This is exactly right.

I am one of the increasingly rare old-timers who lived during the pre-vaccination era.

I am the second to the last of 13 siblings, five of whom died of vaccine preventable diseases

in infancy. Born to poor immigrant parents,

I remember well my mother's account of the causes of their deaths,

three from pertussis and two from measles.

Even after many years had passed,

she spoke of the death of her angels with a great deal of emotion.

Imagine losing not one, two, three, or four, but five babies.

It was common in the pre-vaccine era. Like our family, many families lost several children to these

diseases. We forget. Time blurs our memories of these common tragedies of yesteryear. I remember well during the winter and spring of each year hearing the whoop of pertussis in movie theaters, school assemblies, and assorted gatherings. Today, few have ever heard this, and those who have forget. I remember the summer outbreaks of polio, the crippled

children who could no longer walk or walked with limb distorted limbs. As a third and fourth year

medical student, I remember answering the appeals of hospital administrators who could not find

the nursing staff for special duty tending to the needs of polio patients in iron lungs.

We forget. I remember the awful cases of measles my own children experienced.

I remember the children with smallpox during the years my family lived in Pakistan.

I remember those who lost their sight from lesions in their eyes.

I remember those who died.

We forget.

Music The

The It's just such an incredibly powerful letter.

This is, I mean, this is the second time that we have included this first-hand account.

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