Becoming a grandparent begins a bond unlike any other — one that promises depth, delight and unexpected wisdom.

Today’s grandparents aren’t just storybook figures or weekend babysitters. Many have also taken on the role of fierce protector. They may tread lightly when offering advice, but when it comes to health, especially vaccinations, their life experience instructs them to take a firmer tack.

Many of today’s grandparents lived through a time when vaccines were unavailable. They remember the itchy fevers of chickenpox, the swelling from mumps, or being quarantined with measles — no school, no playdates and sometimes no happy ending. These weren’t just childhood rites of passage. They were serious, sometimes deadly, illnesses that changed lives and stole futures.

Filmmaker and grandfather Francis Ford Coppola was 9 years old when he contracted polio, a traumatic experience that shaped his life and advocacy. Today, he is a vocal champion of vaccination, calling it “so absurd, the idea that they would consider reversing course on vaccines now.”

But that is what’s happening: Critical vaccine research is being cut and trusted oversight panels undermined, endangering the health of our families and putting our grandchildren at grave risk.

Our grandchildren now face a danger that was almost unimaginable when we were growing up. This time, it’s not the disease but the disinformation that fuels its return. Vaccine misinformation, often spread through unreliable sources and amplified by social media, is moving like a contagion itself. It’s eroding public trust and placing young lives at risk.

The numbers tell a troubling story. In 2024-25, only 92.1% of U.S. kindergartners were fully vaccinated. It was the fifth consecutive year below the 95% threshold needed to maintain herd immunity against highly contagious diseases like measles. Public confidence in vaccines is slipping. As a result, the safety of our communities is being compromised.

Now we have a multi-state measles outbreak, the worst in more than 30 years. Of the more than 1,350 people with confirmed measles diagnoses, 92% were either unvaccinated or had no known vaccination status. Three people have died, including two children.

Cases of whooping cough are also on the rise. Health care workers are once again caring for infants who cough until they turn blue, gasping for breath in scenes that should belong to history, not headlines.

Many of today’s parents, having never witnessed the devastating effects of polio or whooping cough, are being lulled into a dangerous complacency. But we grandparents remember. We saw children on crutches, or struggling to breathe inside iron lungs, or deaf from post-measles infections. This is our lived experience.

And, for that reason, some of the nation’s 67 million grandparents won’t stay quiet. Meet Grandparents for Vaccines, a grassroots organization concerned about the comeback of vaccine-preventable diseases. The group, in which we both play leadership roles, is launching nationwide on Sept. 7, which happens to be Grandparents Day.

As the family’s trusted messengers, many of us grandparents are eager and capable of getting the word out to young families, preschools and communities. The message? It is crucial for children to be vaccinated following the American Academy of Pediatrics’ childhood immunization schedule.

The bottom line? All children must be able to receive safe and effective vaccinations that are either covered by insurance or provided free of charge via the Vaccines for Children program.

A 2024 Canadian study of 2,000 parents affirmed that personal stories were convincing and highly successful strategies for promoting health. (And if there is anything grandparents know how to do, it’s to tell stories.) We’re calling on grandparents everywhere to share their stories about vaccine-preventable diseases and to talk about how they survived measles, mumps and even polio with the help of vaccines.

Our grandkids are counting on us. Vaccines are safe and effective. They protect against serious diseases and their transmission. Being vaccinated helps protect others, as well as future generations. Today’s grandparents protected their own children with vaccines. Grandparents for Vaccines asks this generation to vaccinate their offspring. Please join us in helping keep our beloved grandchildren safe and well.

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Donna A. Gaffney and Teri Mills are both nurses and leaders of Grandparents for Vaccines. This column was produced for Progressive Perspectives, a project of The Progressive magazine, and distributed by Tribune News Service.

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