Many forget the damage done by diseases like whooping cough, measles and rubella. Not these families
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — In the time before widespread vaccination, death often came early.
Devastating infectious diseases ran rampant in America, killing millions of children and leaving others with lifelong health problems. These illnesses were the main reason why nearly one in five children in 1900 never made it to their fifth birthday.
Over the next century, vaccines virtually wiped out long-feared scourges like polio and measles and drastically reduced the toll of many others. Today, however, some preventable, contagious diseases are making a comeback as vaccine hesitancy pushes immunization rates down. And well-established vaccines are facing suspicion even from public officials, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist, running the federal health department.
Jacque Farnham, left, looks at a book with her mother, Janith, in the Visual Arts Center at the Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls, S.D., on May 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Shelby Lum)
Jacque Farnham, left, looks at a book with her mother, Janith, in the Visual Arts Center at the Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls, S.D., on May 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Shelby Lum)
“This concern, this hesitancy, these questions about vaccines are a consequence of the great success of the vaccines – because they eliminated the diseases,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “If you’re not familiar with the disease, you don’t respect or even fear it. And therefore you don’t value the vaccine.”
Anti-vaccine activists even portray the shots as a threat, focusing on the rare risk of side effects while ignoring the far larger risks posed by the diseases themselves — and years of real-world data that experts say proves the vaccines are safe.
Some Americans know the reality of these preventable diseases all too well. For them, news of measles outbreaks and rising whooping cough cases brings back terrible memories of lives forever changed – and a longing to spare others from similar pain.
80-year-old Janith Farnham has helped shepherd her daughter, Jacque, through life for decades. Jacque was born with congenital rubella syndrome, which can cause a host of issues. (AP video/Shelby Lum)
With a mother’s practiced, guiding hand, 80-year-old Janith Farnham helped steer her 60-year-old daughter’s walker through a Sioux Falls art center. They stopped at a painting of a cow wearing a hat.
Janith pointed to the hat, then to her daughter Jacque’s Minnesota Twins cap. Jacque did the same.
“That’s so funny!” Janith said, leaning in close to say the words in sign language too.
Jacque Farnham, 60, left, walks with her mother, Janith, 80, to the Visual Arts Center at the Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls, S.D., on May 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Shelby Lum)
Jacque Farnham, 60, left, walks with her mother, Janith, 80, to the Visual Arts Center at the Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls, S.D., on May 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Shelby Lum)
Jacque was born with congenital rubella syndrome, which can cause a host of issues including hearing impairment, eye problems, heart defects and intellectual disabilities. There was no vaccine against rubella back then, and Janith contracted the viral illness very early in the pregnancy, when she had up to a 90% chance of giving birth to a baby with the syndrome.
Janith recalled knowing “things weren’t right” almost immediately. The baby wouldn’t respond to sounds or look at anything but lights. She didn’t like to be held close. Her tiny heart sounded like it purred – evidence of a problem that required surgery at four months old.
Janith did all she could to help Jacque thrive, sending her to the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind and using skills she honed as a special education teacher. She and other parents of children with the syndrome shared insights in a support group.
Meanwhile, the condition kept taking its toll. As a young adult, Jacque developed diabetes, glaucoma and autistic behaviors. Eventually, arthritis set in.
Janith Farnham signs “water” while she and her daughter, Jacque, look at an artwork of a waterfall at the Visual Arts Center at the Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls, S.D., on May 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Shelby Lum)
Janith Farnham signs “water” while she and her daughter, Jacque, look at an artwork of a waterfall at the Visual Arts Center at the Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls, S.D., on May 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Shelby Lum)
Today, Jacque lives in an adult residential home a short drive from Janith’s place. Above her bed is a net overflowing with stuffed animals. On a headboard shelf are photo books Janith created, filled with memories like birthday parties and trips to Mount Rushmore.
Janith marvels at Jacque’s sense of humor, gratefulness, curiosity and affectionate nature despite all she’s endured. Jacque is generous with kisses and often signs “double I love yous” to family, friends and new people she meets.
“When you live through so much pain and so much difficulty and so much challenge, sometimes I think: Well, she doesn’t know any different,” Janith said.
Given what her family has been through, Janith believes younger people are being selfish if they choose not to get their children the MMR shot against measles, mumps and rubella.
“It’s more than frustrating. I mean, I get angry inside,” she said. “I know what can happen, and I just don’t want anybody else to go through this.”
More than half a century has passed, but Patricia Tobin still vividly recalls getting home from work, opening the car door and hearing her mother scream. Inside the house, her little sister Karen lay unconscious on the bathroom floor.
It was 1970, and Karen was 6. She’d contracted measles shortly after Easter. While an early vaccine was available, it wasn’t required for school in Miami where they lived. Karen’s doctor discussed immunizing the first grader, but their mother didn’t share his sense of urgency.
“It’s not that she was against it,” Tobin said. “She just thought there was time.”
Then came a measles outbreak. Karen – who Tobin described as a “very endearing, sweet child” who would walk around the house singing – quickly became very sick. The afternoon she collapsed in the bathroom, Tobin, then 19, called the ambulance. Karen never regained consciousness.
“She immediately went into a coma and she died of encephalitis,” said Tobin, who stayed at her bedside in the hospital. “We never did get to speak to her again.”
Today, all states require that children get certain vaccines to attend school. But a growing number of people are making use of exemptions allowed for medical, religious or philosophical reasons. Vanderbilt’s Schaffner said fading memories of measles outbreaks were exacerbated by a fraudulent, retracted study claiming a link between the MMR shot and autism.