The Price We Paid to Live Long Enough to Forget

A long history of vaccination and how it rewrote human fate.

As the CDC continues to revise its vaccine recommendations, particularly the immunization schedule for children, I feel compelled to speak out. It is gut-wrenching to watch a country that was once considered exceptionally safe, and largely free of vaccine-preventable diseases, now grapple with measles outbreaks. Even more distressing is the reality that many of these outbreaks are driven by unvaccinated individuals who have bought into misinformation being amplified at the highest levels of government. That this rhetoric is associated with figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., someone who is somehow treated as credible on public health matters, only deepens the concern.

But before we dive into the heartbreaking truths behind this resurgence in preventable disease, let’s first take a walk through history to gain some light on why vaccines have been such a prevalent and essential part of our lives.

In the 1950s, polio was one of the most feared diseases in America. Each year, it paralyzed more than 15,000 people and killed an average of 1,800, its victims included former President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Entire communities lived in dread of summer. Swimming pools were shuttered, parents kept children indoors, and hospital wards were filled with iron lungs.

That fear began to lift in 1955, when Dr. Jonas Salk’s Inactivated Poliovirus Vaccine (IPV) was licensed. The impact was swift and unmistakable. Following its licensure on April 12, 1955,