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Father’s Day and Vaccines – What’s the Connection?

By / / autism, Father's Day, fathers, History of Vaccines, polio survivor, stories

Mark Zuckerberg posted a photo when he took his daughter to their pediatrician for vaccines.What do you think about on Father’s Day.

Do you ever think about vaccines?

You probably should.

At least a little.

After all, some of us wouldn’t be fathers if vaccines hadn’t been developed to eradicate and control smallpox, diphtheria, tetanus, and measles, etc..

Father’s Day and Vaccines

This father was the only one in the family who skipped getting vaccinated, and he got smallpox.
This father was the only one in the family who skipped getting vaccinated. Not surprisingly, he got smallpox.

There are some vaccine stories that most fathers won’t ever want to hear, but they seem all the more tragic on Father’s Day.

Have you ever read Roald Dahl‘s letter, about his daughter’s death from measles? She died of measles in 1962, the year before the development of the first measles vaccine.

Roald Dahl wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, among other books.

There are many other stories like this…

Did you know that Benjamin Franklin‘s son died of smallpox.

Benjamin Franklin later wrote in his autobiography that:

“In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the small-pox, taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly, and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of parents who omit that operation, on the supposition that they should never forgive themselves if a child died under it; my example showing that the regret may be the same either way, and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen.”

Fortunately, not all of the stories are quite so tragic.

“The doctors told my parents that little could be done for me, so my father prepared for my funeral. Fortunately, I recovered, except for the use of my right hand.”

Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Vaccination’s Lifetime of Blessings

Archbishop Desmond Tutu is a polio survivor.

Jonas Salk vaccinating his son Peter with his still experimental inactivated polio vaccine.
Jonas Salk vaccinating his son Peter with his still experimental inactivated polio vaccine.

On Father’s Day, we might consider these other “fathers” who have had an influence on keeping us all safe and healthy from vaccine preventable diseases:

  • Louis Pasteur – the father of microbiology, who developed the rabies vaccine and proposed the germ theory of disease
  • John Enders – The father of Modern Vaccines
  • Maurice Hilleman – developed 40 experimental and licensed animal and human vaccines
  • William Osler – the father of modern medicine
  • Paracelsus – the father of toxicology
  • the Founding Fathers, who all seemed to support vaccination
  • John Salamone – probably the only real pro-safe vaccine advocate there has been, as he fought to replace the OPV vaccine with the IPV vaccine, to prevent further cases of VAPP, like had happened to his son

And there are other fathers to recognize on Father’s Day.

All of the fathers of autistic children who have to push back against the idea that autism is vaccine damage, because they know that their kids aren’t damaged.

What to Know About Father’s Day and Vaccines

As we wish a Happy Father’s Day to all dads, please take some time to take some time to learn why getting your kids vaccinated and protected is the best choice, because the overwhelming evidence shows that vaccines are safe and necessary.

More on Father’s Day and Vaccines

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