Haunted by a child’s death, Los Angeles Times, 4/27/2019

Re “Vaccine bill moves on as foes protest,” April 25

As a mother of four and a registered nurse, I’m a firm believer in the benefits of vaccination. Many of the parents mentioned in your article about a state bill to tighten restrictions on vaccination exemptions probably don’t know any-one who was affected by polio.

I was working in San Antonio during the 1970 diphtheria epidemic, and at first many of our physicians failed to recognize the disease because they hadn’t seen a case before. Our pediatric ward was full of sickened children, many of whom had to return with a recurrence of the disease after going back home for lack of receiving their booster vaccine.

To this day, I can recall a particular young boy who we saved only to lose his life a year later for lack of receiving the required booster. That night we struggled to save him still haunts me.

I hope that the current measles outbreak serves as a wake-up call to anti-vaccination parents. These people are lucky to live in a country where those of us who vaccinate provide the “herd protection” that makes them and their loved ones safer.

Genevieve Clavreul, Pasadena