Teri Mills, her husband and their grandkids.
Terry
Teri Mills still strongly remembers the napkin with sugar cubes.
In the US in the early 1960s, a way to administer the oral polio vaccine was throwing it into sugar. Mills was one of the many kids who stayed around her school for this sweet lifesaver. “My mom, I remember shouting with relief and they couldn’t raise us quickly to get these vaccines,” Mills recalls. “There was great joy.”
It was happy because the small sugar cubes offered protection from a life -threatening life -threatening disease. In the 20thth century, polio paralyzed or killed half a million people one year. Thus, the creation of a vaccine was a revolution. The effects of mass granting of polio vaccines were dramatic: cases quickly fell and iron lungs became relics in the US
But for many people born after polio have ceased to feel like a threat, this may seem very abstract. “Many people who are currently at the decision -making stage of their lives for their children are not people who have ever seen the effects of polio,” notes Tori Espensen, a media training manager on Sciline, part of the American Union for promoting science.
This is a pattern that is observed with other vaccines that somehow become a victim of their own success, Espensen says: “Once you get enough away from a prevailing disease, it is really easy for people to say:” Oh, I do not need to vaccinate for it, because it is not a big deal “.
A new defense agency called Grandparents for vaccines It is trying to help bridge this gap between a generation that first saw the transformative power of vaccines and a later generation that can take vaccines for granted or even see them as a threat. “Our kids choose not to vaccinate our grandkids, and that is the problem,” Mills says of the genetic gap that may arise.
Mills, a retired nurse and nursing educator in Oregon, is one of the volunteers who started vaccines in September. She now shares her memories of vaccination and the diseases she has helped to limit, while encouraging others to share their own. For the mills, the rationale for the team is simple: “Everyone knows that there is nothing and grandparents love their grandchildren.”
It may take years of hearing from reliable people about the benefits of vaccines before these messages are truly absorbed. “While expert scientific voices are critical to this issue, it is also very important to recognize that the public often pays more attention to the credibility of a source,” says Espensen. Mills believes that such reliable sources can include grandparents (although he says that grandparents are open not only to grandparents but also to anyone who likes children).
Share a story of meningitis
Lesley Thompson, who also shares her story as part of grandparents, takes advantage of the confidence she has created with friends and family. But this is combined with expert information. The retired 4th-The teacher in Colorado always encourages people to talk to health professionals instead of distributing herself medical advice or just teach them to be vaccinated. “I don’t think you change the mind this way. I think you change the mind by saying your own experiences.”
Her story It’s a tragic: in 2017, Kale’s two -year -old grandson went down with flu symptoms. Was not immediately obvious that he had been developed meningitisA swelling of the membranes that protect the brain and spinal cord, which is particularly dangerous in its bacterial form. “I spent five days of hell” before Kale died, says Thompson.
Thompson dealt with sadness to lose her grandson helping others. She has thrown herself into the defense and awareness of vaccination, whether it is her facebook page in Sierra race against meningitisor at rooms of Colorado’s legislative body. Vaccination of meningitis is a powerful contact point for her family because there are two vaccines available for different types of bacterial meningitis. In the US, they are generally recommended for children starting at 11 years. One doctor told Thompson that “if all the 11 and 12-year-olds will take it when it is recommended, then there would be immunity to the United States and the Kale would have been protected.”
Pia Pannaraj, Professor of Pediatrics at UC San Diego, explains how it would work: “The more people protected by the disease, the fewer people there must spread the disease.
In the US, Menacwy’s vaccination is recommended for children aged 11-12, while MENB is recommended for children 16-18 years (or older). The disease usually infects children and young adults in these age groups. Pannaraj says the side effects of these vaccines are limited, while “the benefit is enormous: preventing a disease that causes inflammation in the brain and can lead to significant damage under the road”.
Meningitis leaflet.
Sierra race against meningitis
Finding credible information
Fortunately, Thompson says, he has not personally attacked activists against the vaccine. Even more, “I know that the story of Little Kale has changed life”, such as when a facebook position prompted a group of high school students to be vaccinated against meningitis B before they go to college dorms, which can quickly become a breeding ground for infection. It has been motivated that her little grandson continues to shape the lives of others in this way.
Although he builds connections on Facebook, Thompson warns people that they are not everything in the social media. And pediatrician Pannaraj warns that this year, not all US government sources are fully supported by science. Consequently, it advises families to consult the American Academy of Pediatrics: “AAP has always been a source for pediatricians. It is where we as pediatricians get all our information and so families can trust that too.”
This is important because Pannaraj recognizes: “Unfortunately, in the current situation where there is a greater focus on politics than on health, it becomes more difficult to know where to see, but the AAP program is stable that they are still the experts who make all these recommendations.”
From pediatricians to grandparents who have experienced diseases that can be affected by vaccines, the up -to -date discussion remains critical for the maintenance of Americans safe. Grandparents’ mills for vaccines want to increase these updated discussions. “We want these conversations to take place in every lounge in America,” Mills says.
