Category Archives: I Vaccinate Because

Crossing the threshold into adulthood is marked by rites of passage: graduations, first jobs, and lowered vaccine uptake. Perhaps getting fewer vaccines isn’t a rite of passage, but ignoring vaccines as a hallmark of preventive health seems to be ubiquitous among adults who adhere gladly to well-child checks and immunization schedules for their children. Just […]

It all began on a warm afternoon in May of 1996. My 6-year-old daughter was swinging on her swing set when she suddenly stopped and, raising a hand to her neck, asked, “Momma, what is this?” I pulled her strawberry blond hair back to reveal a large blister-like bump below her ear lobe. “Does it […]

I remember during my second pregnancy seeing an ad informing me that I could pass along whooping cough to my baby. At the time, I didn’t know what whooping cough was or what I could do about that. Looking back, I’m not even sure what they wanted me to do. Now, years too lot, I […]

Vaccines are literally a life or death situation for people like my father, who battled stage 4 leukemia after being given six weeks to live. He beat the odds and has been in remission since 2009, but now suffers from GVH disease because the bone marrow transplant he received during treatment wasn’t a complete match. […]

August is National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM), a month that is akin to St. Patrick’s Day, Thanksgiving, and Fourth of July all rolled into one (but for vaccines). In fact, maybe it should be called National Immunization Celebration Month instead. With immunization advocates across the country, Voices for Vaccines is celebrating NIAM in style, with […]

The vast majority of pro-vaxxers are content advocating behind a screen–whether they are emailing lawmakers, commenting on social media, or sharing online articles. But when the anti-vaxxers roll a bus into their neighborhoods, sitting behind a screen no longer suffices. Enter Craig Egan. This Tacoma, Washington father is known in pro-vaccine circles as their funny […]

Keeping communities free from vaccine-preventable disease is teamwork. As it turns out, advocating for on-time immunization is also team work. Over the past few years, Voices for Vaccines has worked hard on assembling our team. Part of the team is the larger network of vaccine advocacy organizations that have mentored us and collaborated with us […]

It’s hard to talk about vaccines or autism without mentioning the sometime gastroenterologist, Andrew Wakefield. Almost everyone has at least a passing familiarity with Wakefield, even if it is just as “the guy who wrote that fraudulent paper claiming vaccines cause autism.” And everyone has a deep familiarity with the needless controversy he sparked concerning […]

Yesterday afternoon, the Minnesota Department of Health reported that 60 people (mostly children) in four counties across the state. This measles outbreak is the worst in the state in nearly 30 years, and that last outbreak occurred during a time when measles was still endemic in the United States and only one dose of the […]

“Mandy, can he try Jello?” my mother asks me conspiratorially, as she cuddles her last grandchild in her arms at the Chinese buffet. Mikey Wale is my third child, so the answer is almost always yes. “Why not?” I say, and she tenderly feeds him a tiny red morsel.  He drools it right back onto […]