Vaccines have saved millions of lives from diseases

By Letter to the Editor on November 19, 2021.

Editor:
After reading Lynn Harrington’s letter re: vaccines, I must respond.
Millions of lives have been saved from vaccines for polio, smallpox, mumps, measles, whooping cough, and rubella. All of these have been almost eradicated from our planet.
I grew up in the 1950s in southern Alberta during the polio scare.
Every school child in my community was vaccinated except for one individual.
He was the only person to contract polio and luckily survived. My choice to get vaccinated and wear a mask protects me but also all with whom I come in contact, including children under 12.
Currently Alberta hospitals are overflowing with those who are unvaccinated, causing Albertans who need urgent surgery for cancer or organ transplant to wait perhaps causing their deaths. When the choice one makes negatively affects other people one should question that choice.
I also thank Lynn for her service in the military to protect Canada, a country I am very proud of, happy with and lucky to have been born in.
Faye Van Deurzen
Lethbridge