Protect children with vaccinations

The Sept. 8 public health story about parents not vaccinating kindergartners is scary.

I'm a senior citizen and my siblings and I had all the childhood diseases both kinds of measles, mumps, and whooping cough, which was awful. There were no immunizations in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

The polio vaccine hadn't come yet, but as soon as it was available, my parents had us vaccinated. There had been a huge polio epidemic when we were youngsters, and my sister had so many signs of that dreaded disease. Probably a light case, according to the doctor. No fun to cough so hard with whooping cough that we vomited, or hung our heads over steaming water to breathe. No fun to lie in a dark room several days with measles because eyes were supersensitive to light and fever ran high. No fun to have terribly swollen jaws and groin pain with mumps. The medical community has declared vaccines safe. Ongoing research has shown they don't cause autism. Please protect your own kids and you'll also protect others.

Bobbie Paxton

Iowa City