Rubella gave me a disability. This is my message to anti-vaxxers
In 1985 my mother was exposed to German Measles due to a failure in herd immunity. Herd immunity is created when the "herd" is vaccinated to the point where the disease, infection, or bacteria has nowhere to go, and no hosts to hide in. My mother remembers getting a rash all over her body on Valentine's Day and being sick for a week. She didn't know what it was. She didn't know she needed her MMR vaccine booster, as they weren't standard at the time (as they are now). The other thing that she didn't know? She was pregnant at the time. With me. As a result, I was born withCongenital Rubella Syndrome.
Congenital Rubella Syndrome: I had cataracts in both eyes, a heart defect and hearing loss, plus a handful of other weird symptoms that I would find out later are classically CRS related but didn't seem so at the time. After dozens of surgeries, I have a clean bill of cardiac health, I see out of one eye (not terribly well, I'm legally blind), and I wear bilateral hearing aids.
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