Does Florida Governor Ron DeSantis honestly believe that mandatory vaccines endanger civil liberties? Even the polio vaccine?
During my time as a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone, I worked with teenage polio survivors and witnessed firsthand the devastating impact of the disease. This experience revealed the invisible borders we create, both between countries and within our own societies, particularly in the realm of public health.
Governor DeSantis’s stance on vaccines undermines a century of scientific progress.
I think about my friend and colleague Mustapha, a polio survivor confined to a rickety wheelchair and who offered other young Sierra Leonean survivors — boys with skeletal deformities and shriveled atrophied limbs, much like his own — a chance at a better future in his blacksmith workshop. Each of these boys faced a lifetime of limited mobility and debilitating muscle fatigue and pain.
In 2018, I returned to the country with a nonprofit organization to help deliver vaccines. Despite the decade-long war and the Ebola outbreak, Sierra Leone declared itself polio-free in 2020. This nation’s success demonstrates what is possible when governments, citizens and the global medical community prioritize public health. Even though COVID-19 hampered vaccination efforts the following year, in 2021, the people of Sierra Leone, particularly mothers, understood that vaccines are the single most effective way to keep their children alive and able-bodied.
Governor DeSantis, there will be a public reckoning and everyone will suffer should you refuse to mandate vaccines. Viruses do not respect borders.
You, yourself, have protected your own family by vaccinating them. Why would you not want the rest of us to safeguard ours?
I invite you to meet the now grown men I served in Sierra Leone and witness the devastating long-term effects of just one infectious disease. I will wait at the check-in gate. Please also invite Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Furthermore, as a resident of New Hampshire, I encourage you to extend the same invitation to Governor Kelly Ayotte. Her decision to opt out of participation in the bi-partisan Northeastern states alliance on vaccines is short-sighted. New Hampshire residents deserve to be included in these conversations. A scientifically informed public ensures better health outcomes for everyone, regardless of zip code.
Please remember to tell everybody to bring their vaccination card and their yellow fever certificate. Without them, Sierra Leone won’t allow you to enter the country.
Alternatively, pick up a history book. We in America led the world in the effort to stop the spread of polio, and when politics intervened, the American public, together, rallied around our children.
Betsy Small, a Milford resident, served in the Peace Corps. She is the author of the new book, “Before Before: A Story of Discovery and Loss in Sierra Leone.” She is the former Executive Director of global peace-building organizations working in Africa, the Middle East, Cyprus and Northern Ireland.