Dr. Cassondra Burks (center), assistant professor of nursing, stressed the importance of vaccines in health care when she gave a presentation at the May 13 meeting of the Kiwanis Club of Martin. In her presentation entitled “The Infrastructure of Immunity: Historical Foundations, Clinical Realities, and the Modern Schism in Pediatric Vaccination,” Burks guided the group through historical and scientific data. She explained that in the early 1900s, 1 in 5 children died before the age of 5 and that the development of vaccines and success of the routine immunization led to the near-total eradication of historic killers: smallpox, polio and diphtheria. She explained that since 2019, vaccination rates have fallen below the vital 95% protection threshold, and there is a resurgence of preventable disease. She said that in 2025, there were 2,288 confirmed cases of measles and three deaths, the first mortalities for that disease in more than a decade. She said that by April 2026, an additional 1,814 cases had already been confirmed. Additionally, she said that 280 pediatric deaths from influenza had been recorded in the 2024-25 season, and that this was the highest total since 2004 (excluding the 2009 pandemic). Eighty-nine percent of the children who died were not fully vaccinated. Burks was introduced by Linda Luther (right, holding Prissy), program chair for May for the Kiwanis Club of Martin and retired faculty member from the UT Martin Department of Nursing. Kiwanis president Katie Parr (left) presented Burks with a certificate showing that a donation would be made to a local charity in her honor.
