My Take: Please, immunize your little Michiganders
Twenty-seven years ago, I asked Michiganders to join me in one very important effort. Today, in 2022, I’m asking again.
It was 1995 and, as the state health department director at the time, we were launching the first campaign of its kind to educate families about the proven, scientific safety of the medical miracle that is vaccines. The "Immunize Your Little Michigander" campaign featured Michigan’s own First Lady Michelle Engler, along with someone very near and dear to my heart — my oldest grandson, Nick. He joined the Engler triplets in an appeal to Michigan families to vaccinate their youngest and most vulnerable family members.
The campaign worked. After Immunize Your Little Michigander hit the airwaves, Michigan’s childhood vaccination rates nearly doubled. In 1996, 46.7% of children were vaccinated. By 2000, that number had soared to 70.9%. As of March 2020, we were at 73.8%.
Beyond expanding immunization coverage, the vaccines themselves saved lives. The little ones featured in that campaign 27 years ago are now healthy adults and successful, productive members of our communities — my grandson included. Rates of communicable diseases plummeted as vaccination coverage remained high, and babies from just two decades ago enjoyed a healthy and safe upbringing.
Post-COVID-19, I fear that today’s children do not have that same protection. As parents kept children home to stay safe during the pandemic, vaccination rates dropped. Our rates are now 66.7% as of June 2022. Unless we start to get our children caught up, diseases like diphtheria, tetanus, polio, pertussis, measles, mumps and more have a better likelihood of circulating in our schools and communities than they did just a short three years ago.
As a former director of our state health department this frustrates me. But as a parent and grandparent, it breaks my heart.
I have many points of pride to look back on throughout my life: marrying the love of my life, building a beautiful family together, leading our state’s health department. But it all pales in comparison to the joy of being a grandparent — of knowing that my legacy will live on in stronger and better ways as my grandchildren face the future with the benefit of the lessons I’ve learned along the way, and the innovation and ingenuity new generations bring.
We all have a role to play in raising the next generation. Whether you’re a parent, grandparent, doctor, educator, neighbor or family friend, your actions and the example you set have a ripple effect on the lives of our most vulnerable: our children — the future leaders of our world.
The minimum benefit of vaccinating our children is fewer outbreaks in schools. The maximum is community-wide protection from very real diseases that once stole the lives of tens of thousands every year. Diseases like polio, which in 1952 infected nearly 60,000 children, of which more than 3,000 died. As a child of the 1940s, I saw these deaths so I know firsthand just how devastating these diseases can be. And conversely, how miraculous vaccines truly are.
My ask, once again, is grounded in science. Vaccines work. They provide a shield of protection that previous generations only dreamed of. We must refocus now on facts and truths. I implore our all Michiganders to align with reason and facts. Vaccinate your family to protect against all these diseases, including COVID-19 and the flu. Lives literally depend on it.
To my neighbors in Ottawa and Allegan counties, and to the thousands of other Michigan families across the state, hear me when I say: We do not want these diseases to return. Vaccines are the sole reason children today are protected from these diseases and our best chance they won’t have to face them in their future.
— James K. Haveman is former director of the Michigan Department of Community Health.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: My Take: Please, immunize your little Michiganders
