With a mother’s practiced, guiding hand, 80-year-old Janith Farnham helped steer her 60-year-old daughter’s walker through a Sioux Falls art center. They stopped at a painting of a cow wearing a hat.
Janith pointed to the hat, then to her daughter Jacque’s Minnesota Twins cap. Jacque did the same.
“That’s so funny!” Janith said, leaning in close to say the words in sign language too.
Jacque was born with congenital rubella syndrome, which can cause a host of issues including hearing impairment, eye problems, heart defects and intellectual disabilities. There was no vaccine against rubella back then, and Janith contracted the viral illness very early in the pregnancy, when she had up to a 90% chance of giving birth to a baby with the syndrome.
I’ve no shame in saying when I had my one and only child over a decade ago, I was vaccine hesitant. Idk if the Internet stuff got to me, or the part of me that likes to keep life natural within reason, or the hormones, whatever-
I didn’t vaccinate my baby right away, for anything, because I had fear. I did however let them give me all the vaccines they wanted after I gave birth. Wooping cough and a few others, I at least understood it was needed to protect the baby I was nursing. When my baby turned one, I put him on a vaccine schedule, made them separate any combinations, and by 3 years of age he was caught up with where he should be.
While I look back now at how foolish I was being, While also understanding hesitancy, it’s down right stupid to think vaccines don’t work, or are unnecessary. I found a middle ground I was comfortable with. People who just don’t vaccinate at all are putting everyone at risk