Tell me about a new vaccine, and I’ll get it. The only vaccine problem I have experienced in my 91 years was to see a blister and then a scar on my arm from a smallpox vaccination when I was just a kid.

When I went to basic training as an ROTC officer in 1955 at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, we were given a number of shots in both arms. And I got weak in the knees when it was over.

I have never been able to watch shots being given on television and never look when blood is drawn from my arm. However, I have never stopped getting vaccinations and blood work.

My dad had polio when he was six years old and it left him with only one good leg. He walked with a crutch the rest of his life. My dad had to be awfully happy when Jonas Salk developed one of the first successful polio vaccines, knowing how other children would be spared the crippling disease.

Many find it extremely disturbing that President-elect Donald Trump wants so many anti-vaccine people in his administration.

Monika Dietrich, a New Orleans-based pediatrician who specializes in infectious diseases, mentioned those individuals in a recent column in The Advocate.

“I believe we are entering the most dangerous phase of the anti-vaccine movement in modern history,” Dietrich said. And she added that the key drivers of this movement are fear and misinformation on social media.

The most striking development, she said, is the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. She added that “RFK Jr.’s nomination signals a shift, elevating anti-vaccine rhetoric from the fringes to the core of government policymaking…”

Other notable figures associated with the anti-vaccine movement who are being considered for government roles are Dr. Mehmet Oz, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and Dr. Joseph Lapado. She said all of them have used their platforms and professional credentials to spread misinformation about vaccines or promote dangerous, unproven treatments.

Dietrich also mentioned influential media personalities like podcast host Joe Rogan who spread anti-vaccine misinformation.

“… The evidence that vaccines save lives and prevent suffering is clear, but I’m afraid that science and the scientific method have lost their relevance for a growing portion of the public,” Dietrich said.

Unvaccinated children are going to suffer, she said, listing the following:

Children will struggle to breathe from pneumonia or whose upper airways will narrow as if the walls are closing in.

Children will be crying in pain from infections that invade their brains and spinal cords.

Children will become severely dehydrated and lethargic from diarrhea.

“I see this in my practice, and it is painful to know that something as simple as a vaccination could have prevented such suffering,” she said.

Dietrich said common illnesses that would have never progressed to something serious will once again become life-threatening. Children will end up in hospitals and clinics and with “the already growing shortage of pediatricians in the United States, our ability to care for the most vulnerable members of our society will be put under unimaginable strain, and children will suffer.”

She added,  “I hope with all my heart that I am wrong.  But I believe it’s crucial to prepare for the reality we may soon face. If policy changes on vaccination are coming, they must be accompanied by the necessary resources and preparation to handle the inevitable surge of illness in children that will almost certainly follow.”

Dietrich said it is time for concerned citizens — and many of them are responsible parents — to express their support for public health and vaccinations that have saved hundreds of millions of lives, especially the lives of the youngest and most vulnerable among us.

My late wife and I have always supported vaccinations and sought the best medical care we could find for ourselves and our children. The care we have received and the vaccinations we took advantage of have enabled us to live long and mostly disease-free lives.

When I read Dr. Dietrich’s column, I thought about my two great-granddaughters who are 6 and 4 years old. I want them to get the best health protection that is available and all of the immunizations they need to make that possible.

As Dietrich said, “Children did not make these (misguided medical) decisions; they do not deserve to suffer unnecessarily because of the choices adults made.”

Jim Beam, the retired editor of the American Press, has covered people and politics for more than six decades. Contact him at 337-515-8871 or jim.beam.press@gmail.com.

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