When I was in middle school, we had to do a report for health class. It could be on any topic we were interested in, if it was health related.

I chose to do my report on “childhood diseases.” Pertussis, diphtheria, measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, polio, to name a few. I can still remember polling my classmates. Some of them had never even heard of diphtheria or rubella.

A few had an elderly relative who had war stories about surviving polio as a child. Most of us suffered through chicken pox, though.

I remembered an elderly person from our church congregation who walked with a limp and sometimes a brace. “Polio,” my grandmother would whisper to me. She whispered that same word to me the one and only time we ever went to a public swimming pool together.

She was reluctant to get in, having grown up during a time when public swimming areas were key areas of transmission for the disease.

By the time my kids came along, even chicken pox had been practically eliminated from the pantheon of diseases kids were going to get eventually. Having kids who had already spent an inordinate amount of time hospitalized due to their assorted birth defects, I was bound and determined to keep them as healthy as possible throughout their childhood.

I also questioned everything the doctors told us. I’d always been the type of person to believe in doctors, until we ran into one who told us that our unborn son was unlikely to lead a normal life and would likely have severe disabilities and a low quality of life.

Thankfully, he was wrong, and we found the right doctor, but it shook my faith in the profession a little bit. I get it. Sometimes doctors and experts make mistakes.

I have been through hearing different messages from different doctors. I am guilty of “shopping around” until I found a doctor who told me what I wanted to hear. There is a lot on paper that might make you think that me questioning everything would lead me down a different road when it comes to vaccinating my kids.

I questioned doctors, I still question them today. I will always question them, and the majority are professional and take the time to answer my questions.

For example, when I asked why one doctor could have such a grim outlook for our child, when another said he could most likely live a normal life, the answer was pretty straight forward.

A’s condition is one that an average OB/GYN might see two or three times in their entire career. The doctor we ended up seeing specifically treats patients with A’s syndrome and treats two to three patients a week. He had a broader base of experience and knowledge than the previous doctor, and had much more information to share with us.

I think back to my grandmother, who could never be comfortable in a swimming pool, to her great-grandchildren who spend hours every day in one. I’ve never once, ever had to worry about them contracting polio from their pool time.

Although my entire first grade year was interrupted perpetually by the spread of chicken pox, my own kids never missed a single day of school due to it. Even when one or two other students got it, vaccinations kept my kids healthy.

That amazing progress was made during our lifetime. Real, tangible progress. And now, we’re in danger of moving backward. Measles is now here in Schuylkill County.

The numbers in Pennsylvania are going up every week. It’s not going to go well.

I have several friends who are already in the thick of things in neighboring counties. A few of them have said that before this they only read about measles in textbooks. Some have said that it was glossed over during their schooling, because it simply didn’t exist anymore. Another said that the only time she’d ever encountered it was while on a mission trip to a place we consider Third World.

It is depressing and disheartening to know that people believe in politicians over health care providers. It is upsetting to read comment after comment that “everyone had it as kids, and we’re all fine.” Survivorship bias at its finest. The people who aren’t fine aren’t here to tell us that they weren’t fine because they’re usually dead.

If only the people who chose not to get the vaccine were the only ones who suffered, but they’re not. Your grandparents who are going through immunosenescence, your aunt who is recovering from her cancer treatment, your brand-new niece or nephew, freshly home from the hospital. Those are the people who will end up suffering.

We hold people who knowingly ingest drugs or alcohol and end up hurting or killing people responsible for their actions. But willfully not engaging in behavior that can save other people’s lives isn’t held to the same standard.

I am a strong believer in my body, my choice, but I also believe in my loved ones, my community, and my choices as well.

Liz Pinkey’s column appears on Saturdays in the Times News