A reporter from a local public radio station interviewed me last week about the outbreak, asking what Disneyland should be doing about all of this. I replied that it was a unfair to be putting any responsibility for this on Disney. As "southern California'a family room," a place where tens of thousands of people congregate on any given day, Disneyland is one of the more likely places for an outbreak of a highly contagious disease to happen. People are calling this the "Disneyland outbreak" simply because that's where this one got its start, much as we name earthquakes for their epicenters and wildfires for the place where someone first saw the flames. But Disneyland's no more dangerous to visit today than any other public place in southern California or any other community to which the measles now have spread.
Maybe we need to go back through the Mighty Microscope again, this time to learn about vaccination.
As an employer, Disney has done what any responsible employer should do in this type of situation. It has seen that infected employees are treated, and that other employees at risk are isolated until they are immunized or the danger has passed.
Let's not forget, though, that this outbreak happened not because of some failure on Disney's part, but because of the failure of thousands of people across Southern California to get properly immunized and to immunize their children. Millions of Americans have chosen to ignore science on immunizations in favor of believing conspiracy theories and junk reports from talk shows and celebrities who haven't the slightest clue about medicine, biology, or anything other than getting themselves noticed. (You can imagine that this is where we cut to a shot of people over at SeaWorld nodding their heads in sympathetic frustration.)
The thing is, the Walt Disney Company used to be pretty darned good at not just educating people about things such as science, but getting people to buy in that they should get to know something about science. Before Disney's theme parks became solely focused on extending animation and comic book franchises, Disney's Imagineers did some pretty fun work with non-fiction themes. Attractions such as "Adventure Thru Inner Space" and "Body Wars" not only entertained us, they provided gentle lessons about chemistry, biology, and the human immune system. Seems like those are some lessons that we could use more public enthusiasm for these days.
Let's take a step into the Wayback Machine are revisit these now-closed Disney classics:
There have been more than 144,000 cases of preventable illness and more than 6,000 preventable deaths in the United States since 2007 due to people not getting immunized on schedule, according to one analysis of the Centers For Disease Control And Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports. But I don't think that those numbers will motivate change from anyone who's already chosen to ignore the massive amount of data demonstrating the safety and efficacy of vaccines. Some people think they are, well, immune, from that sort of thing.
If we're going to get Americans vaccinated the way we once did in this country, we need to get people bought into science they way we once were. We need someone to do specifically for medical science what Neil deGrasse Tyson just tried to do with his reboot of Carl Sagan's Cosmos [affiliate link]. If cold statistics and physician lectures won't rekindle demand for better preventive medical care, perhaps we need a warmer, more entertaining approach.
Perhaps we need some Imagineering know-how right now. Disney doesn't have to do anything more than it has about this measles outbreak. But if Disney wants to show its civic mindfulness, what better time to charge its creative talent to come up with something that might inspire more Americans to do the right thing by themselves and their neighbors and to get vaccinated? As a Disney Legend once wrote, "one little spark of inspiration is at the heart of all creation."
Disney used to be great at creating those little sparks of inspiration. I'd betcha that, if it wanted to, Disney could start doing that again.
You might also like:
- Five Disneyland Employees Diagnosed with Measles
- Why theme park fans #BelieveInEpcot... and why theme park companies should, too
- Why America needs Epcot... and other 'non-fiction' theme parks
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