The "Will You Have Your Family Vaccinated Against the COVID19 Virus?" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Not sure how much I remember about that day years ago, but I'm pretty sure it was ordinary.  I was in elementary school and I was to be vaccinated with the polio vaccine so I wouldn't get the dreaded disease.  My parents had to sign a document saying I was to be given the vaccine that fateful day in 1955.  I stood in line at Brecht Elementary School with most of the rest of my class and waited my turn to get my vaccination.  Years before I had also received the smallpox vaccine to hopefully prevent me from getting that dreaded disease.  And, I am happy to report, both vaccines worked!  Would I have gotten either disease had I not had the vaccine.  Perhaps!  But, even today, many families struggle with whether to have their children vaccinated or not.  If the diseases have been almost wiped off the face of the earth, why chance having children vaccinated and perhaps have some dreadful reaction.  Because there is always that chance the disease will surface again and you will never forgive yourself for not having your child vaccinated.  In the school district where I taught for many years, there are still parents that do not have their children vaccinated against smallpox and polio.  And, more and more they are not allowed to send their children to public schools.  Vaccination has always been a major problem in public schools.  Smallpox has been known to cover a child's body in pustules in as short as 24 hours.  If the child was lucky, they would suffer for maybe two to three weeks and possibly have depigmented skin and disfiguring scars.  And, they were the lucky ones.  In the 1820s about half of all smallpox patients died.  Then came the smallpox inoculation that could prevent people from getting smallpox.  But, it was made from the serum of cows that were infected with cowpox.  When the serum was injected into healthy people, it rendered them immune to smallpox.  Many parents didn't want to give shots to their children from diseased animals.  Many ministers told their congregations it was wrong, since it interfered with the Divine will.  The vaccine could give immunity to sinners whom God was planning to have eliminated through the disease.  

A chart published in 1823 telling the death toll for the week!

Smallpox was so lethal that during the Revolu- tionary War, more soldiers were being killed by smallpox than by the British.  Then General Washington ordered a mass inoculation of the army and began to remain on the field instead of the field hospital.  But, it was feared that the government was having too much say over the health of the family.  The Vaccine Agency that had been previously established was abolished.  Shortly epidemics of smallpox, as well as cholera, diphtheria, measles, typhus, anthrax and yellow fever followed.  Now I tell you all this since I can see it coming again. Right?  Hopefully there will be a vaccination soon for the COVID virus.  May not be in the year 2020, but it will arrive soon.  Are you willing to get immunized?  Will you have your children immunized?  Will they be able to attend a pubic school if they don't have an immunization shot?  Would you want them to have to line up in the school hallway and wait for their shot as I did in the 1950s?  I can hardly wait for my shot.  I will be in the front of the line when the vaccine arrives.  Being that I'm in my mid-70s, I can't afford a bout of the virus.  Getting the inoculation may be risky, but getting the virus might be even worse.  Life is full of choices, but also full of chances and I'm not sure I want to take the chance that I will not get the virus.  I've only been lucky once in my life, when I married my sweetheart, and I'm not prepared to chance getting the COVID virus if I know there is a vaccine available.  What will you do?  But, more important, what will you do for your children and family?  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.