Ten years ago, while training as a resident physician, a 22-year-old man in our intensive care unit died of complications of varicella (chicken pox) pneumonia after weeks on a ventilator. He had grown up in the 1980s and had never been vaccinated. I have also taken care of patients who became permanently ventilator dependent as older adults due to complications of their childhood polio.

While we know that overwhelming scientific data clearly support the safety and importance of the standard childhood vaccines, most of us don’t remember the devastation that now-preventable diseases like measles and polio caused, in both children and adults. As a pulmonary and critical care physician I have taken care of these patients, and their families, and witnessed their suffering. I also regularly take of patients with various conditions that reduce their immune function, and increase the risk of being re-infected with these diseases. Universal childhood vaccination is safe and effective, and saves lives of both children and adults.

As a physician, it is my responsibility to protect my patients. As a Mainer, it is my responsibility to protect my community. As a parent, it is my responsibility to protect my children. For all of these reasons, I will vote no on Question 1.

Edmund “Ted” Sears, MD
Associate clinical professor of medicine, Tufts University
Associate program director, Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellows, Maine Medical Center
Associate program cirector, Medicine- Pediatrics Residency, Maine Medical Center

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