OPINION
measles vaccine was not available in the U. S. until 1963. It got revamped in 1968, and the MMR vaccine was not introduced until 1971.
But I took care of grownups who had been disabled by childhood measles with encephalitis. They were blind, deaf or mute; their caregivers were patient and kind in the extreme.
I took care of adults disabled by polio, who had lived in iron lungs( contrary to what I thought as a child, most people got out of them in a month or so). They remembered being separated from their mothers and being terrified of the“ big machine,” but once they got in it – they remembered a feeling of relief like no other. They could catch their breath again.
Luckily, other vaccines have been available for longer. Large scale production of smallpox vaccine, built on Edward Jenner’ s groundbreaking idea in 1796, was not achieved until the late 1940s. The various components of the DPT( diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus) vaccine were developed separately in 1914, 1926 and 1938, and became the combo DPT in 1948.
The good news is that the American Academy of Pediatrics has successfully sued the Trump administration over policy changes and grant cancellations. Last December, the federal government killed $ 12 million in grants to the Academy, because“ they no longer aligned with the Department of Health and Human Services’ policies.” However, a federal judge ordered all the grants reinstated in January 2026. These grants covered all sorts of efforts, including ways to prevent SIDS, earlier identification of developmental delay and disability, improving rural pediatric care and helping teens with substance abuse.
Doctors should educate and advise; parents should ask questions and listen – and then ask some more; patients, if they have any sense, should protect themselves against preventable diseases.
I remember our dad telling us about his induction into the U. S. Army Air Force in late 1941. He stood in a long line of recruits at the Armory. The medic had a power-injector and went wham-wham-wham into each arm of the next guy in the line. When the guy in front of Daddy fainted, the medic said,“ Hold up his arm!” and the guy got all his shots while he was still flat out on the floor.
Infectious diseases with disabling consequences are far better prevented than endured. Senator McConnell was born in 1942, way too soon to get the benefit of polio vaccine; the Dr. Jonas Salk shot was distributed in trials as of 1953, and licensed in 1955. The“ live” oral polio vaccine developed by Dr. Albert Sabin was tested in Soviet children, and soon 10 million of them got the OPV, the oral“ sugar cube” vaccine. I got it in 1962 and remember it well. I can picture our classroom at Christ the King School, with the sun coming in through the windows, and laughter coming from the playground.
The moral of the story is this.“ Natural” immunity that does not then disable you requires luck, in spades. What the anti-vaxxers call“ unnatural / Big Pharma” shots protect you, and me, and all of us.
Choose your side.
Dr. Barry is an internist and Associate Professor of Medicine( Gratis Faculty) at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, currently retired and mulling her next moves.
The Academy won its first round with the suit( restoring the funding) because Federal Judge Beryl Howell ruled that there was substantial evidence that the government had retaliated against protected speech.
Legal proceedings are ongoing.
The government’ s action against the ACIP( Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices) is a whole‘ nother story. In October, the dispute over the administration’ s block of long-established vaccine policy went into the appeals process.
Stay tuned.
Write for Louisville Medicine!
This is a publication by our members, for our members and we want to hear from you. We are always welcoming new writers for all sections of the magazine. Please reach out to Kathryn Vance at kathryn. vance @ glms. org if you’ d like to share your thoughts in an upcoming issue.
OPINION November 2026 37