Families, Vaccines, & Community Immunity

Written by Stephen Wallace and Maddie Elliott

July 31, 2026 -When the chickenpox vaccine was added to the childhood immunization schedule in 1995, I was too young to receive it. My older brother, born in November 1994, came along just before the recommendation was widely implemented. I was born in February 1996, and somewhere in that brief window between the vaccine becoming available and both of us being fully protected, we each contracted chickenpox.

At the time, it felt like a normal childhood illness. We recovered, and life moved on. But viruses have a way of lingering.

At 23 years old, I was diagnosed with shingles, a painful condition caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox. When I arrived at my doctor’s office, I was told I was the youngest shingles patient they had ever treated, and likely would be for quite some time. That’s because children vaccinated against chickenpox are dramatically less likely to develop the disease in the first place, reducing their risk of shingles later in life. Since the vaccine was introduced, cases of chickenpox in the United States have declined by more than 97%, preventing millions of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths.1

My story is unusual today precisely because vaccines work.

For decades, vaccines have been one of the greatest public health achievements in modern history. Diseases that once hospitalized, disabled, or killed thousands of children every year have become exceedingly rare. Before the global effort to eradicate polio began in 1988, the disease paralyzed more than 1,000 children every day worldwide.2 Just three years later, the Americas recorded their last case of wild poliovirus, a milestone made possible through widespread vaccination campaigns.3 The Global Polio Eradication Initiative has since become the largest internationally coordinated public health effort in history.4

The same story can be told for measles, rubella, diphtheria, and other vaccine-preventable diseases. These illnesses didn’t disappear on their own. They disappeared because generations of parents chose to vaccinate their children, protecting not only their own families but entire communities.

That progress is now at risk.

Vaccines have been one of the most successful public health tools available to families, helping children avoid serious illnesses that once kept them out of school, caused hospitalization, or resulted in lifelong complications. Yet declining vaccination rates in some communities have allowed diseases that many parents have never encountered firsthand to return. In 2025, the United States recorded its first measles death in a decade when an unvaccinated child in Texas died during a growing outbreak. By the end of the year, three measles-related deaths had been reported nationwide.5 Measles is often dismissed as a childhood illness, but it can lead to pneumonia, brain swelling, hearing loss, and other serious complications that can affect a child’s health long after the infection has passed.6 The lesson is not that families should be afraid. Rather, it is that prevention matters, and vaccines remain one of the safest and most effective ways to protect children from avoidable harm.

At the same time, conversations about vaccines should acknowledge the real barriers many families face. Not every parent who has questions about vaccines is opposed to them. Many families struggle to access reliable information or convenient vaccination services. Public health researchers describe some communities as “vaccine deserts,” where vaccination sites may be difficult to reach, have limited hours, or require transportation that families do not have. Others are overwhelmed by conflicting information online and are unsure who to trust. Building confidence in vaccines is not about shaming families or winning an argument. It is about ensuring parents have access to accurate information from trusted messengers, whether that is a pediatrician, a child care provider, a faith leader, or another parent who has navigated similar questions. Research consistently finds that people are more likely to feel confident in health decisions when information comes from someone they know and trust.7

Recent changes at the federal level have created additional uncertainty for families. In 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services began changing some long-standing vaccine recommendation processes and recommendations, prompting concern from many pediatricians, public health experts, and medical organizations.8 While those debates continue nationally, Michigan health leaders have made clear that the state’s vaccine policies will continue to be guided by evidence-based recommendations from organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and other established medical authorities. That consistency matters because vaccines do more than protect individual children. They help create safer schools, child care programs, and communities, particularly for infants, kids with certain medical conditions, and others who may be more vulnerable to serious illness. When more children are protected, everyone benefits.

Protecting children has always required more than good medicine; it requires trust. Rebuilding that trust is a responsibility shared by parents, healthcare providers, educators, community leaders, and all of us who care about the well-being of kids. That’s why Michigan’s Children encourages families, advocates, and community partners to join the American Academy of Pediatrics’ national Vaccine Confidence campaign. The campaign offers easy-to-share resources, fact sheets, social media graphics, and conversation guides designed to help restore confidence in childhood immunizations and return kindergarten vaccination rates to, or above, the 95% level needed to protect our communities.

Whether you’re a parent having conversations with family members, a teacher answering questions from caregivers, or a community leader looking to share trusted information, you can play a role in protecting children from vaccine-preventable diseases. Vaccines have saved millions of lives and transformed what it means to grow up healthy in America. The progress we’ve made over the last several decades wasn’t inevitable. It was built through science, public trust, and collective action. Protecting that progress will require the same commitment today.

Learn more about the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Vaccine Confidence campaign and access free resources to share in your community.

  1. https://www.cdc.gov/chickenpox/vaccination-impact/index.html
  2. https://polioeradication.org/about-polio/history-of-polio/
  3. https://polioeradication.org/about-polio/history-of-polio/
  4. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0264410X10014957
  5. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/first-us-measles-death-reported-west-texas-outbreak-affects-more-than-130-people-2025-02-26
  6. https://apnews.com/article/measles-outbreak-west-texas-death-rfk-41adc66641e4a56ce2b2677480031ab9
  7. Berkeley Media Studies Group, Communicating About Vaccines: Illuminating the Context for Access and Hesitancy and Investing in Trusted Messengers.
  8. https://www.kff.org/other-health/the-new-federal-vaccine-schedule-what-changed