My first memorable experience with vaccines happened when I was in grammar school. For several summers, my mother worried that I would acquire polio at my swimming lessons. In the 1950s, more than 15 000 individuals developed paralytic polio each year in the US, some died, and a number were left with severe complications.1 Everyone knew someone who had contracted polio. For me, it was my classmate’s brother who had polio-related hypoxia and was left with lifelong disabilities. To support vaccine development, I filled March of Dimes cards and solicited my neighbors to do the same. I recall going to my grade school on Sunday with hundreds of others to receive a sugar cube containing live attenuated oral polio vaccine. Everyone was eager to be vaccinated. At a young age, I realized the power of prevention when the disease disappeared with widespread vaccination. That science could be publicly supported and conquer contagion was an early lesson for me.