My long history of hearing impairment dates from when I had measles just a few years before the vaccine was available.

“obviously they have never seen how deathly ill their child can be from the disease.”. I think that’s the problem with anti-vaxxers. They’re a generation or two removed from the time when measles damaged or killed children, so they don’t know that even if the fallacious claims about what the vaccines might do were true, it would still be a better outcome than having measles (or whatever).

I also think younger parents tend to have a distrust for the pharmaceutical industry of today, and understandably so.

Yes it's hard to leave it to people to decide about vaccinations with all the anti-vaccination hoopla. I think this might be another case of people having to opt out of vaccinations rather than opting in. More people will get vaccinated that way.

I do understand some fear but this type of unfounded irrational fear is really scary.

Colleen, I recently read an article about adults who were vaccinated for measles as children and whether not they are still protected from the diesease. The article included a quote from Dr. John Cullen, President of The American Academy of Family Physicians, that the reason we have a vaccine hesitancy in the US is because people don't remember how bad it was before vaccines became available.

My sister and I were vaccinated as children not long after the vaccine became available. I remember both of us getting sick shortly after and spending a few days in bed. Next time I see my doctor, I am considering asking her if I'm still protected or if I should be inoculated again just to be safe.

Edit to add that my parents were so grateful when vaccines became available. My mother couldn't get her kids to the doctor fast enough. I also remember standing in a line that wound around the block to get our polio sugar cubes.

Well, yeah. Because the ones who didn't survive measles are dead!

This is my favorite anti-vaxx tweet for the severe lack of common sense.

I had the measles along with mumps, chicken pox and rubella. I would not wish it on my worst enemy. There are morons out there that think they're just "typical kid illnesses". Geeze, even the Governor of my state took his 5 children to a "chicken pox" party so they would get the disease.

I remember it seeming like I was sick constantly with all these childhood diseases, which required missing school for a week or two per disease. How on earth would a working mother today deal with this if she has 3 children? They won't all get any of these at the same time - just about 6 weeks of at least 1 sick child. Try missing that much work!

It's a very stupid, thoughtless, thing to do when one choses not to vaccinate ones children. It's a public health issues just as is requiring rabies vaccinations for cats and dogs - required in ALL 50 states. It needs to be required everywhere - no exemption except for medical necessity (a very ill child with serious health issues who cannot be vaccinated - they will then be protected by "herd immunity").

The anti-vaxxers tend to fall into two camps: the arrogant (we eat kale and exercise and are SO intelligent and healthy that we'll never get sick), and the ignorant - those who believe discredited nonsense that the vaccines will harm their children.

It's appalling that this country had nearly eradicated measles and now it is an epidemic.

I was born in 1963 which I believe is right when the measles vaccine first came out. Earlier today I read this article saying that those that received the earliest vaccines between 1963 and 1967 may not be protected and should have a blood test to determine if the vaccine was effective. Or for people born between 1967 and 1989 you would have only received one vaccine rather than the current practice of giving 2 and may only have partial immunity.

I have my yearly physical scheduled in a few weeks and I intend to bring the subject up with my PCP and ask to be tested for measles immunity along with the other myriad of things they usually test for. They may need to take a whole pint this time!

That's interesting, LoneJack. I was born in 1983 and had some blood work done last year that showed antibodies for measles. I'll have to ask if that means I have full immunity or partial. The last MMR I had was in 1996 when I was entering high school, so I may have been dosed twice because my mom was terrible at keeping records. :)

Sometimes even having the measles is not enough to protect you. I had them again in my teens. I only remember parts of it. At first the doctors pumped me full of steroids because they thought I was having a reaction to tetracycline until I broke out. I was told I was in the hospital for ten days. I only remember waking up a couple of times and being told to eat or drink something. Which of course immediately came back up. Reading and hearing about others in my community that developed them in their 50's and 60's I am hoping the second time I had them I developed an immunity. For some with light cases they do not sound that bad but few talk about the bad cases.

The same goes for Chicken Pox. One of my granddaughters nearly died from it. She was in the hospital for a week. The doctor said she had never seen such a bad case, so she really did a lot of researching and reading; she advised that evidently many, many years ago, it was normal for children to be very, very, very ill with this disease. I then recalled when my sister and I were just kids and had chicken pox, my aunt brought her kids over so they would get chicken pox and get it over with. Well my cousins did get chicken pox and one of them nearly died from it. Makes one wonder if genes has something to do with it. My sister and I were not sick at all.

When I had the measles at 7, parents sent their kids to my house. I remember my mother opening the door to several of my classmates saying that their mothers wanted them to catch the measles.

and apparently the anti Vader’s have no idea about summers and polio and the wards filled with iron lungs.

the only issue that I think needs to be addressed is the vaccine schedules for newborns. It looks like there's a steady stream of multiple vaccines every month.

I still have vague memories of when our school did vaccinations. It was 1964. After the shot was administered, the nurse“rewarded” each one of us with a sugar cube, which was also a vaccine.

The sugar cube was the polio vaccine.

I had the German Measles during the 1940s and it was no fun - ruined my whole summer. I caught it on the last day of school (April 30). I spent the first week mostly in bed with chills and fever. When no longer bedridden, my eyes were too sensitive to go outside without protection. I recall getting the darkest pair of sunglasses I could find and wore those for 2.5 months. About mid-August, I was able to use a lighter shade of glasses. It was in September before I could go outside without sun glasses, but even then, I wore a light pair because my eyes were yet over-sensitive to bright light. By the end of September, the sun was lower in the sky and was finally to handle the out-of-doors without aid.

That was a close call. My eyes were under attack. My sight could have been damaged. A vaccination with a few hours of sick time is much more desirable and less dangerous than a case of measles.

I know a few people who are anti-vaxxers. It's really hard for me.

On one hand I don't need to worry for my own self or children as we are vaccinated, if they catch some vaccine preventable disease, we are protected.

On the other hand, there are those who can't get vaccinated and they really rely on herd immunity in order to not get sick.

Your selfish and unfounded reasons for not getting vaccinated are putting THEM at risk!!!

I remember reading about an actress (Jayne Mansfield?) when she was older meeting a fan who told her, “The last time you were in [this city] I was such a fan of yours that I came out to meet you even though I had German measles [rubella]. I was so thrilled when you shook my hand.”

The actress had too much class to tell the fan that after she got home from that city she herself came down with rubella and as a result the daughter she was carrying was born deaf.

This is why we all need to be immunised. You don’t know who you might pass what you think of as a “harmless” disease on to and what results it might lead to. We’ve had babies here who are too young to be immunised get whooping cough from un-immunised older children and tragically (and avoidably) die from it.

I don't remember having had the measles and I was not vaccinated as the vaccines weren't available in the 'old days', so I went to an immunologist for testing to be sure I had the anti-bodies and I do. Good to know that getting yourself checked is an option.

Only the children suffer needlessly. Most of the parents had the vaccine and will not contract it, so the ONLY one to suffer is the child. Very selfish and stupid.

I was born in 1961 and had chicken pox but never measles - I know I was vaccinated but I heard on the news recently as LoneJack mentioned above that those early vaccines may not be enough to keep you from getting the measles now. I know my mom won't remember if we had 2 vaccines or not.

Thank you LoneJack for mentioning your dr could test you for immunity. I had no idea they could do that. I will put that on my list of questions at my next pcp visit.

colleen, my own mother contracted German Measles when she was 3 months pregnant with me. That of course was before Ultrasounds, so the doctors warned her I could be born with serious birth defects. She just prayed all would be well, and indeed, I was born perfectly healthy. The doctors were quite surprised that I wasn't deaf, but felt I must have just passed a critical stage inutero that enabled my hearing to not be affected. So my parents breathed a sigh of relief.

But 5 years later, my sister and I caught the Measles. We both had high fevers and recall feeling quite sick. My older sister began to lose her hearing after her high fever. She ended up with a 60% hearing loss in one ear and 40% loss in the other, at age 6. Somehow, again, I escaped any complications.

My own DD is expecting a baby next month, and lives in a large city that has an enclave of anti-vaxxers. With a measles outbreak occurring recently, she is terrified that anywhere she takes the baby, she might be exposing her to someone who may openly cough or sneeze, not knowing they are incubating Measles. She plans to always have her baby's car seat and stroller protected with a thin cover, whenever she is out in public, with people nearby.

This is the danger of following the unfounded hype that is so common today. Rumors and fads travel as fast as lightening and there are too many in this country, who allow such ignorance to lead their lives.

At least here on the west coast, doctors will now tell new parents not to allow anyone to pick up their babies or even to visit their houses unless each person has had a flu shot and a measles booster as an adult.

Based on how horribly painful I've heard shingles can be, I hope that anti-vaxxer parents who take their kids to "chickenpox parties" nowadays, live long enough that they are alive if/when their by-then grown child faces shingles, so that their child can curse them to their face.

Its similar to the public service announcement commercials where a now-grown child who is undergoing treatment for cervical cancer asks an off-screen parent incredulously "So you knew you could prevent this, and you did nothing?"

I'm planning on having a baby this year and it's terrifying. There's another measles outbreak in Los Angeles. I don't think I will leave the house with the baby for the first 6 months and anyone visiting must have full vaccinations, especially pertussis.

It's so selfish. I get that they are trying to protect their kid but it's all based on nonsense. Not only do they think doctors are ignorant, but it's also part of a giant cover up. I really feel for doctors who devote their lives to helping heal people to be accused as working for big pharma and to be told that someone's googling is better than their medical degree.

I do think there's room for some compromise. Babies today are definitely getting far more vaccines than I did in the 80's and 90's. I plan to space mine out with a pediatrician to do them individually to check for reactions. I know they do clusters to increase the chance of the babies getting fully immunized because not all parents are able or willing to get their kid to frequent appointments to do it individually.

Perhaps its because I have a chronic pulmonary disease, but I do NOT see "Big Pharma" as the enemy but as my friend. I would be dead without Big Pharma. I also developed asthma in my late 20's - again, I would be dead without Big Pharma.

Big Pharma is not a place where mad scientists and evil businessmen work. The people there are just normal people. And the R&D teams will save thousands of lives.

Yes, Anglophilia, people are surviving heart attacks, strokes, hypertension, kidney failure -- well just name any of the diseases that used to kill most people by age 65 -- thanks to "big pharma". I will agree that aggressive advertising is inappropriate (in every form) and that some companies put their profits way too far into first place leading to unethical actions. But that isn't a reason to distrust them all, or all medications or vaccines.

One of my cousins was left deaf after measles.

I had a young co-worker who became very ill with varicella (chickenpox) encephalitis -- before the vaccine was available. I don't recall if she had had the disease as a child.

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone in this country who hasn't benefited from the advances and research in our medical community, including pharmaceuticals. But they've done plenty of careless damage, as well, that our society will be feeling for a long, long time.

sjerin, also important to remember for those of us becoming aunts, uncles, grandparents is the Tdap. Tetanus booster that also includes pertussis (whooping cough). There was a whooping cough outbreak a while back and we had no little babies in the family right then, but I called my nurse friend who tracks our vaccinations for us and she said we were good - meaning we couldn't carry illness or expose a baby who might become sick even if we were not. She had already given us the Tdap instead of the plain TD booster (we do try to keep up on the tetanus shots since our lifestyle does not preclude cuts or punctures in the garden, woods, sometimes farm, doing repairs or remodeling etc, etc ;0)

Friends of ours were eagerly awaiting an opposite coast visit from their first grandbaby about 4 years ago - so much distance meant they didn't see a lot of him. There was a measles outbreak going on then! Her son called, and said we won't be flying with the baby after all, not until he's old enough to have had all his shots. We don't want to risk him on a plane or in airport crowds.

I'm not questioning the value of the pharmaceutical industry and vaccines.

The OP asked why some parents were shunning vaccines. The current generation of parents is coming from a culture of over-prescribed medications, from antidepressants and attention deficit medication to dangerous narcotics. This is their perspective and often their baseline of experience with pharmaceuticals, not the wonders of heart medication and blood pressure pills.

I think it's also a side effect of the information age. In earlier generations people relied on their doctors for medical advice. Now, people Google everything. And bad information is spread so easily. My naive relatives on Facebook forward so much nonsense.

It's fear-mongering and people taking advantage of new mothers to push their agendas. It's a scary thing to think you might risk the health of your precious baby with a vaccine. What if it's actually true? What if those terrible things they say might happen?

And then there are the parents whose children suffer from other issues but they want something to blame so vaccines are handy. Things like SIDS still happens. Then it creates a cycle of people pushing info that if you vaccine your child, they might die in their sleep.

I can see how it happens.

I’m just angry over this whole mess that so many are unprotected and getting measles. Coming from a family of several nurse practitioners, nurses, and physicians (retired), we are just shaking our heads. And of course there are those that believe everything the read on the internet or FB as truth.

I had thought our state had escaped the worst of it until today. Forgot about all the people on Spring Break. I just read that someone with measles passing through here on their way home from Florida had stopped at a gas station in the south and a chick-fil-a in the north of the state yesterday. So there. Wonder how many more there will be.

Chi, is it ok to ask whether you are expecting? Just ignore this if you'd rather not answer. I know you've been hoping for this for a long time so I hope it happens for you!!

Sjerin, not yet but we are moving forward with ivf very soon so I'm hopeful I will be later this year! Thanks for the kind thoughts :)

Chi - I'm sending along my fervent wish that you have a positive outcome. If this is any encouragement my DS and DDIL welcomed home a darling healthy daughter this week. They went through 5 years of fertility treatments - 8 failed IUI's but the first IVF was successful. Hoping for the best for you.

Thanks maire. We're on our 5th year of trying (though first year of fertility treatments) so hopefully we will have the same luck!

Congratulations to you all!

Sending positive thoughts to you Chi. I have two friends who are now grandparents because of IVF.

Good luck Chi!!

Of course, best wishes. to you chi. I don't know what the success rate is but I know of many children conceived through various fertility treatments, no doubt others do too. And some couples who, after a few rounds of fertility treatments , managed to conceive children the old fashioned way unexpectedly.

Thanks everyone. I think we will make and freeze embryos in the next month and then transfer in the fall. I want to try to lose a bit more weight first to have a healthier pregnancy. We can't wait too long though as we are already getting old in that sense! At least it's common here in CA to have babies well into the 30's.

Yes, as Elmer says. We have friends whose first baby was an IVF baby, then I guess the system was kicked into action so to speak, as soon after the first baby was born number two was on the way.

Fingers crossed for you, Chi.

Wishing you success, Chi. I was 34 when my daughter was born and I considered it a plus to become a parent in my 30's. At least for me, it was. My parents were in their 40's...and I feel like that had benefits too. A baby will keep you young.

Thanks - yes, what we are missing in energy we make up for in stability so I think it will be fine! I'm a little nervous about the increased risks but the odds are still in our favor and they test the embryos now.

Colleen, I've heard that is pretty common! It happened to my aunt and uncle. They tried for 10 years, did quite a few unsuccessful ivf rounds and were trying one last one before adopting. That worked for a baby boy and 2 years later they had a girl naturally. I think the body has an easier time getting pregnant after the first time in many cases. I hear so many stories of taking a year or more to get the first but the second was a one try kind of deal.

My very best wishes to you and your husband, Chi!

I remember the measles. The vax came out the year I got this. I was in a darkened bedroom for about two or three weeks, and at the age of about 8, I'd gotten to the point I didn't care if I lived or if I died. Mother came in to read to me, but I didn't even care about that. I just wanted it all to end.

My brother (we were in NYC so the vaccinations got there earlier than in the hinterlands) got one of the first measles vaccines available. He was something like 1 or 2. Efficiently, they kept us apart. Not that I cared to move at that point.

VACCINATE!!!!