Janice’s Story

By Janice Nichols

“We were healthy, rambunctious kids, our parents abided by every single public health recommendation to try and protect us and yet, when a virus wants to hit, it’s going to hit everywhere it wants to.” Polio hit my family really hard. My twin brother, Frankie died. Two of my friends died. I was paralyzed and am grateful to have recovered. Many of us have really bad memories of how awful it was to have scabs in our head and all over our bodies from chickenpox.

“I am a real vaccine advocate, as most people in my generation are. Those bad memories are the reason we are very, very thankful we have so many vaccines today.”