None of my children had measles, mumps or rubella -

[hedgehog]

I have six kids, ages 22 to 33. I was reading about vaccinations, and tried to recall when my kids had had the mumps - only to realize that they never did! I had all three and recall how sick I was with mumps and measles. In one generation, a childhood rite of passage is gone and forgotten!

Good! Thank you Mr. Hilleman !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Hilleman

I just wish the chicken pox vaccine had come along soon enough for them.


I'm expecting my first grandchild soon. My daughter has informed everyone that no one gets near the baby without a Tdap booster. My daughter is pretty smart!

[HERVEPA]

1. Whew! At first I thought this was going to be anti-vaxer thread.

[hedgehog]

12. The real irony is that the use of the MMR vaccine is the one method we have

of preventing autism!

"Ironically, one of the few known causes of autism was the congenital rubella syndrome, autism having occurred in 20% of rubella-affected babies prior to the licensure of rubella vaccine. MMR vaccine, therefore, protects against autism by preventing congenital rubella syndrome."

http://www.immunizationinfo.org/vaccines/rubella

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Congrats on your coming grandchild, and YAY for your very smart daughter!

We need many more people like her.

[kcr]

3. I was just talking about how lucking my kids are they don't have to experience chicken pox

Like I did. I became quite ill with a severe case, too.

[Cleita]

6. You should get vaccinated for shingles.

It develops from chicken pox which goes dormant for decades. I got it sixty years after I got chicken pox. If you think the pox was bad, you haven't had anything as agonizing as shingles and it takes months to go away. Get the vaccine for it because right now you are a ticking bomb for the disease.

[hedgehog]

9. I think the shingles vaccine is recommended for people 60 and older.

It's a one time shot; here in Upstate New York you can walk into a pharmacy to get one.

The shingles shot uses a live virus, and if your immunity is suppressed you shouldn't get the shot. I got mine a year early because I have an autoimmune disease and may be using immune suppressing drugs in the future.

[shanti]

64. It used to be for 60 and older

but some insurers (mine's Kaiser) are lowering the age. I got the vaccine this year, and I'm 57. I even influenced my 81 yr old mother to get one.

[KinMd]

67. I got shingles at 57...

so if you had chicken pox as a kid, you might want to get the vaccine early

[Tanuki]

10. I heartily second this, Cleita

I'm just now getting over what my doctor called "a rip-roaring case" of shingles, and the neuralgia persisted much longer than I thought it would, even though the actual blisters cleared up promptly. I've been encouraging everyone I know to get vaccinated. Cleita is not exaggerating, folks. The pain is excruciating.

[hedgehog]

16. My MIL had permanent damage to her eye sight as a result of shingles.

[pnwmom]

15. I'll be getting the shingles vaccine, but my sister's had shingles twice (that can happen!)

and she says the hype is overblown. The pain was an annoyance but not what you would think based on the TV ads.

So not everyone thinks shingles is agonizing. And that's good, because the vaccine isn't 100% effective.

[Tanuki]

23. I'm glad you are getting vaccinated

but please know that the severity varies from person to person and the pain is in fact much more than "annoyance" for many. I'm guessing that your sister did not experience post-shingles allodynia, which is a type of neuralgic symptom in which even slight stimulus (think of a feather, or a whisp of air) is experienced as pain due to inflammation or damage to the nerve. I generally have a very hearty tolerance for pain but this was something I would not wish on anyone.

[haikugal]

26. I've had shingles and it was horrible.

I'm wondering if I should get vaccinated or if I'm safe. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

The Mayo says yes I should...

Whether they've had shingles or not, adults age 60 and older should get the shingles vaccine (Zostavax), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Although the vaccine is also approved for use in people ages 50 to 59 years, the CDC isn't recommending the shingles vaccine until you reach age 60.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/shingles-vaccine/AN01738

Great thread, Thanks!

[Hekate]

51. My husband got shingles before age 60; the doc had him come in for the vax when he got better

I asked for the vax as well at my next annual physical. IIRC it was expensive and out of pocket, but I hope that has changed since then.

I'm pretty sure the age suggestions are based on probability in the population -- these things usually are.

[haikugal]

60. I was in my 20's....

not typical I guess. My mother had had them a few months earlier..I couldn't believe it, she was in her 50's. That was many years ago. I'll make sure I get one along with my flu etc.

[pnwmom]

62. You can get shingles more than once, so the vaccine is probably a good idea for you, too.

[haikugal]

63. What a horrible thought...

I plan to get it...

[pnwmom]

66. My sister had it as a teen and again in middle age. So we know it can happen. n/t

[dflprincess]

61. Like any disease the severity of shingles can vary from person to person.

My aunt (who is 90) had a terrible case of shingles last winter and it was agonzing. It took so much out of her that my cousin told me that she thought it might be the end of her. Fortunately, Auntie did recover and is still living on her own and driving again (she lives in a small town, thank Heaven) but she still has some nerve pain.

I got my vaccine about a week after my 60th birthday this summer - though one reason I was so prompt was because I was going to see my aunt and she had threatened to "box" (family joke) me if I didn't get my shot the minute I turned 60.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

35. I've never had chicken pox.

So, I know I'll never have shingles. However, I'm told that if I do contract chicken pox, it can be quite deadly for me now.

[Cleita]

36. Yes. If you haven't been vaccinated, it seems like a good idea.

Your doctor should be able to advise you about this.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

38. Thank you, Cleita. :)

I'm just a young punk and never really thought about these things. Next check up, I'll definitely inquire.

[RiffRandell]

73. I'm totally pro-vaccine, got my son the chicken pox one

and he still got the chicken pox.

He got them in October so got a $100 Lego set that we were saving for Christmas as he couldn't go to school or play with any friends for a week.

If I were you I would get it. Just a weird thing.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

76. Chicken pox or the vaccine? nt

[RiffRandell]

77. The vaccine!

You're funny!

[Fantastic Anarchist]

78. I have my moments.

[stevenleser]

31. Same here. I managed to get it at the same time I got Mono. I was pretty sick.

[Brickbat]

4. One of my kids got the chicken pox vaccine, but the other one came down with chicken pox the day

before the doctor's appointment to get the vaccine. She ended up with a scar on her face because of it.

[hedgehog]

8. One of my daughters also has a scar on her face from chicken pox.

Another ended up in the ER with a fast moving infection after having had the chicken pox. She was running around the yard when I went out, down with a high fever when I returned an hour later! If not for fast use of antibiotics, she would have been in a world of hurt!

[WolverineDG]

56. I have a scar on my face from chicken pox

it was more visible when I was younger. So having one is not doom & gloom.

[Arkansas Granny]

5. My experience was much the same as yours. I have 4 kids, ages 35 to 45.

My oldest child had mumps just before the vaccine was available. My youngest child had mumps because the doctor delayed his MMR vaccination because he had been premature. He contracted mumps about one month before he was due to be vaccinated. All of my children had chicken pox which resulted in secondary ear infections.

I don't remember having measles because I was too young. From what my mother told me, I was very sick and delirious with fever at times. I do remember having rubella and mumps, although I apparently missed contracting chicken pox.

[REP]

47. I'm 48 and got the MMR vaccine - my pediatrician was ahead of the curve on vaccinations

[anneboleyn]

52. I am 40 and I had it too -- plus boosters for overseas travel in my late 20s -- vaccines are good!

Unfortunately many people my age had chicken pox, including me, my husband, and our slightly older siblings. I've known several elderly persons who had shingles and it was very, very bad for them. I will definitely look into the vaccine.

[tammywammy]

7. There's currently a measles outbreak in North Texas

These people choose not to vaccinate.

[Xipe Totec]

11. I had the real thing (chicken pox) Now Blood Banks Seek me out

Because I have an extremely high antibody count. They use it whenever a pregnancy is at risk due to exposure.

[hedgehog]

14. I never knew that chicken pox caused problems during pregnancy.

So much for "harmless" childhood disease!

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/chickenpox-and-pregnancy/HO00036

[Xipe Totec]

17. It is rare

Since so many adults are immune, not many pregnant women get chicken pox – estimates range from 1 to 7 cases for every 10,000 pregnancies. But if you're not immune and you do happen to catch the disease while you're pregnant, you could get quite sick, and there's a small chance that it would affect your baby. If you're not sure whether you're immune, a simple blood test can give you the answer.

(snip)

If you get chicken pox during the first or second trimester of pregnancy, there's a slight risk (probably less than 2 percent overall) that your baby will get something called congenital varicella syndrome (CVS). The risk is highest if you're infected between 13 and 20 weeks' gestation.

CVS is characterized by birth defects, most commonly skin scarring, malformed limbs, an abnormally small head, neurologic problems (like mental retardation), and vision problems. Plus, a baby with CVS may also grow poorly in utero and suffer from seizures and physical and mental developmental disabilities. The infection may also increase the risk of miscarriage or later fetal death.

http://www.babycenter.com/0_chicken-pox-during-pregnancy_9329.bc#articlesection1

[kestrel91316]

20. Chicken pox in adults can be extremely dangerous. I lost a beloved uncle at age 72

due to chickenpox encephalitis.

He was raised on a remote ranch in NV and never got chicken pox as a kid. And I'm not sure if they had chicken pox vaccine when he caught it in the late 90s. At any rate, he was completely vulnerable.

[Xipe Totec]

22. I had it when I was 8 years old

Have some pretty deep scars in my forehead from it.

Otherwise, no lingering effects.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

37. I've never had chicken pox.

Can I still get the vaccine?

[kestrel91316]

45. I believe you can and should. I will look it up and edit this post with info.

CDC says yes!

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/varicella/basic-who-needs-vacc.htm

[Fantastic Anarchist]

46. Thank you!

I don't know how the hell I never got it. I grew up in Dallas. It's not like I was in Siberia or something.

Much appreciate the information.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

48. Wow, I didn't realize that I could get chicken pox from ...

... someone with shingles!

Yikes, I want no part of either!

[theHandpuppet]

13. There were six kids in my family

We all had chicken pox at the same time. I thought my mother would lose her mind before it was all over.

[Tikki]

18. My oldest son has never had the chicken pox...he is 43 yrs. old. When his wife was pregnant he..

had an adult shot so he should not get chicken pox during that time. He did not.

His brother (now 37 yrs. old) got chicken pox at age 19 yrs. old, but I believe he contracted the chicken pox because
he was on a family type cruise and was exposed to a stronger strain. He is a red-head and
his chicken pox was everywhere on him and just awful.

Tikki

[SidDithers]

19. Thank you Dr. Hilleman indeed!...

I put up a good article about Paul Offit a couple of months ago, that talked about Hilleman. Hilleman was a mentor to Offit. It's a long article, but well worth the read.

http://www.phillymag.com/articles/will-this-doctor-hurt-your-baby/

Hilleman had many admirable qualities. He was a loving father and husband, and he was a brilliant scientist, and he was pathologically modest. But he was not what you would call a “nice guy.” He had the dark, stormy eyebrows of a mafiosi. He kept shrunken heads representing the people he had fired on his desk as morbid trophies. He was caustically funny. He once said that while it seemed he was a bastard on the outside, “If you looked deeper inside, you still saw a bastard.” The first time Offit met Hilleman, in the late ’80s, Offit tried to make small talk by chatting about a prominent Philadelphia lawyer who had been in the news. “He’s a good lawyer,” Offit said. “Good?” Hilleman shot back. “He’s the prince of fucking darkness.”

Offit loved him instantly: “He was such a character.” He was also the greatest vaccine-maker of the 20th century. Hilleman made Jonas Salk look like a lightweight. He invented vaccines to prevent measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis A and B, HiB, chicken pox, pneumococcus, and meningococcus. He also invented the MMR combination shot. He accomplished all of this despite working at the suburban Philadelphia labs of Merck, and not inside academia, like most of his vaccine-making colleagues. Hilleman used to refer to himself, half bitterly, half mischievously, as a bastion of “dirty industry.”

That bit is interesting. Hilleman made these discoveries while working for Merck. Evil big pharma strikes again!

Thanks for posting this.

Sid

[hedgehog]

21. Bookmarked to read later, thanks!

[ismnotwasm]

27. Great read

Thanks!

[ismnotwasm]

24. Thank you

Great thread

[TBF]

25. I'm so tired of the anti-vaxxers -

thank you for this. We really don't need Whooping Cough, Rubella, Polio etc ... back again just because a few freaks can't understand the science behind vaccinating.

[HockeyMom]

28. You will need BOOSTERS for the rest of your lives

I won't. That is the benefit of getting these diseases; LIFELONG immunity. When I went back to college in the 90s and they asked for immunization record it was said ONLY if you were born after 1958. When there was a measles outbreak at the school I worked at a few years ago, staff and parents were terrified and were all getting boosters. Me? Again, did not apply to me since I had measles when I was 2 (1950) before the vac was invented.

I worked with a 5 year old boy 1:1 whose parents didn't vaccinate based on religious grounds. When the classroom teacher found out this, she went out and got a whole bunch of boosters. I was told by the school nurse, "If you had all these diseases, don't worry at all". "You are probably the best person to work arorund him".

I had measles, mumps, chicken pox all before I was 3. Remember none of them. Since I was 6 when I got rubella, I do remember that, but I would hardly say that was the sickest I ever was. Try Food Posioning. Vac for that? My own children were vaccinated with the exception of chicken pox. My older daughter got it at 12, old for that. I was told to let her younger sister catch it from her. She did at 7 and her case was worse than her older sister's. They are now 34 and 29. Ask them what they remember about it? Oatmeal baths is all they say. Now, if it was SO BAD why wouldn't they COMPLAIN about it? A 12 and 7 year old are certainly old enough to remember.

My husband got shingles a few years ago in his early 60s. He laughs when he sees those commercials. "Worst pain I ever experienced", those commercials said. It ITCHED he said. While he did eventually go to the doctor, I spent a lot of time cutting our aloe plant in the yard and spreading it on his back! That did help him, but the problem was it didn't make it go away. No, people, I am not getting that vac. While I am be old, I don't have a compromised immune system, or take a lot of MEDICATIONS (like my husband does). Look up WHO is at risk.

As you can probably tell, I am one of those "natural" un-medicated people. BTW, that includes breastfeeding your babies. You want immunity for your babies? YOU are their natural immunity. Not going to repeat my story about my daughter on that one.

[hedgehog]

29. The benefit of getting these life long immunity to these diseases is received at the cost

of actually having the diseases which can make you very, very sick. There is also the risk of complications including hospitalization, deafness, blindness, sterility, and brain injury.

It's a case of choose your tune and pay the piper. Most people will survive these illnesses with no problems. Without vaccines, you select the risk of being one of the people who lives with permanent damage.

There is also the consideration of putting other people at risk because you are spreading a disease.I think I had rubella during the 1964 epidemic. I know I have a high titer of antibodies to rubella. My guess is that I was shedding the virus before any visible symptoms showed. I was at school, the grocery store and church. Did I expose a woman who maybe was unaware she was pregnant? Whooping cough is receiving attention today because there are enough active cases and people with no immunity to allow it to spread through the community. It can be a killer for young children and infants.

[arikara]

33. I had shingles a couple years ago

Very painful. I thought it was spider bites at first, went to my family doctor who diagnosed it but couldn't do anything other than drugs, so I went to my acupuncturist and he got rid of the nerve pain in one treatment. The rash felt like a bad burn and persisted for awhile but I could live with that once the neuralgia was gone. It takes some kind of trigger to cause an outbreak of shingles and mine was caused when I was traumatized by a horrible gynecologist who I will never see again. Doctors are supposed to do no harm but I've seen people with far too many problems caused by them then made worse by their bloody pill pushing.

[mnhtnbb]

41. Your discussion of a trigger is informative. I wonder if the prevalence of colonoscopies

could be doing something to 'trigger' shingles.

I am 62 and just got an Rx for the shingles vaccine from my doc. I have a friend
who has had HORRIBLE shingles--affecting her for the last 2 years. It seems
difficult to find much info on risk factors for shingles--other than you had chicken
pox as a kid--and I really wonder about the 'trigger' concept. I'm opposed to
taking any kind of meds without a damn good reason.

[arikara]

43. You might suggest to her

that she find a practitioner of TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine). Like any other medical person you have to be discerning when picking one out, but if you get the right one they can work magic. I've heard of shingle nerve pain lasting for years and can be very debilitating. And yes, there is some kind of a trigger that brings it on, that's the first thing alternative practitioners will ask you about. I have no doubt that mine was that stupid doctor, he totally traumatized me both physically and emotionally.

[HockeyMom]

53. Stress, and meds

Seems to be the "trigger" for it from what I have read on the Net. It is not just AGE. My husband is the only person I have know who had shingles, which includes all my older relatives and friends.

[Humanist_Activist]

39. This argument sounds like the medical version of "I got mine, fuck you"...

I mean seriously, your husband got an itch from Shingles, so now its not serious for everybody? When my Sister got her nerves attacked by it, leading to partial paralysis, that was what? Her imagination? Or when our neighbor got it, broke out in a body wide rash and attacked his nerves leading to severe, debilitating pain, that was all in his head?

What about all those kids who DIDN'T make it to adulthood in your generation because of Mumps, Measles, Rubella, and a host of other diseases, that us rational people shouldn't have to worry about anymore. What about those who were maimed or disabled, was FDR just suffering from some psychological condition, and not the result of polio? Was it better to get the disease, risking everything from death to being maimed or disabled, or getting vaccinated, with far less severe side affects, and greatly decreasing the chance of getting the disease at all?

What type of world do you want to live in? One where these disease are so rare as to be damn near non-existent(or in the case of smallpox, extinct), or one where breakouts happen randomly, endangering the health and lives of both adults and children?

[HockeyMom]

54. As I said in my new post,

He is the ONLY person I have known to have had it going back to my parents, his parents, all my/his now dead older relatives, me, his sister, etc., etc. WHY? If it is so common as they said (1 in 3), why didn't all our relatives get it? Maybe it is not just having had chicken pox (get vacs hidden message) and being old. Perhaps there are OTHER risk factors they don't want to talk about?????

[hedgehog]

55. Who are "they"?

[HockeyMom]

58. Drug Manufacturers

They are the ones pushing their products on TV for all your ailments. I used to work for one of the largest pharmaceuticals. They want their sales, and profits, as much as auto manufacturers do. Letting them advertise prescription drugs on TV was the worst thing that ever could have happened.

[hedgehog]

69. As it happens, the supply of vaccines is under threat because the

pharmaceutical companies are getting out of the business. The profit on regrowing hair and other things is far higher than the profit on vaccines.

[Humanist_Activist]

59. Continue living in your magic bubble. n/t

[HockeyMom]

82. I am 65 and take NOTHING

I don't remember the last time I even took Tylenol. You think that is BAD???? I MUST be taking everything and anything at my age? If you do, they you are feeding into the problem.

[Humanist_Activist]

84. You are lucky, and living in a magic bubble that doesn't apply to everyone...

you are saying it does apply to everyone. Notice, in NONE of my posts did I say what you are doing for YOURSELF is right or wrong, my argument is based on the logical fallacy you are using, called confirmation bias.

[Celefin]

42. As always, potential for high profit comes at the cost of high risk

You never had to worry about these diseases in your adult life because you survived mumps and measles without any lasting damage. Many other children were not so lucky. The boy who would have been an uncle of mine was crippled by polio and died of related complications a little while later.

I wish I had your obviously robust immune system. Alas, I don't and my kids most likely also don't... genetics and all that... I'm not going to take any chances with potentially deadly or disfiguring diseases that are entirely avoidable today.

Chickenpox and rubella are where I'm with you, partially. For a child, these tend to be nothing more than an extreme annoyance at worst and having them as child almost never gives any complications. If you haven't had them in your childhood you should consider vaccination as for an adult these can get quite nasty - in the case of rubella it's downright reckless not to get immunization as a woman planning to have a child. You put your unborn at a very real risk of serious disability.

Regarding breastfeeding: on that I'm with you 110%

[Hekate]

80. Well, lucky you. My baby sis's health was compromised the rest of her childhood after our bro & I...

... brought everything home from grade school one after the other. This was all well before she was two years old. She was one sick little puppy, whether she consciously remembers that year or not. Her immune system has never been robust from then on. She was the only member of the family to get strep throat, ever, and she got it repeatedly.

We older two were miserable as all get-out, not much mitigated by Mama telling us how she had it worse when she was our age! (Her measles outbreak was all over including inside her ears and mouth and probably other places she didn't want to mention.) Mom was a good home nurse -- you had to be in those days.

Not everybody gets off easily. As far as booster shots go, line me up for the ones I do need: tetanus, pertussis, and diphtheria, and polio if they decide I need that. Known by their old names: lockjaw, whooping cough, membranous croup, infantile paralysis. Old graveyards are full of breastfed babies and children.

[Puzzledtraveller]

30. Talk about vaccinations..

I was given shots most people never had or will ever get in the USAF. Yellow fever, typhoid, dengue, several mystery shots. I need to find my shot record and list them all.

[hedgehog]

32. Yellow fever is a haemorragic fever in the same category as Ebola!

with a fatality rate of between 3% and 50%, depending on circumstances.

http://www.who.int/topics/haemorrhagic_fevers_viral/en/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_fever

I received a yellow fever shot myself several years ago before traveling to Brazil.

Not all the vaccines the military uses are as safe as they should be, but the military is playing the odds and figures it's better to vaccinate than to risk losing soldiers to illness. This is a very long tradition in the American military:

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Blogs/CelebrityDiagnosis/24996

[Fantastic Anarchist]

34. I've never had any of them including Chicken Pox.

I'm assuming I got the measles and mumps vaccinations - though I don't know for sure.

But I recently asked my mom if I ever had chicken pox, and she said that I never did.

[hedgehog]

40. If there is any question - talk to your health care provider

s/he may recommend a blood test to see if your are immune and/or booster shots.


It took a while to recognize that the MMR needed a booster at about age 12, so there is a cohort of people who still need the booster.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

49. Thanks.

Definitely bringing that up at my next check up.

I just read I can get chicken pox from someone with shingles, too. Learned something today.

[YarnAddict]

44. Do you realize--

--that your unborn grandchild is more at risk if your daughter contracts one of those diseases now than he/she will be from being exposed after birth? Do you realize how easily your daughter could be exposed--at the mall, at the dr's office, from co-workers' or friends' or neighbors' children?

[NickB79]

50. Her daughter was vaccinated against those diseases

How exactly do you suppose she'll contract measles as an adult, with a complete vaccine history against it?

Adults do need boosters for some diseases, such as pertussis, but as far as I know, measles isn't one of them. And that's why we try to keep vaccination levels high, to practice herd immunity so that it's very unlikely we'll come in contact with someone carrying such diseases in the first place.

As for the whole "more at risk" bullshit that anti-vaxxers love to spew, go take a stroll through a 100-yr old cemetery. I have. It's eye-opening when you start doing the math and realize just how many of the graves hold little kids who died from disease.

[Mariana]

83. Vaccines don't work for everyone.

They work for most people, but some people just don't get immunity from the vaccine. Those people will likely get sick if they're exposed. The only way to prevent that is for enough people in the population to be immune so the disease can't spread to the susceptible people.

I was one of those people, by the way - vaccinated properly against measles, and got measles from an unvaccinated kid in 1973. Unvaccinated people do endanger vaccinated people.

The old cemeteries really do tell the story of what it was like before vaccines and antibiotics.

[johnd83]

57. The risk of the disease is so much worse than any risk of bad reactions to the vaccine

It is really stunning to me that people would not want to have their kids vaccinated. I am 29 so I did get chicken pox, but my parents had all the nasty childhood diseases (minus smallpox thankfully) and it really does not sound like fun. I also got the meningitis vaccine when I went to college. The vaccines have a very small chance of bad reactions but the potential diseases are so much worse. I am glad to see support for them.

[SidDithers]

65. Kick for the evening crowd...

Sid

[Lugnut]

68. I had everything that was contagious when I was a kid.

I remember being very sick and missing a lot of time in school in first grade. My kids - age 42 and 45 - had none of that other than chicken pox. Vaccines saved them both from some ugly diseases.

[hedgehog]

70. Before this thread, did you realize what your kids had been spared?

I didn't myself until yesterday!

[Lugnut]

75. I sure did.

The year I turned six was a mess that I'll never forget. I was thrilled that my kids weren't going to have to suffer through an early childhood like I had.

[RiffRandell]

71. I have a FB friend that is so anti-vaccine.

I recently re-connected with her and she has 2 kids and keeps posting anti-vaccine crap.

I think I'm going to ask her if her kids were vaccinated...I'm genuinely curious.

The only time I responded back about it was when she posted some bullshit Australian study about Gardisil that was years old.

[hedgehog]

72. I had a male cousin who died of throat cancer at age 58 -

my 80 year old mother wanted me to get both my boys (as well as their sisters) vaccinated against HPV.

[RiffRandell]

74. My husband got oral cancer at 39.

You bet your ass I got my son the Gardisil vaccine when he was old enough and will get it for my daughter as well.

[otohara]

79. I Missed The Polio Vaccine by One Month

My son once posted some anti-vaccine bullshit on FB and I let him have it. Hmmm.... a lifetime disability & chronic pain or the vaccine...??? Which do you think your mummy would rather have? The pretty much put an end to the anti-vaccine thread they had going.

[Hekate]

81. When the polio vax was first offered, a clinic was held at our elementary school...

When the polio vax was first offered, a clinic was held at our elementary school...

That evening parents brought their children and the lines stretched from the cafeteria to the playground and beyond. My little sister was one of the little ones who made it known, by her loud screams beforehand, that getting stuck with a needle was the worst thing in the world -- but frankly, after the recent epidemic, my parents were not moved by this tantrum.

I am just old enough to remember the last great polio epidemic. Every elementary school had a couple of kids who had recovered just enough to make it around on heavy braces and crutches. The ones who had to use a wheelchair were not in school at all. The ones who had to use an iron lung were stuck in hospital wards. And then there were the ones who had died.

Some of the arguments of the anti-vaxxers remind me of a 4-year-old's tantrum: the baby will get poked with a needle, the baby will get a sore spot, there will be redness and swelling, baby will get a wee fever. Grownups are supposed to know better.