Why Vaccinate?

I know how that feels. I felt much the same way with my second-born. He was a preemie, and I’d been hearing a lot of controversy about vaccination from my more ‘crunchy’ friends, and I was afraid of making the wrong choice for him. I was afraid of doing something that might harm him. I didn’t know enough or have the time or energy to sort through all of the claims, but I assuaged my anxiety somewhat by having my very-patient pediatrician agree to a modified and delayed vaccination schedule. After a few years, I relaxed a bit and had all of my kids’ vaccinations brought up to date.

And I’m glad I did, because what I didn’t consider at the time is that it was never just about my personal choices for my children’s health.

Vaccination isn’t just about protecting your own kids.

It’s about protecting Sammy.

This is Sammy. He’s my nephew, and he has leukemia. He’s a year into his treatment now, which means he still has years to go.

As a result of his illness and chemotherapy, Sammy has lost all of the immunities provided by his own early childhood immunizations. Not only is he not immune to diseases like measles or pertussis, but he is highly vulnerable to them, and far more likely than a healthy child to suffer the worst complications, including death.

Sammy is my reason for being vigilant in keeping my children’s immunizations up to date.

But the thing is that there have always been Sammys around us. The immunocompromised and immunodeficient don’t walk around wearing labels. They don’t all have adorable bald heads so that you know they are ill.

I know that this is a human appeal, an emotional appeal, and thus easy to dismiss. I offer it to weigh against all of the other very human, emotional appeals based on the fear of vaccine injury. Vaccine injuries do happen, though they are rare. It is prudent and wise to be cautious about vaccination when your child has had a bad reaction, if they have complicating health factors, or if you have a family history of bad vaccine reactions. Those children, like Sammy, should be precious to all of us.

Like Sammy, they rely on the rest of us–those with no history of adverse vaccine reactions, those with healthy children and uncomplicated medical histories, to do our part and vaccinate to prevent the spread of preventable disease to the unprotected.

Vaccines aren’t a perfect solution to the problem of endemic disease, but it’s the best we’ve got right now. Vaccination has already made this a safer world for children like Sammy.

This is Sammy. He’s my reason for vaccinating. Who is your reason?