ChrisAnna Mink is a pediatrician and 2015 graduate of the masters in specialized journalism program at USC Annenberg School. Most of her career has been sepent in vaccine research, government (including the FDA Office of Vaccines), or caring for the underserved. She has worked at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center for more than a decade and from 2006 - 2014, she was the Medical Director of the Kids in the Dependency (KIDS) foster care clinic.
Earlier this year, an expert panel called for the closure of L.A. County's Welcome Centers for kids awaiting foster placements. But the real problems have more to do with a lack of foster homes and chronic underinvestment in programs that can keep kids from needing foster care in the first place.
Three-and-a-half-year-old Dylan was tiny, feisty and freckled with tousled blond hair. His mom brought him to the pediatric clinic because he had tried to smother his 2-week-old sister. She didn’t know what to do with him, and frankly neither did we. It was 5 p.m. and the clinic was closing.
The privilege that has allowed parents to refuse immunizations for their kids stems not from economic or educational status — it springs from the privilege of not having seen the horrific diseases that ravaged U.S. children just two generations ago, and continue to do so worldwide.
