Dear Editor:
On reading the editorial and the Keith Baldry opinion piece in the Wednesday, June 23 issue urging people to get vaccinated, it spurred me on to write this letter.
I was born before the Second World War. There were four of us kids. During our years of growing up, my mother nursed us through all the childhood diseases – many nights watching over us, praying we would not die. Between us we had measles, chicken pox, scarlet fever, whooping cough, pneumonia, just about everything going, except tuberculosis, meningitis and diphtheria.
I remember the awful, awful pain of mumps. My first cousin, who lived a few streets away from us, died at age seven of diphtheria. My two young brothers were very ill with polio.
Luckily they survived, although the youngest dragged a heavy-duty iron cast around on his leg for years and many kids were paralyzed or died of polio in our area. Twins on my street were very ill for months with meningitis.
I doubt any young parent of today, if their child comes home from school with a fever, worries about them coming down with any of the above listed diseases and that is simply because of vaccination.
Every responsible parent these days makes sure their baby gets all the vaccinations and booster shots they need, to ensure they stay well and healthy.
In B.C. we are getting our COVID numbers down and many of us are starting to hope for what is being referred to as a near normal. However, lurking in the shadows is the Delta variant.
This variant is much stronger, puts more people in hospital and is aiming for our young people under 30.
We are all in this together and the only way we are going to beat this dreadful virus, is for all of us to get vaccinated.
Maureen Bragg
Lynn Valley
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