Dr. Elizabeth Pietralczyk, who takes drugs that suppress her immune system, fought back tears as she described the terror she felt of becoming ill and trying to hide her fears from her daughter, Sybil, 6.

“The biggest thing for me was that I didn’t want her to get sick and then if something happened to me, have her feel she was responsible,” said Dr. Pietralczyk, a family physician who is the sole wage earner in her household.

Sybil got her first shot recently, lifting the canopy of anxiety that hung over the family of four.

“I felt like I was letting go of a breath I didn’t know I was holding,” Dr. Pietralczyk said.