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In reply to the discussion: Thanks, Anti-Vaxxers. You Just Brought Back Measles in NYC. [View all]Warpy
(114,624 posts)Typhoid Mary never had an immunization, either.
Please get this, immunizations work differently from disease. Few use live viruses and most use just a snip of the coating or DNA to trick the immune system into manufacturing antibodies that prevent the person from dying from the disease.
The only vaccine that I know of that makes people infectious is the oral polio vaccine and it only lasts for a few days and is a problem only in areas where the water is unsafe and there's too little of it for people to wash their hands after they clean a baby's bottom and when the adult has not had the immunization.
While I don't expect civilians to understand the full ins and outs of theory behind vaccination, I am appalled by how much people today have forgotten about what those "usual childhood diseases" represented in terms of childhood disability and death.