Voices For Vaccines

When my son was born, I made sure he got his first hepatitis B vaccine before we left the hospital.

Childhood memories shaped my eventual path to vaccination—it was a consequence my parents never intended.

When the coffins ran out, they used doors. Grandma carried the memory of one forever.

If we make people feel the vaccine is not important, we will go back to a public health crisis.

My name's Harvey! Here's the story of how one of my friends wasn't vaccinated and got kennel cough.

It took me a while to see Hep B for what it was: an intergenerational problem for my family.

I’ve overcome so much medically. But I can’t beat measles and other diseases on my own.

Every time I get sick, my immune system treats it as something it's never seen before—a complete unknown.

Measles vaccine became widely available two years later, when I was in first grade.

Love your neighbor as yourself, including by protecting them from disease. Three faith leaders speak on the importance of vaccination.

by Kelly I was four years old when measles collapsed my left lung. But my family has many stories of illnesses that are now prevented by vaccines. by Kelly I was four years old when measles collapsed my left lung. But my family has many stories of illnesses that are now prevented by vaccines.

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The vaccine didn't exist when I was a teen. I truly wish it had been available, because cancer was brutal.

by Judith Katz When COVID arrived, it brought something with it I hadn’t felt in decades: the particular fear of a disease with no cure. I recognized it immediately. I had felt it as a child, in the 1940s and 1950s, when polio stalked every neighborhood in America. Who can forget the do

If somebody had told me they were vaccinated, I probably would have told them that was a sin.

I was eleven years old, and in the early stages of meningococcal meningitis. Nobody recognized how sick I was.

by Ginny Cunningham No one tells you how extraordinarily brutal whooping cough is on a baby’s body. Episodes started with a small cough that became progressively more violent while my five-week-old daughter’s face turned blue. Then came several seconds of silence while she struggled for breath. That’s when you pray—pray to hear the famous “whoop” when her breath returns. It took thirty-three hour…

by Kelsey Fox Bennett Boyd, M.Ed. My organs were failing. I was going into septic shock. I was dying. And I was only 5 ½ months old. I had bacterial spinal meningitis and the nearest hospital to my small town in Colorado was not equipped for my sensitive case so they helicoptered me to the Children’s Hospital in Denver. For 4 days they weren’t sure if I was going to live, and for another week the…

Influenza can be a serious illness, even for kids. Ayzlee was a previously healthy 3 year old who became very sick and tragically lost her life to the disease in 2014. Amber, her mom, and Irelynd, her sister, talk about how this changed their lives, and why it’s important to practice prevention. Ayzlee was vaccinated that year against the flu. But her family emphasizes that vaccination will still…

by Brooke Andersen My brother Bobby went to school on Friday, January 18, 1991, for the last time. He was suffering from what seemed to be a mild flu and was sent home from school. When he arrived home, it was clear he had something worse. He was coughing, lethargic, nauseous, and pale. He lay down on the couch to watch cartoons as I brought him water and crackers. A bucket sat next to him for wh…