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‘Generations are alive today because of vaccines’

Retired nurse says history shows vaccinations are safe and key to fighting infectious diseases

GLEN WHIFFEN glen.whiffen@thetelegram.com @Stjohnstelegram

A retired registered nurse living in a St. John’s retirement home who has been in the fight against pandemics in the past has a message for people concerned about getting vaccines to protect against COVID-19.

“Vaccines are safe and they save lives,” says Olive Dwyer, 86.

Formerly of Coley’s Point in Bay Roberts, Dwyer spent her nursing career at the Grace Hospital in St. John’s. She has seen and helped treat patients with illnesses ranging from tuberculous to measles.

“I’m a private person and I didn’t really want to speak about it,” Dwyer told The Telegram. “But I have to speak up. People should know that (COVID-19 vaccination) is not new, that vaccines have been successful and safe. Generations of people are alive today because of vaccines.”

Dwyer first experienced hardship through infectious disease while growing up in Coley’s Point.

“My sister, who was four years older than me, died of whooping cough and measles,” Dwyer said. “And there was this large family that grew up close to me that had four in the family infected with tuberculosis. The first daughter passed away, the second one ended up with tuberculosis in the bones of her leg, the third one spent nine months in the sanitorium in St. John’s with

“I’m a private person and I didn’t really want to speak about it. … But I have to speak up. People should know that (COVID-19 vaccination) is not new, that vaccines have been successful and safe.” Olive Dwyer

respiratory tuberculous, and a son actually died of tuberculosis, as well.”

Dwyer said that after she began her nursing career in the mid-1950s, she saw outbreaks of various illnesses.

In the past, she noted, areas of the province were hit by epidemics, such as diphtheria, smallpox, tuberculosis, measles, whooping cough, mumps, typhoid fever and polio.

Families were often quarantined in their homes, she said.

“All these infectious diseases in the past were quite numerous at that time,” she said. “In a community it was managed through quarantine under direction of the attending physician or public-health nurse, and families were quarantined. A sign was actually put in the window to indicate it. I had left a small community where I had experienced homes being quarantined. It had become a way of life.

“They were rough times. We had come through two world wars. When I began nursing, people were still so adversely affected by the Second World War.”

Dwyer said vaccines have meant many of those diseases have been brought under control and “you don’t hear much about them now.”

She said COVID-19 will come under control, too, when most people are vaccinated.

“We do not see quarantine signs in the windows anymore. While we still try to quarantine, it’s difficult to do because there are so many more people, and people on the move,” she said. “In those days, coastal areas were heavily populated because of the fishery.”

Dwyer said it’s disheartening — knowing what she saw in the past — to see the current misinformation spread about the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines.

Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald has said misinformation is among the top reasons for people not getting vaccinated, and that misinformation is abundant on social media.

Dwyer said there needs to be a history put together on past pandemics and vaccines to show people the positive impact vaccines have had on society and the control of disease.

She said getting the population vaccinated is what enabled the closure of health institutions years ago that were constructed for the sole purpose of treating infectious diseases, such as the sanatoriums in St. John’s and Corner Brook, and the Fever Hospital in St. John’s.

“In 1953, when I began training to be a nurse, that was the beginning of the BCG (bacillus calmette-guerin) vaccination for tuberculosis,” Dwyer said.

“Vaccines became the norm, and still is to this day. Immunization is carried out by the schools today. That began way back. I think a whole history needs to be done on this, that vaccines are not new. This COVID vaccine is one of many and I don’t think our society should fear having a vaccine.

“I’m so happy to see the teachers and children back to school. The children need to be back in school and they need to be vaccinated. There’s nothing to fear.”

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2022-01-25T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-01-25T08:00:00.0000000Z

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