I can’t help but wonder…
When my mother was getting me vaccinated and recording those vaccinations in my baby book 50 years ago, do you think she was behaving like a whiney, stupid jackass?
Do you think that she was outraged over the denial of my Constitutionally protected American freedom?
Was she angry over the heavy hand of government impinging upon my liberties?
Was she disgusted by the repudiation of my God-given right to become infected with whooping cough or polio?
When John F. Kennedy Elementary School required proof of vaccination before I could enter Mrs. Dubois’s kindergarten class in 1976, lest I risk infecting my classmates with measles or the mumps, do you think she attended a school board meeting and threatened board members’ personal safety in an effort to prevent my forced vaccination?
Do you think the governor of Massachusetts at the time, Michael Dukakis, enacted executive orders protecting me from the tyranny of vaccine mandates?
I really don’t think so. My mother passed away 15 years ago, so I can’t be certain, but I suspect that she behaved like a rationale, reasonable parent and patriot, doing what was best for me and the people around me.
Back then, in the good old days, vaccinations were seen as an integral part of a binding social contract. They represented an enormously successful, collective effort to rid the world of terrible diseases that maimed and killed millions of children and adults.
Vaccines were scientific achievements. The development of a new vaccine was lauded as historic and miraculous.
No one back then was so stupid as to politicize public health.
No one back then was so cruel as to encourage Americans to risk their lives and the lives of people around them to score political points.
No one back then saw vaccination as a representation of personal freedom, identity, or an indication of support for a political position or particular politician.
Back then, newscasts weren’t peppered with Americans who had refused a vaccine, pleading on their death bed for others to avoid their same stupid mistake.
Back then, people weren’t rejecting vaccines because of their emergency authorization status only to then demand experimental treatments under the same emergency authorization.
None of this nonsense happened because nearly every American in those good old days – my mother included – acted responsibly and in accordance with science and the advice of their doctors.
I love this record of my immunizations. I love the way my mother recorded the dates of my vaccinations in her own hand.
I’ve considered adding my COVID-19 vaccination to my baby book, inserting a new line like my mother did for the German measles and the mumps.
Both of those vaccines – mumps and German measles – were first released to the public in 1971, prior to the publication of my baby book, thus necessitating the added lines.
Lucky me. I was part of the first cohort of babies to receive those new vaccines.
Do you think my mother threw a fit when she found out I’d be receiving a brand new vaccine? Do you think she acted like a whiney, stupid jackass?
I don’t think so. I suspect she felt grateful that her son would be protected from those diseases, similar to how I feel today about my COVID-19 vaccination.
Lucky me. I get to be in the first cohort to receive this new vaccine, too.
It’s how we all should feel about this scientific triumph.
I’m not saying that the good old days were perfect. In many, many ways, they were decidedly not. But when it came to vaccines, Americans like my mother behaved like rational, responsible parents and patriots, all pulling on the same rope, ensuring a healthy life for their children and everyone around them.
Those were the good old days. I really hope we can get back to those days again. Soon.
