1.14.2026

Taken from grandparentsforvaccines.com and theunbiasedscipod.substack.com

Grandparents for Vaccines just launched a few months ago nationally, mobilizing America’s 67 million grandparents to stand up as voices for their grandchildren’s safety—and we could not be more obsessed with this simple yet brilliant concept: the generation that survived these diseases is now fighting to make sure their grandchildren never have to.

These grandparents are sharing their lived experiences—not statistics from textbooks, but memories seared into their hearts. They remember iron lungs in hospital wards. They remember classmates who never came back to school after polio summer. They remember the fear that gripped parents every time a child developed a fever, wondering if this was the one that would steal their baby away.

Hear Deborah’s story, taken from grandparentsforvaccines.com:

“It was 1950, and I was four years old. My doctor came to our house since we didn’t have a car. He said, “Touch your chin to your chest, please.” I couldn’t. He turned to my mother and said, “We need to get her into the hospital.” The diagnosis was polio.

I don’t know how long I was in the hospital, but it was full of children on every floor, all suffering with one or more of the three strains of polio. I know that because I was transferred many times to various floors and rooms. After I was out of isolation, I was moved to a room with a 12-year-old girl in an iron lung. We had conversations even though she could only speak when the machine forced the air out of her lungs. One day several people rushed into our room and moved me in my bed out into the hall. Subsequently I was transferred to a room with three other children. I knew the 12-year-old had died.

Luckily, I was given the Sister Kenny treatment, which meant I was wrapped head to toe in a hot, moist bath blanket several times a day, and taken to a whirlpool and suspended with several other children in a car-seat like arrangement around the rim.

After a time, I was started on physical therapy, walking between parallel bars and doing exercises for my arms and legs. My mother needed to learn all my exercises before I could be discharged. Thankfully today no one would know I had polio, but lots of children and some adults would spend the rest of their lives in braces, on crutches or in an iron lung.

You can be sure I had my children vaccinated for not only polio, but with any and all available immunizations. I believe it is an act of love to prevent a child from suffering an unnecessary disease or spreading one to anyone else.”

These grandparents all share one truth: they remember. They remember the empty desks in classrooms. They remember the fear. They remember what we’ve been lucky enough to forget. They aren’t asking for much. They’re simply saying: We’ve seen these diseases. We’ve buried children because of them. We now have the tools to prevent them. Please listen.

Check out their website for more testimonials and videos from their lived experiences.

If you or a loved one has a story to share from your local journey – we’d love to hear it!! Please contact us at kiddercountyhealth@gmail.com or call us at 475-2582.