SMALLPOX SCARE TAUGHT MY DAD THE MIRACLE OF VACCINES
THE idea of learning to live with a life-threatening virus – as Covid infection rates continue to climb – might seem daunting. But I was reminded by my 80-year-old father that it’s not the first time we’ve done it. In the 1960s, outbreaks of deadly smallpox were still popping up around the country.
And my father had a lucky escape as a young man, when he unknowingly visited the centre of an outbreak in Cardiff that subsequently killed 19 people. He was one of almost a million people hunted down by a contact-tracing scheme – quite a feat in those days – and was offered the smallpox vaccine, which he took without question.
It’s because of this experience that the thought of anyone refusing a jab to protect them against a fatal disease is incomprehensible to my dad. To him, vaccines are the most miraculous medical advance of recent history, saving millions of lives every day.
And, as always, he’s absolutely right.