As a child, I spent a lot of time with my mother’s cousin Dolly. I remember seeing childhood pictures of Dolly running through her yard. That was before she contracted the polio virus. Sadly, there was no polio vaccine for Dolly at the time. Dolly spent the rest of her life in a wheelchair and lived with disfigured hands.
My generation, and those after me, has been fortunate to be spared of many diseases due to the development of successful vaccines. Dolly was one of the many who suffered from debilitating diseases before effective vaccines were created. Unfortunately, polio and other horrific diseases still exist in the world today, and a number of them — even some considered eradicated in the U.S. — are returning among the unvaccinated at an alarming rate.
During public health crises, trust in leadership is critical. Unfortunately, during the Biden administration, a public health crisis turned into a political movement, undermining trust in medical institutions. Public health officials and leaders, rather than sticking to science, allowed politics to dictate some erroneous and misleading messaging.
After what we all experienced from the Biden administration, it’s understandable why some have concerns when they hear the word “vaccine.” Sweeping mandates, suppression of debate, and shifting narratives only deepened skepticism, eroding trust in our medical institutions. But it’s important to recognize the difference between the COVID-19 vaccines — which were developed with a newly developed technology under emergency conditions — and long-established immunizations, such as those for measles, polio, and tetanus, which have been rigorously studied for decades and remain among the safest, most effective medical advancements in history.