Okay, let’s talk about today’s big headline: A 12-year-old girl from Indiana, Adaline Deal, was denied a heart transplant at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Why? Because her parents refuse to get her vaccinated against COVID-19 and the flu. And here’s the kicker—she’s a distant relative of Vice President JD Vance. Distant. Like, “fourth cousin twice removed” distant. Like, “we’re probably all related if we go back far enough” distant. And yet, somehow, this is news.
Now, if you know anything about organ transplants (or just the concept of “not dying”), you know that hospitals have rules for a reason. When you get a new heart, your immune system is basically put on airplane mode to stop it from attacking the foreign organ. The downside? It also stops attacking, you know, everything else. So, yeah, doctors want transplant patients to be vaccinated because even a common cold could turn into The Oregon Trail—except instead of dysentery, it’s full-blown organ rejection.
And before anyone screams “medical tyranny,” let’s be clear: This is not a conspiracy. This is standard practice in transplant medicine. It’s not like the hospital sat around cackling, twirling their villain mustaches, thinking, “How can we deny a heart to a child today? Muahahaha!” No, they looked at the science and said, “Yeah, this kid has a better chance of surviving with a vaccine.” What a concept.
But instead of this being a tragic, difficult situation that, unfortunately, happens all the time, suddenly it’s breaking news because of that barely there Vance connection. Which is wild, because unless JD Vance is personally sewing the heart into her chest, I’m not sure why we’re even talking about him. It’s like if a guy got kicked out of a bar for starting a fight and the headline was, “Patron Ejected from Applebee’s—Also Happens to Be Taylor Swift’s Dog Groomer’s Nephew.”
Meanwhile, there are countless families across the country facing this exact same heart-wrenching decision—no headlines, no political grandstanding, just trying to do what’s best for their kid. And, call me crazy, but maybe that’s the bigger issue? Maybe, instead of sensationalizing one case because of a flimsy political connection, we should be talking about why people still think vaccines are optional in life-or-death medical situations.
So, yeah, it’s a tough situation, but also… play stupid games, win stupid prizes. If you want the cutting-edge miracle of modern medicine, maybe—just maybe—you should listen to modern medicine.
