Thank you, March Twisdale, for your response to my memories of what it was like to have survived the pre-vaccine epidemic era (“Arguments supporting vaccines were only anecdotal,” March 5). You’re right; it’s just one slice of the pie, but one few persons born after 1957 can possibly understand — because, thankfully, you never had to experience it. Vaccines took care of that.

Did I worry about/weigh out the risks vaccines could impose on my children? You betcha! But my personal experience and research I did showed the viral epidemic risk to be far greater.

I agree, a generation protected by immunization or herd immunity seems to now be making decisions — with only part of the pie. My slice simply presented the very personal experience of what it was like in the 1950s and 60s to have survived two epidemics.

Data is another slice of the pie:

Between 1940 and 1950, global annual average, polio killed or paralyzed half a million people per year.

1952: 58,000 cases of polio reported in the U.S.; 3,000 died.

1957: First year of vaccine administration; only 5,600 cases reported.

1964: 121 cases.

1979: 0 cases.

1977: The CDC estimated there were 600,000 permanently paralyzed individuals in the U.S. — paralysis caused by polio these now-adults had contracted prior to 1956.

Something Jim could never get Spock to understand is that no logic, no single statistic in the world matters if it’s your child lying in a hospital bed struggling to breathe, unable to respond or move because of a raging viral infection. This is your 100 percent, your child, your world.  That’s pure emotion. It’s called love.

March, you and I do agree: Decisions should be made with all slices of the pie, including the very real, very human, very emotional impact of an epidemic. That is something that few of you born after 1957 could possibly understand, and I pray you never have to.

— Brigitte Brown