This American Life · Podcast summary
896: I Know What You Need
School nurse Meredith Manwaring and her district's superintendent and health department fought a measles outbreak and won. They share how they did it, and what they learned.
Listen on the show ↗Key takeaways
- 🦠The measles outbreak in Vernal, Utah, began after a high school wrestling championship, leading to two confirmed cases in the high school and another at a Frozen theater production.00:36
- ⚖️A critical decision was made to use the word "shall" instead of "may" in the health department's order, mandating that unvaccinated students stay home during the outbreak, which set a firm precedent for public health.01:08
- 📞School nurses Meredith Manwaring and Megan Smith established a command center to contact 54 unvaccinated families, adopting an empathetic approach to avoid judgmental tones and build trust.03:11
- 💉Some parents chose to vaccinate their children to allow them to return to school, while others were resistant, highlighting the complex emotional and practical challenges faced by families.04:44
- 🏥The nurses successfully encouraged parents of sick children to seek medical attention, emphasizing that no one would be judged and prioritizing the child's well-being.05:52
- ✅Vernal successfully contained the measles outbreak in just six weeks, a testament to the effectiveness of their strategy and the dedication of the school nurses.06:22
Chapters
- 0:00The Measles Crisis in Vernal, Utah
- 1:48The Power of "Shall": A Crucial Decision
- 5:11The Nurses' Offensive: Direct Communication and Empathy
- 10:22A Satisfying Success: Lessons Learned
The digest
The Measles Crisis in Vernal, Utah
In February, Vernal, Utah, a town of 11,000 people, found itself in the midst of a measles outbreak. The outbreak started after a large high school wrestling championship, where dozens of people contracted measles. Soon after, two students at the high school tested positive for measles. Then another case showed up at the high school theater's production of Frozen.
Meredith Manwaring, a school nurse with 17 years of experience, described the situation as a "mad scramble." The local health department and school district faced a daunting challenge: how to contain a highly contagious disease in a remote part of the state, where vaccine hesitancy was prevalent.
Keep reading in The Digest
The full 4-minute article, 3 more sections, and every new episode from This American Life and the creators you follow.
- The Power of "Shall": A Crucial Decision
- The Nurses' Offensive: Direct Communication and Empathy
- A Satisfying Success: Lessons Learned
More from This American Life
898: An Argument
Nicole Hannah-Jones reflects on her decade-old decision to enroll her daughter in a segregated public school, exploring the complex realities of educational inequality and integration.
897: Intergenerational Space Travel
Producer Josh Reddick's new walk-up song has become a huge part of Major League Baseball.
646: The Secret of My Death
A man who went to a stranger’s funeral and had to piece together all the stuff he would want to know in that kind of situation.
206: Somewhere in the Arabian Sea
Life on an aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea, where thousands of young people are cooped up together for months at a time, far from home, and trying to keep people from having sex with each other.
895: Label Maker!
Comedian Janet McNamara and others discuss the labels we apply to ourselves and others, and the surprising power these labels can hold.