“I attended the child at her own house. She did not need to be admitted to the hospital.”
“Couldn’t she have come to your office for treatment, Dr. Barrett?”
“I did not want her to visit the clinic in person,” replied the doctor.
“And why is that, Doctor?”
The frown on the doctor’s face deepened and Declan was sure there was a great inner conflict going on within his heart and mind right then. He also knew that his next answer was going to be bad for the Coopers’ defense.
“Because Clara was highly contagious. And I didn’t want any other children to get sick.”
“Do you make a habit of treating many unvaccinated children, Dr. Barrett?”
“No, I don’t.”
“And why is that?” the barrister pressed.
Barrett’s face reddened, and he grimaced. But he knew he had to answer the question. “Because it’s a huge liability.”
“Why do you continue to treat the Coopers’, then?” Nevin raised his eyebrows as he presented the question.
The doctor sighed. “Because, as I said, I have known them for a long time. That’s why. And I care about the children.”
“Of course you do, of course,” the barrister commented. “And when Clara Cooper got sick, did any other cases of measles present in your office, among your patient population?”
“None in my office. I believe Rosie O’Hara was the only other case in Knockroe at the time, and I do not treat her as a patient.”
“Yes, we are aware of that, indeed,” replied Nevin. “Dr. Barrett, what is your experience pertaining to a situation when an unvaccinated child comes down with a highly infectious disease and spreads it to other children who are not protected—for instance, children like Rosie O’Hara, who through no fault of her own could not be vaccinated as a baby because of a medical condition.”
“I can’t speak about Rosie O’Hara,” replied the doctor shortly. “As I said before, I don’t treat her.”
“Of course, I’m well aware of that. However, my question pertains to how contagious a disease like measles would be among unvaccinated populations.”
“Well,” said the doctor thoughtfully. “Measles is indeed very contagious. Highly contagious. Of course, the belief is that there is a herd immunity of sorts and that the disease might not spread as easily among the unvaccinated while widespread immunity is present.”
Nevin nodded thoughtfully and walked closer to where Dr. Barrett sat in the witness stand. He placed a hand on the wooden ledge that separated them. “And what about in the case of Rosie O’Hara and Clara Cooper; they were in the same classroom. They interacted every day.”
“As both were unvaccinated, I think it’s very likely that the disease would easily pass from one to another. However, there is no way of knowing who was infected first—not when both presented symptoms so close together. Incubation time is not absolute and can vary.”
“Agreed,” said Nevin, wanting to move on and Declan realized Dr. Barrett was saying more than he had in his original preparation. And now he was introducing some doubt based on incubation time, which was obviously better for the defense side.
“Do you believe that this situation might have been prevented if Clara Cooper had been vaccinated?”
Dr. Barrett smirked; he wasn’t going to give such an easy answer. “I think it would have been prevented entirely ifbothgirls were vaccinated.” Then he shrugged. “Again, I cannot speak of Rosie O’Hara’s situation as I am not her physician. However, it’s my understanding that both girls showed symptoms within days of each other, which would be expected with a highly infectious illness among the unvaccinated population. And the mere fact that the girls were in such close proximity—namely sharing the same school classroom—points to the obvious.”
“Objection. Speculation,” Michael McGuinness, the defense’s barrister, intoned.
“Sustained,” said the judge quickly.
“How does measles spread, Doctor?” inquired Nevin, moving swiftly on.
“Well, the short version of it is that measles is a virus, and it lives in the mucus of the nose and throat of one who is infected. It is spread through physical contact, coughing and sneezing, etc. But it’s important to note that infected droplets of mucus can remain active and be passed on by touching for about two hoursaftera cough or a sneeze, for instance.”
“Thank you for that, Doctor,” Nevin replied. “I’m curious to know, is Mrs. Cooper vaccinated? Did you vaccinate her when she was a child?”
The doctor nodded and relaxed just a little. “Yes, with whatever vaccines were available here at the time. Vaccination protection for measles was not introduced in Ireland until the mid to late eighties.”
“But Mrs. Cooper was vaccinated as per then-current Health Service guidelines?”
