THE NEWYORKER, SEPTEMBER 23, 2019 3
brother, Edwin, had died of diphthe-
ria. Growing up, I saw people dying
too young all around me, including
one of my peers, who died at thirteen
or fourteen after contracting polio.
Measles, diphtheria, and polio—
these were prevalent diseases at the
time, but now they are preventable,
thanks to vaccines. Why wouldn’t we
want to spare our children such ter-
rible fates?
Abby Adams Westlake
Ancram, N.Y.
1
CHANGING TUNESAlex Ross, in his review of Erich Wolf-
gang Korngold’s musical œuvre, takes
exception to the pejorative cliché “That
sounds like film music,” arguing that
the century-long history of soundtrack
music has been too varied in style and
instrumentation to deserve such lazy
categorization (Musical Events, Au-
gust 19th). It occurs to me, though, that
eventually the term “film music” may
no longer evoke in the average listen-
er’s mind the lush symphonic output
of legendary practitioners such as
Korngold, Bernard Herrmann, Mal-
colm Arnold, Ennio Morricone, Max
Steiner, Franz Waxman, and John Wil-
liams. People might instead equate
“film music” with the currently pop-
ular mixture of strident synthesizers
and pounding percussion. As the ac-
tion, camerawork, and editing in many
Hollywood films have become more
assaultive on the senses, the soundtracks
have followed suit. Compared with
the aural head-banging inflicted upon
audiences by wide-release movies, Herr-
mann’s shower-scene string shrieks in
“Psycho” sound as lyrical as Beetho-
ven’s “Pastoral” Symphony.
David English
Acton, Mass.MY SHOT
Nick Paumgarten, in his piece about
the recent measles outbreak in New
York State, quotes Dr. Howard Zucker,
the state’s health commissioner, as
saying that “we need to study vaccine
hesitancy as a disease” (“The Mes-
sage of Measles,” September 2nd).
This statement reflects what I believe
to be a profound truth that might be
helpful in combatting the anti-vac-
cine movement. Like Dr. Zucker, I
am surprised by how many highly ed-
ucated people are anti-vaxxers. As a
medical-school student and later as a
primary-care physician, I encountered
medical professionals who expressed
hesitancy about vaccine use. I have
since wondered how many more are
among our ranks. It scares me that
those who provide primary-care med-
icine might be, at best, tacitly sup-
porting patients who are not vacci-
nating their children, or, at worst,
spreading falsehoods about vaccines
to their patients.
By framing “vaccine hesitancy” as
a disease, we can address the paradox
of physicians and other health-care
providers who do not vaccinate or
promote vaccination. Doctors are sus-
ceptible to other diseases, such as al-
coholism and addiction, so why not
“vaccine hesitancy”? The challenge is
getting those who are affected into
treatment.
Indira Konanur, D.O.
Watertown, Mass.
I was born in 1939, and, like many
children who grew up during the mid-
twentieth century, I had all the con-
tagious illnesses we associate with that
era, including measles, German mea-
sles, chicken pox, whooping cough,
and mumps. I was eight or nine when
I caught the measles; at one point, my
temperature was a hundred and six. I
remember lying in bed, feeling awful,
and knowing that my mother thought
I was going to die. She had good rea-
son to be afraid of severe childhood
illnesses: in 1912, her twelve-year-old
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