Rubella gave me a disability. This is my message to anti-vaxxers (Opinion)

Editor’s Note: Elsa Sjunneson-Henry is an editor and author whose work focuses on the voices of disabled creators and characters and the experience of disabled Americans. Or, as the wife of White House communications chief Bill Shine tweeted recently, childhood diseases like measles “keep you healthy & fight cancer.” No matter what any of these people say about vaccines, I personally know they’re wrong. Measles is the leading cause of vaccine-preventable deaths in the world, according to Dr. Paul Offit’s book, “Vaccinated.” What that means is that people are willfully putting others at risk of death because they think autism is a worse fate – and therefore worth that risk that others might die. I’m pro-vaccination, but I know that not everyone can be vaccinated – so the herd must protect those who cannot be from measles, a disease which one study shows may erase your immunity from previous childhood illnesses like chicken pox. Join us on Twitter and Facebook I wonder how many more people like me will have to speak up about what it’s like to live in a world where we feel like Cassandra, pointing out the doom and being told that we’re “overreaching.” I wonder these things, and I hope that the tide turns, and that we remember that we came close to killing measles once, and we can do it for good if we work together to strengthen the herd.