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In reply to the discussion: Thanks, Anti-Vaxxers. You Just Brought Back Measles in NYC. [View all]Hekate
(100,133 posts)I went to a Senior Fair several years ago and had my flu shot while there, administered by a student nurse supervised by one of her teachers from the college. Her teacher pointed to my upper arm and drew her attention to the dime-sized scar. Teacher used me as a learning opportunity, to show what the old smallpox vaccination scar looked like, because she was not going to see that on younger generations.
That scar was intentional. When my brother and I got our first ones, mine "took" -- meaning I got a big red pustule that I had to keep my hands off of. My brother's didn't take on the first try, so he had to go back. The pustule scabbed over and left the scar, evidence of our encounter with the deadly virus. We were born in 1947 and 1948, respectively.
I've seen people with bigger scars. Mom had hers on her thigh, and it was at least as big as a quarter. Some of my university classmates from foreign nations had a series of keloid scars on their upper arms from repeated vaccinations -- and if you think that was disfiguring, just imagine what catching the disease for real would have done to their good looks.