Daily Herald opinion: A lifesaving lesson: Vaccines a key part of the back-to-school checklist

Suburban parents are well acquainted with back-to-school checklists — including a school supplies run for pencils, pens and whatever else schools require.

But Gov. JB Pritzker, speaking in Wheeling earlier this week, reminded Illinoisans of one more item that should be on back-to-school to-do lists: vaccines.

Joined by health officials at the Wheeling Township Elementary School District 21 Community Service Center, Pritzker emphasized the benefits of vaccines and warned about the dangers of skipping them. He also spoke of how vaccination efforts in the state prevented the spread of a measles outbreak this year, as our Russell Lissau reported.

The governor — an outspoken critic of the Trump administration — couldn’t resist a jab at U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist who has cut federal funding for vaccine research.

“Some of our leaders in Washington need to head back to school, too,” Pritzker said Monday, “to educate themselves about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines.”

Let’s set politics aside for the moment and focus — as local students will in the coming months — on science and history.

Both offer valuable lessons when it comes to the importance of vaccines and their lifesaving impact on humanity.

In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics, based in Itasca, hails immunizations among the top achievements in public health, pointing out that they have prevented tens of thousands of deaths and millions of cases of disease.

Vaccines, for example, eradicated smallpox before today’s students — and many of their parents — were born.

Declared eradicated in 1980, smallpox dated back at least 3,000 years. It was a terrifying and deadly disease: On average, three out of every 10 people afflicted with smallpox died, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Parents of the 21st century also do not have to worry about the devastating effects of polio in the same way their grandparents and great-grandparents did after a vaccine for that disease was rolled out 70 years ago.

Measles, more than 60 years after a vaccine was licensed, still remains a threat for those who refuse the shot and those unable to get it. The CDC reports 1,396 cases so far this year as of Aug. 5 — the highest number of cases since measles was declared eliminated in the United States 25 years ago. Three people have died since the start of 2025.

Safe, effective vaccines can keep that number from growing. And they protect the most vulnerable, including babies too young to be vaccinated.

“We trust the science and we care for each other in this state,” Pritzker said Monday.

One way to care for others, and yourself, is to consult with your doctor and get vaccinated — and make sure your children do as well.