Something to Remind Me.

“Always something there to remind me.” I quote the title of a timeless popular song to tell about a passion I’m feeling. It’s a passion to tell some events that happened in my family and to share my opinions about a danger that frightens me about the future of human beings everywhere.

Let me tell you about the latest something. A few days ago, I reached into the cutlery drawer to get a spoon. In a hurry, I didn’t open the drawer all the way. As I reached over the salad forks, which have tines as sharp as knives, I landed my right pinky finger on top of a fork. It stuck so deep that when I brought my hand out of the drawer the fork came with it and dangled like a Christmas tree ornament from my pinky.  

I had to exert some force to remove the fork. Then blood gushed out and dripped onto the kitchen floor. I’ll spare you the other gory details.

The nurse practitioner and I decided I needed a tetanus shot. That inoculation includes a vaccination against diphtheria. 

Diphtheria is something I’m reminded of constantly. Why? It is a hideous disease that cost the life of one of my brothers and almost killed another. What I need to tell you is how the world would be if we had an epidemic of diphtheria again like those throughout history until almost the middle of the twentieth century when the medical community in our nation conquered the problem. 

Receiving a tetanus shot—not many of us play around with that. We’ve learned that a nail doesn’t have to be rusty or come from a barnyard to cause lockjaw. But why do doctors slip in the diphtheria shot? It’s a little like drinking milk with vitamins A and D or eating bread fortified with B vitamins. Maybe it’s like using toothpaste containing fluoride or iodized salt. All of these ideas are controversial, but I don’t plan to discuss them.

What I want to talk about is diphtheria. A sore finger that smarts while I’m typing is my reminder that I have something we need to think about.

Why should we receive a vaccination for diphtheria? According to my doctor’s Vaccination Information Statement, diphtheria can cause a thick coating to form in the back of the throat. The disease leads to breathing problems, paralysis, heart failure, and death.

“Before vaccines, as many as 200,000 cases of diphtheria...were reported in the United states each year.” Since vaccination began, the incidence of the disease has dropped 99%.