How Far We Have Come
10-09-09

Today’s generation of young adults raising kids have only had to be concerned with normal childhood vaccinations. They probably have never had the measles, mumps, or whooping cough nor known anyone who did. They just know that the vaccines are required. Another thing they have no concept of is the devastation of an epidemic or a disfiguring disease other than what they have read of been told. More than likely they have never known anyone who died from tetanus, or anyone living with the effects of polio or small pox, or anyone who had to “go away” because they had tuberculosis.

Those are all frightening and those of us who are 50 something or older remember. We are no strangers to lining up for vaccines.

Smallpox can be traced back to 10,000 BC. It killed millions of people worldwide. The success of the smallpox vaccine in the 19th and 20th centuries has made it the only human infectious disease to be completely eradicated. I was too young to remember getting this vaccine, and I don’t have the telltale round scar that most people have. I do remember asking my mother if I had received it since I didn’t have the same scar as all my friends, and being relieved that I was indeed properly vaccinated.

Polio vaccines are administered both as a live virus orally, and a injection of the killed virus. As a small child I recall going to the armory for a sugar cube and thinking that was definately the way to get a “shot.” Way better that the injections we got at school! Polio scared parents in the 1950's so much that they did not question the safety of a vaccine. In 1954 more than a million children received an experimental vaccine.

When the new measles vaccine came out in 1968, we all got one. It was administered at school and everyone was dreading it. We were all concerned with getting a shot and being “brave” in front of all our peers. Turned out we were worried for nothing because we got our vaccinations with the new air gun method. It was a breeze. We were all cool and our reputations remained intact.

When the Swine Flu broke out in 1976 there was panic. A vaccine was quickly made available, but it proved to be worse than the flu. There was only 1 death from the flu, and 25 deaths from the vaccine. Another 500 people contracted Gillian Barre disease from the vaccine and were paralyzed. The haste to provide the vaccine did not have a positive outcome.

With today’s H1N1 virus many people were concerned that it took so long to develop and produce the vaccine, but it is so much better to be sure that the vaccine is safe. Forms of H1N1 have circulated widely throughout the 20th century. The most notable outbreak being the deadly Spanish Flu of 1918. Others were in 1947, 1957, and 1977. People are concerned about getting sick with the virus, and just as many people are concerned about getting sick from the vaccine. The current pandemic is scary and the vaccine being in short supply doesn’t help ease that. The media tells us that thousands of people die every year from the seasonal flu. Yet the daily news says nothing of those people. Instead, every day we hear how many are sick with the H1N1 virus and how many have died. I say be careful, get the vaccine if you need it, and don’t let panic consume you.