Editor,

My parents were quacks. I do not just refer to the Muscovy ducks I helped raise in the sacred town of Brea, Calif. when I was 12 years old in 1956, not far from where the holy shrine of Disneyland was erected around that time.

At the height of the polio epidemic, my parents refused to let me and my four younger siblings be vaccinated. All five of us are still alive, and none of us is paralyzed.

My personal doctor was drafted and sent to Afghanistan a couple of years ago, and saw lots of children crippled from polio because of religious superstition. In my family’s case, it was herd immunity that saved us all.

I refer, of course, to the South Whidbey Record article, “County board of health supports bill limiting exemptions for vaccinations.”

Just because my family herd was lucky, surely in 2019 we can do better.

Stephen Kahn

Freeland