There was a silly little baby shower game we used to play during the “baby boom” of the 1970s and 1980s. Every attendee was clipped somewhere on their garb with one of those old-fashioned wood clothespins. As mom-to-be opened each of the presents – little sleepers, blankets, crocheted hats all in green and yellow, as no one knew the baby’s gender in those days – the oohs and ahs could not be peppered with “cute” or you lost your clothespin. Last clothespin standing received a prize. Try not saying “cute” when it comes to anything related to “baby”!
Today “vaccine” is akin to “cute.” That is, not a day goes by that the word is not uttered. When did we ever talk about vaccines so much? Probably never. But, it’s the buzzword of the day. Did you get your shot? Which one did you get? Did you have side effects? Where did you have to go? And how many more times do we have to see those little vials on the conveyor belt or the shot in the arm on the nightly news?
Well, we needed a shot in the arm, not just in reality, but metaphorically. We welcome something to begin the climb out of the black hole we’ve been stuck in for almost a year now. The vaccine is our skyhook, the proverbial rescuing hook suspended from the sky.
My history with “vaccine” is twisted in my memory. My mom had this odd mark on her upper arm. It was the smallpox vaccine. Smallpox killed some 300 million (3 of every 10) people worldwide in the 20th century before it was declared eradicated in 1980. Eradicated! The smallpox vaccine left a scar because it was administered with a two-prong needle and the skin was punctured multiple times to deliver the live virus to the dermis of the skin. The vaccination caused a blistered area that scabbed over and left a mark on some people, like my mom.
For a very different reason, my mother wasn’t much of a believer in vaccines — due to another personal experience. Her very best friend’s daughter contracted polio from the vaccine in the mid-1950s. She was put in an iron lung to help her breathe. She survived, but was dealt lifelong health issues as a result.
The Cutter Laboratories vaccine caused 40,000 cases of polio, leaving hundreds of children with varying degrees of paralysis and some deaths. After the Cutter disaster, three larger companies produced safe polio vaccines according to inventor Joseph Salk’s protocol. Even now, polio is not eradicated, but contained as of 2020 in all continents except Asia.
I didn’t think about vaccines again until I had babies of my own. Along came DPT and MMR. Compliantly, I took my babies for the shots and filed their vaccination records in a safe place.
Then came my legal career. With no legal experience whatsoever, my tennis friend’s husband hired me to file hundreds of vaccine related cases with the newly established Federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. A trial lawyer in rural Idaho, he had won the first big vaccine injury verdict in Toner v. Lederle Labs in 1984. The whole cell pertussis vaccine was the culprit, forcing manufacturers to make safer acellular vaccines, which they knew they could. Because of his victory, parents all over the country hired him to help file their child’s case.
Combing through thousands of pages of medical records, I learned volumes about the injuries caused by the “bad” vaccine. Successfully filing every case by the deadline, even greater satisfaction came when all of the children whose claim we filed were compensated for their disabling, sometimes deadly, injuries.
It would be true to say I’ve been skittish about vaccines since that unique education. Fortunately, my children’s series of shots had already been completed by the time my legal career began.
Then along came a pandemic caused by a vicious virus, killing almost a half a million here in the U.S. Should there be any question about getting a vaccine? I don’t believe so.
Thus, our experience at the small, rural Tonasket Clinic was painless — in and out in under an hour. No long lines. No canceled appointments. No disorganization. What a relief to say “vaccine” one more time — we got ours!
