Vaccines Prevent the Spread of Diseases

By: Leah, mother, Portland, OR

I have lived and worked in other countries, and I have family in northeastern Brazil, a place where some vaccines only became available to the general public recently.  I have family and friends who are doctors and scientists, some of whom have treated illnesses that could have been prevented with vaccines.  They have had to comfort the parents of children who were disfigured, brain-damaged, or died as a result of preventable illnesses.  I lived in Denver, Colorado, where one of my colleagues still walks with great difficulty and the help of crutches, as he has for most of his life, because he did not receive the polio vaccine as a child and then contracted the disease.

I know that most people in Oregon have not seen the horror that diseases can do. That is not just because we are lucky. That is because modern medicine has developed vaccines to prevent the spread and the damage of those diseases.  

Recently while on a vacation, my family witnessed a terrible car accident. One car had flipped over several times and landed on its roof. In the other car, a passenger was stuck between his steering wheel and his seat back. As the first responders, we kept the victims alert and talking until the paramedics arrived. Every single one of them was wearing a seat belt. Every single one of them walked away with only minor injuries. 

Their outcome was not luck; it was the result of the science behind seat belts, air bags, and crumple zones, technology that allows us to live longer, healthier lives and to survive the things that killed and maimed people in the past. 

Similarly, I think of vaccines as life-saving technology. My children and myself will be out in the world, and there is always a chance that we will be exposed to a disease that could hurt or kill us. Thanks to the modern technology of vaccines, we have a chance to walk away from them, unharmed.