“Just Measles” Left Her Sister Disabled for Life (w/ Therese Vogel)
Bulwark Takes
The Bulwark
4.7 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 20 March 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
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Summary
Sam Stein and Jonathan Cohn talk with Therese Vogel about the return of measles. Therese shares the story of her sister, who contracted measles as a child and suffered permanent brain damage—shaping the rest of her life—and why that led her to join Grandparents for Vaccines.
They discuss why vaccine skepticism has risen, how outbreaks are spreading again as vaccination rates fall, and why many Americans have forgotten how dangerous these diseases once were. They explore the nascent political backlash to anti-vaccine messaging—and how groups like Grandparents for Vaccines are using personal stories to reach people when facts alone aren’t enough.
Learn more about Grandparents for Vaccines: https://grandparentsforvaccines.org/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, everybody. It's me Sam Stein, managing editor at The Bullwork, and I'm here for a very special |
| 0:04.5 | conversation, joined by Jonathan Cohn, who everyone knows by this point, author of The Breakdown |
| 0:09.2 | newsletter. We're going to be talking about one of his recent newsletters, which is about a fascinating |
| 0:15.2 | political movement and group called Grandparents for Vaccines and the person who we spotlighted for this |
| 0:22.0 | story, who is our other guest on this program, Trees Vogel, who's joining us from the great |
| 0:26.3 | state of Oregon. The reason Jonathan wrote this piece is because we are in the middle of, |
| 0:31.0 | I don't want to call it necessarily a crisis, but it's getting towards that place where |
| 0:35.5 | our political leadership has so distrust |
| 0:39.6 | in vaccinations and not only so distrust, but taken proactive steps to decrease the use of vaccinations. |
| 0:47.4 | Terese has a story about how important vaccines are that's very personal. |
| 0:53.4 | And it's the story that compelled her to get involved with the organization, Grandparents for |
| 0:57.9 | Vaccines. |
| 0:58.8 | Thank you. |
| 0:59.3 | First of all, thank you, Samuel, for having me as a guest on your show. |
| 1:04.5 | And thank you for Jonathan, too. |
| 1:06.0 | We had a nice phone interview earlier about this. |
| 1:10.1 | But I've been involved with grandparents for |
| 1:12.4 | vaccines since about September, I think, is when it really started forming and becoming |
| 1:18.9 | an official organization and taking off. And I'm a retired RN, also a nurse educator. |
| 1:28.7 | I taught at Portland Community College in their nursing program for 35 years. |
| 1:33.5 | I'm a parent of two grown sons, and I have three granddaughters. |
| 1:38.8 | But the main reason that I got involved is that I had a sister who was older than me. She was four years |
... |
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