from getting certain diseases.
Immunization is what happens to your body because of the vaccine.
So it's what happens after you get the vaccine.
Your body then has an immunity against a certain disease.
However, sometimes people use these two words interchangeably.
They talk about getting immunizations.
What they really mean is they're getting vaccines so that their body will have immunity.
An immunity, an ability to protect itself against a certain disease or diseases.
Okay, where were we?
Jonah says did you get the school letter reminding parents to submit, to give to the school proof or evidence of immunization before the first day of school?
Most schools in the United States require that the parents get their children vaccinated, that is, given these vaccines against certain common diseases.
And Jonas says I know that your youngest is starting school this year.
He means Jenny's youngest child.
Jenny says, yes, she is, but I'm thinking of getting an exemption.
An exemption E-X-E-M-P-T-I-O-N is permission not to follow a certain rule or law that, because of some sort of special circumstance,
Jenny says, I'm not sure vaccines are safe, and I don't want to take a chance with her health.
We've already explained what vaccines are.
There are a recent years who have been concerned that the vaccines themselves are somehow not safe, that getting the vaccine might be worse than getting the disease.
Now, almost every doctor will tell you that this isn't true, but some parents don't listen to the doctors, and so What happens is they try to get their children into the schools without being vaccinated by getting an exemption.
Jonas says the immunizations required by the school are standard.
Measles, mumps, chicken pox, polio.
All vaccines your other children have had.
When we say something is standard, we mean in this case it's normal, it's ordinary, it's nothing unusual, nothing special.
Jonas then lists the diseases that are typically covered by the vaccinations that schools require.
He begins with measles, M-E-A-S-L-E-S.
Measles is a disease that produces a small red spot on the skin.
We would call it a rash, R-A-S-H.
It also tends to give the person who has it a fever, F-E-V-E-R.
A fever is when your body's temperature is higher than it should be.
Another disease that children are vaccinated against is mumps, M-U-M-P-S.
Mumps is a disease that causes what we would call swelling, a sudden growth in the neck area.
Chickenpox, P-O-X, is a disease that that, like measles, produces red spots on the skin.
It's very common among young children.
I had chickenpox, I remember, when I was growing up as a child.
Now, the reason that we give these vaccines to children is most of these diseases are what are called communicable, which is to say that you can get them from other people.
Of course, we don't want the children giving other children these diseases.
That's why we have the vaccines.
Another disease mentioned by Jonas is polio, P-O-L-I-O.
Polio can be a very serious disease that causes paralysis, that is, the inability to move your arms and legs and possibly other parts of your body.
Jenny isn't so sure that she wants to have her daughter getting these vaccines.
She says, but when I looked at the list, There were a few I didn't recognize.
Diphtheria, hepatitis, and rubella.
Who knows what our kids are getting?
Jenny mentions three other diseases that children might be vaccinated against.
Diphtheria, D-I-P-H-T-H-E-R-I-A, is a disease that makes it difficult for a person to swallow.
It often causes what we would call a sore throat.
If you have a sore throat, it's difficult for you to swallow.
Diphtheria often results in a fever as well.
Hepatitis, H-E-P-A-T-I-T-I-S, is a disease that can damage your liver.
Your liver is a very important organ or part of your body.
The third disease Jenny mentions is rubella, R-U-B-E-L-L-A.
Rubella when I was growing up, was called German measles.
It's a disease that also produces a red rash or spot or area on your skin and produces a fever much like measles does.
Jonah says, the ones you mentioned are standard too.
Don't you remember the outbreak of whooping cough last year?
If our kids had been immunized they wouldn't have gotten sick. an outbreak o-u-t-b-r-e-a-k is a sudden increase in a disease or at least in the number of people i should say who have the disease there could be an outbreak of the flu of influenza where many different people are getting the disease Jonas mentions another disease, whooping, W-H-O-O-P-I-N-G, cough, C-O-U-G-H.
To cough is to do this.
Whooping cough is a disease that produces very strong coughs with a very loud sound.
High-pitched noise.
High-pitched would be something like this.
And low-pitched would be something like this.
I'm not sure exactly how whooping cough sounds.
I've never had it or don't know anyone who has had it.
Interestingly, we use the word whoop, W-H-O-O-P informally in American English to mean a couple of different things.
It can mean to defeat or beat someone in a competition.
There's a somewhat vulgar expression that people use to whoop someone's, and the word begins with an A and ends with an S, and it's only three letters long.
You can probably guess what that means.
Anyway, back to the story.
Jenny says, I've read somewhere that vaccines might be dangerous.
I just don't want to jeopardize their future.
To jeopardize J-E-O-P-A-R-D-I-Z-E something or someone means to put something or someone in danger in a dangerous situation.
Jenny doesn't want to put her children in danger by getting these vaccines.
Jonah says that's precisely what you'd be doing if you opted out of immunizations.
To opt out of something means to decide not to do something, to not participate in something that you would normally be expected or even required to do.
Jonah says, if Jenny doesn't get her children vaccinated, she would be putting them at risk.
She would be jeopardizing their future, their health.
Jenny says, why is that?
Jonah says, because your children won't be getting an education.
The school is barring any children who don't get immunized from From attending school.
The school is barring children from attending school who don't get immunized.
What does it mean to bar, B-A-R, someone from something?
It means to prevent someone from being able to do something or from being able to go somewhere.
This is the verb to bar.
It's not related in meaning to the noun bar, which is a place you go and have an alcoholic drink.
What I'll be doing right after I finish this recording.
Well, no, I'm just kidding.
It's only 11 o'clock in the morning, a little early for me for going to a bar.
Jenny says, I call that irresponsible.
The school is not going to allow children who don't get these vaccines to study in the school, to attend school.
Jenny thinks that's irresponsible. irresponsible means not responsible.
It means not doing the things that you should do.
Jenny thinks it's irresponsible of the school to bar children from attending because they haven't been vaccinated, but Jonas thinks the exact opposite.
He says That's the same word that I thought of when I thought about what you're doing Jenny, by not getting your children immunized.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Hi, Jenny.
Are you getting your kids ready for school, too?
Yes.
As you can see, we're buying lots of school supplies.
Did you get the school letter reminding parents to submit proof of immunization before the first day of school?
I know that your youngest is starting school this year.
Yes, she is, but I'm thinking of getting an exemption.
I'm not sure vaccines are safe, and I don't want to take a chance with her health.
The immunizations required by the school are standard.
Measles, mumps, chickenpox, polio, all vaccines your other children have had.
But when I looked at the list, there were a few I didn't recognize.
Diphtheria, hepatitis, and rubella.
Who knows what our kids are getting?
The ones you mentioned are standard, too.
Don't you remember the outbreak of whooping cough last year?
If our kids had been immunized, they wouldn't have gotten sick.
I've read somewhere that vaccines might be dangerous.
I just don't want to jeopardize their future.
Why is that?
Because your children won't be getting an education.
The school is barring any children who don't get immunized from attending school.
I call that irresponsible.
That's exactly the word that came to my mind.
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From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for listening.
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English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2015 by the Center for Educational Development.
