Letter to the Editor: Submitted by Lori R. Egan

To the Editor:

If anyone wonders whether the childhood vaccination schedule still matters, a quiet walk through Allamakee County’s older cemeteries answers that question.

Postville Cemetery’s alphabetical roll includes entry after entry labeled “Infant,” “Baby Daughter,” and “Baby Son.” Oakland (Waukon) and St. Mary’s/Lycurgus show the same heartbreaking pattern - tiny markers and brief lives, many from the 1800s and early 1900s. These are not abstractions; they’re families from our own towns who buried children under the age of five before modern vaccines existed.

Our county’s transcribed death register from 1893 even lists a three-year-old lost to malignant scarlet fever with kidney complications - an illness we now prevent or blunt with routine immunization and antibiotics. Those stones and lines in the ledger are the price our great-grandparents paid for diseases we can now avoid. (Source: iowagravestones.org+2iowagravestones.org+2IAGenWeb)

Today’s recommended schedule protects kids against measles, whooping cough, diphtheria, polio, Hib, and more - diseases that once filled those little graves. The latest U.S. schedule is clear and conservative, with catch-up guidance for families who fall behind. Decades of data show that routine childhood vaccines have prevented hundreds of millions of illnesses and more than a million U.S. deaths, with enormous savings to families and taxpayers. Globally, childhood vaccination prevents roughly four million deaths every year. When coverage slips, outbreaks follow - as we’ve seen recently with measles. (Source: CDC+2CDC+2CIDRAPWIRED)

Our pioneers didn’t have this protection. We do. Let’s honor the memory of the children resting in Allamakee County’s centennial cemeteries by keeping ours out of early graves. Please talk with your child’s clinician and keep vaccinations up to date.

Sincerely,
Lori R. Egan
Waukon