As grandparents, we expected to worry about school performance, scraped knees, first heartbreaks and whether our grandchildren were getting enough sleep.
We never expected to worry that diseases we thought were gone might come roaring into their lives — yet here we are.
We understand why some parents hesitate about vaccines. The internet is full of alarming stories and loud voices warning that vaccines may do more harm than good. When you love your child more than anything, even a small seed of doubt can grow quickly.
Donna A. Gaffney is a medical professional and co-founder Grandparents for Vaccines. (courtesy, Donna A. Gaffney)
Fear is powerful, especially when fueled by emotional anecdotes rather than medical facts.
As grandparents, we have lived long enough to remember what those fears leave out.
We remember measles, polio and whooping cough as frightening illnesses that often hospitalized children, caused lasting disabilities. They even sometimes took young lives.
Many parents today have never seen these diseases first-hand. That’s a testament to the success of vaccines, but it has also made the dangers feel distant, even imaginary. When a threat feels invisible, protection can feel optional. It isn’t.
Diseases don’t disappear on their own. They disappear because communities choose to protect one another. When vaccination rates fall, preventable diseases return, and the consequences fall first and hardest on the most vulnerable — infants, medically fragile children and older adults.
That reality is why Grandparents for Vaccines was formed.
This grassroots organization grew out of concern from grandparents across the country, alarmed by declining vaccination rates and the growing influence of misinformation.
Many of us raised our own children at a time when vaccines were understood as a public good, something that protected not just families, but entire communities.
Our mission is to use our lived experience, our voices, and our love for the next generation to advocate for routine childhood immunization and to ensure that preventable diseases do not reclaim a foothold in our grandchildren’s lives.
At Grandparents for Vaccines, we take action.
Teri Mills is a co-founder of Grandparents for Vaccines.
Members host community conversations and educational events, partner with pediatricians and public health experts, and share personal stories about what life was like before vaccines were widely available.
With an emphasis on storytelling and a growing YouTube channel, grandparents speak directly to parents in a voice rooted not in politics but in care, memory and lived experience.
These stories are not meant to frighten, but to remind us what is at stake and what we stand to protect.
On the Grandparents for Vaccines YouTube channel, one grandmother describes her four-year-old sister contracting measles before a vaccine was available, recalling how quickly this childhood illness resulted in permanent cognitive impairment, changing her entire family’s life forever.
A grandfather speaks about his grandson, born prematurely, too young to be fully vaccinated, and his fear that declining community vaccination rates could expose the baby to life-threatening infections.
A grandmother shares the heartbreak of losing her perfectly healthy two-year-old grandson from meningitis. These are not abstract debates; they are lived realities that connect past and present.
We frequently hear parents say they are overwhelmed with immunization information. The vaccine schedule feels complicated. The instructions are dense. One doctor’s visit doesn’t always leave time for every question.
When answers feel rushed or confusing, uncertainty can harden into hesitation.
That’s not a failure of parents. It is a failure of our systems to communicate clearly and compassionately.
As grandparents, many of us feel a responsibility to speak up, not to shame or lecture, but to share perspective. We’ve seen what happens when vaccines are absent. We understand that “natural” exposure often means real suffering.
Today’s questions deserve respect, but so do yesterday’s consequences.
Vaccines are not about blind trust. They are about decades of evidence, constant monitoring and a simple goal of giving children the chance to grow up healthy and safe.
We want our grandchildren to grow up in a world where parents don’t have to learn the hard way what previous generations fought so hard to prevent.
Choosing vaccination is not just a medical decision. It is an act of love, protection and hope for the future.
As grandparents, we owe our grandchildren nothing less.
Donna A. Gaffney of Pacific Palisades, Calif., and Teri Mills of Tualatin, Ore., are medical professionals and co-founders and board members of Grandparents for Vaccines.
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2026/02/10/grandparents-must-forcefully-defend-vaccines-opinion/
