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MORE REASON TO VACCINATE In her Feb. 12 Guestwork, “Why historians vaccinate their kids,” Erika Holst provides an excellent explanation why the historians she knows fall into the provaccine camp. As they research historic documents, they come face to face with the poignant words of those who have lost friends and family, especially children, to diseases which we can now prevent through vaccinations. Before the development and widespread use of vaccines, Americans lived in a different world, a world where infectious disease could appear suddenly and without warning, often with fatal results. It was virtually impossible to stop their spread. Families, including my own, were traumatized and worse.
In the pre-vaccine days of the last century, my grandmother and her infant daughter both contracted measles, dying a few days later apparently of pneumonia. My grandmother left behind five young children, my father being the eldest, and my grandfather who was dying from cancer. Within three months, two people in their early 30s were dead and five young children were orphaned. In the pre-child-service days, the children were separated and parceled out to anyone who would take them in. Similar to the experience of some children today, several of the siblings bounced from home to home.
As a child, I knew from my mother not to ask my father about his childhood... a hard impulse to resist considering that I am my grandmother’s namesake. But Dad did eventually talk about his childhood. He later agreed to write his remembrances, which were vivid, heartbreaking and detailed even in his 80s.
Ironically, I chose a career in public health, not even knowing at the time that my grandmother’s death had started with a case of measles. If only a measles vaccine had been available when she was a child. So, I have both sciencebased and personal reasons for supporting vaccinations. As for my grandfather’s cancer, it was a type which is easily and successfully treated today. Edie Sternberg Petersburg
(UN)SETTLED SCIENCE The uproar about opposition to forced vaccinations leaves me with unsettled issues. (“Why Historians vaccinate their kids,” by Erika Holst, Feb. 12.)
First, I do not understand how the vaccinated public is somehow at risk from the ones not vaccinated. Isn’t that the purpose of the vaccinations? Second, the absurd term “settled science,” used by those promoting forced vaccinations. The term “settled science” is an oxymoron. Science is never settled. True science is constantly changing and there are seldom any issues that the scientific community is in total agreement on. So-called “settled science” routinely approves use of prescription drugs based on “scientific” testing and evidence only to be followed by the lawyer’s lawsuit, saying whoops, you messed up again. I think the issue is controlled by an egotistical medical system that demands obedience.
I will trust the likes of Punxsutawney Phil’s weather reports and leave settled science to the faithful. And you can forcibly vaccinate me, if you wish – you’ll just have to send a couple of big strong folk to hold me down while you do it. Michael Hart Springfield
