This last week saw another outbreak, this time measles, another controversy, more antivaxers speaking out. Sprucking their pseudo science and non factual mantra about vaccines. The time has come to draw the line in the sand. Diseases that were thought of as wiped out are surfacing again, endangering lives of the vulnerable.Rights and responsibilities are not separate, yes you have the right to choose what works for you but also a responsibility to the common good. You have the right to choose what you want for your family but a responsibility to your neighbour. Society has certain rules, being protected from diseases we can prevent should be one of them. Obviously I believe in vaccinations.
Here’s why:
My dad and his brother contracted polio in 1952, prior to the invention of the vaccine. He was 14, his brother was 11. It was at a time when they didn’t understand how to treat it correctly and so believed they needed to keep the muscles still. They were kept in isolation after being rushed by ambulance to the Prince Henry Hospital in Sydney. At the time Australian nurse, Sister Kenny was trying to use hyrdrotherapy as a treatment but Doctors refused to listen, she was after all, just a nurse.
They spent 5 1/2 months in hospital rehabilitation, my dad in a frame with his arms strapped up and a hip to toe leg cast, my uncle with leg frames. They were surrounded by other children in similar frames, casts and iron lungs. The iron lungs made noise, breathing for the affected patient. The loud humming was something to get used to and it wasn’t until it stopped and the occupant had lost the fight that they were really even noticed. That happened often according to my uncle. Dad talked a lot about those times, how the nurses were bitches and wouldn’t come when they buzzed, how his brother became his minder, doing everything including scratching his nose by scooching around the room on a hospital chair! One time my uncle had to spread newspaper around on the bed for dad to pee because the nurses ignored the call button and never came with a bedpan, oh how he got in trouble for that!
My Dad with his new dog and the chest and arm frame he had to wear, in the family back yard
My grandfather bought them both a puppy and showed them to the boys through the hospital window, as an incentive to keep going and want to come home. Can you even imagine the trauma all this caused the boys and their family at home?
18 months of hospital, rehab and body frames, can you imagine it?
Here’s the boys before the were infected.
Stuck in a hospital bed with both arms strapped up in a frame. He was around Grand Master D’s age, a fit, able, good looking, strong young man, when he contracted polio. He was convinced he got it from the public swimming pool, they had just started swimming lessons.
He was told he’d never lead a normal life after, his body was very deformed from the waist up. His shoulder muscles on the left were wasted away, this caused a severe curvature of the spine and a hump where his unaffected shoulder blade was. He had weakness in his left arm and both hands. He couldn’t lift his left arm above his head. He couldn’t lie flat on his back, he lost overall height because of the curvature and twisted body frame. I can only imagine how difficult life after was for him, kids are cruel, bullies rife in that era and discrimination the norm. They both had to learn to walk again, learn to use those twisted, damaged bodies. He proved them all so wrong, He worked for decades in a physically challenging industry, he worked the farm, grew sheep, erected miles of fencing , built sheds, cut wood, fixed cars, drove tractors. He did everything an able bodied man could do and more, he always provided for us. But he lived with pain and body image issues and physical limitations every.single.day. He never complained and he was always open about discussing it with us, telling us about his experiences, good and bad. Teaching us empathy and acceptance of things you cannot control.
Working the farm like a Boss
He also emphasised the importance of immunisations, of protecting yourself against diseases. We saw first hand what the alternatives were. As the years progressed his physical limitations became more, even though he survived 2 different bouts with cancer, lost the tip of his finger and a forklift accident crushed his already damaged chest, the curvature, causing restricted lung capacity in his ever decreasing chest cavity with a hunch back, minimal use of hands and thumbs, shortened trunk and problems with his lungs and heart, it was this now preventable disease, that ultimately took his life through it’s continued life long complications.
Although polio hasn’t really resurfaced as yet, measles, mumps and whooping cough have in many western countries where it was once thought to be entirely wiped out. Not many remember what it was like before we had vaccines to protect against these diseases. Those generations who suffered are growing old and losing their fight but this new movement, the one where people are screaming foul of vaccinations, those who put the fear into ill-informed parents, those people, are endangering lives, not only of their own children but the lives of others, condemning them to a lifetime of medical problems caused by an entirely preventable condition. I find them abhorrent. It makes my blood boil.
For the preventable, like rubella, measles, mumps, chicken pox, whooping cough, diphtheria and polio, why wouldn’t you want to protect your child from deafness, blindness, unborn child defects, brain damage and/or lifetime physical deformities? I just don’t understand this thinking.
Furthermore you’re endangering those who are not yet able to be vaccinated and other vulnerable people in the community. It makes no sense and it’s entirely selfish and quite frankly, counterintuitive. The evidence is clear, vaccines save more lives than they harm.
As for some of the others on the market, more testing needs to be done, like the HPV for girls, and now boys (who by the way don’t even have cervixes with which to contract cancer) this is preventable by safe sexual practices and I personally don’t believe requires vaccination. It’s not like you can catch it from an airborne virus but that’s another argument for another day. 🙂
For these diseases, the benefits outweigh the risks and for the good of the entire population it’s time to get tough.
While I was writing this article, Croatia has made the bold move to make vaccines compulsory. It’s a step in the right direction. Now if only the rest of the modern world would follow suit so no child ever has to experience what both my father, uncle and countless others did in the generations before prevention.
Comments 16
A wonderful story of an outstanding human. Thank you for sharing that.
Author
Thanks Man! He really was all that.
What an inspiring man! It kills me that people don’t understand the importance of vaccines.
You wouldn’t believe how many people are actually outraged by that decision here in Croatia, at least among the people I socialize with. They are of the belief that as a parent you should have a right to choose whether or not you are vaccinating your child or not.
Personally, I was surprised that chicken pox vaccine is mandatory in USA because it’s not in Croatia. I don’t mind the vaccines and all of our kids are caught up and regular on their shots!
Author
But why would you choose to risk your child’s health? That’s what I don’t get. And because these diseases have been almost gone, no one really remembers the effects or sees the damage and that’s where the danger lies. Theses things are literally one person away via a flight from an infected nation.
Great post. I agree with you 100%. I’ll be sharing this one. Your father and his story are inspiring.
I agree 100%! I understand some parents choosing a delayed schedule (for example, my boys had severe allergies from a young age, and it was scary to give them so many at once when their immune systems were already out of whack!) but to choose not to vaccinate at all is irresponsible, careless, and selfish. Thanks for linking up!
My uncle suffered from Polio, it makes me so mad when people don’t vaccine their kids. Even more so when they smugly rely on the fact that their kids are protected from these diseases because others are immunising…
Author
Problem is they’re not! Because Polio is just one plane ride away…. and the more who don’t immunise the more chance it will arrive back in America. The world is no longer isolated. People can be so stupid. Thanks for your comments. I hope your Uncle wasn’t too badly affected and doesn’t suffer too much from post polio syndrome
I’m so glad more articles like this are popping up. You are absolutely right.
I completely believe in vaccinations, especially since my middle child was at near death with meningococcal when she was just 9 months. We can irradiate most or all of these disease with vaccinations and I wish people would believe in that.
Author
scary stuff! I’m glad it turned out ok. Thanks for commenting
I disagree 100%. I began to question the system when the hospitals, with four of my six kids, started in 1998 wanting to give my less than 24 hour old babies, a Hep B shot. Are you kidding me???? Do they even know what Hep B is? And each time I assured them that my babies were not having sex or using drug needles.
I started to research what they put into these chemicals we pump into our small children’s bodies and I was horrified.
Fluoride, aborted baby cells, Ethylene glycol (antifreeze) phenol also known as carbolic acid (this is used as a disinfectant, dye) formaldehyde, a known cancer causing agent, aluminum which is associated with Alzheimers disease and seizures also cancer producing in laboratory mice (it is used as an additive to promote antibody response)
Thimerosal (used as a mercury disinfectant/perservative) which can result in brain injury and autoimmune disease. Neomycin, streptomycin (used as antibiotic) have caused allergic reaction in some people.
My children get the MMR and that’s it. If everyone else wants to believe that giving a two year old three shots at once is somehow safe and normal, I can’t stop anyone. But I’ll be a monkey’s uncle before anyone forces me to pump antifreeze or dead baby cells in my children.
This is America, where there is still some hope for freedom, not a village where we do what we’re told to do. We are a republic, not a democracy, and the louder side does not get to assume they’re right.
None of my kids have ever had an ear infection or any infection for that matter. They’re rarely sick and when they are it’s a cold or the flu.
Your fathers story is amazing, but as you said, there hasn’t been an uprising of this former disease. With all the drugs our kids take we now see new issues/illnesses/allergies forming.
I get why parents vaccinate and I never tell them not to. They want to keep their children safe and healthy. Well so do I and all of the other parents who don’t over vaccinate. When it comes to a persons children we are all doing what we think is right and best. No one has the right to tell me I’m wrong after I’ve spent 11 years researching this. No one…
Author
Yet, Polio is just one plane ride away. I certainly hear you with the toxins that are mixed in with certain vaccines. I hope your children never get anything more than colds or flu. Thank you for your thought provoking comments.
I completely agree! My friend Erin (who is an M.D.) wrote a great post about this, too. I tried to link to it but the commenting system won’t let me. It’s at Sisterhood of the Sensible Moms. Vaccines save lives. End of story.
Author
Thanks JD, it certainly puts things into perspective when you see the affects of these diseases. I’ll look for her post. I’m interested to read 🙂