Florida is swamped by disease outbreaks as quackery replaces science

[Backseat Driver]

38. Vaccine stories: I'm that old. Younger sib(s) and I suffered through measles (for which the local government came

and put a quarantine sign on the front door); and Dad had to prove he had had it to go to work; mom was a SAH so no problem. We had to keep the shades drawn so as to prevent blindness. I also had the German measles and the chicken pox that left a few scars despite taking baking soda baths to dry up the itchy lesions of the rash. Don't think I ever have had the whooping cough. I had to get a smallpox vaccine and recall being told not to scratch because it would transfer the vaccine to another spot and I'd have more than one dime to quarter size scars on my arm or elsewhere. Also, my mother's first smallpox vaccine didn't take and she had to get a second shot that left her deep scar as proof. My kids got the vaccines required for school, but were not required to get the smallpox vaccine; it had already been globally eradicated. They did have the chicken pox. I received the injected polio shot but recall standing in line with family in the elementary school gym for the oral sugar cube polio vaccine. My dad had diptheria as a child; there's some weird story about him being saved by eating potatos that had been sprayed with DDT, so his case was light and it didn't kill him during a large outbreak in Massachusetts. My would-be uncle died of streptoccocal meningitis when he was about 2 years old--curing or prophylactic anti-biotic (Fleming first used the purified penicillin to treat streptococcal meningitis in 1942.) weren't yet available. My doctor actually made a house call to give me a butt shot of it for something when I was a kid...it hurt for a week. My maternal grandfather never came home from Europe in WWII--bullet and/or pneumonia. My dad served in the Pacific (Phillipines/Papua New Guinea) so he and DH got all the multi-vaccines they gave to the enlisted/drafted and likely jungle/VietNam bound troops as were then available.

DH and I cleaned, isolated, and masked as recommended as best as possible (he was an "essential" worker) and are fully vaxed and boosted for the various strains of COVID. ..knock on wood--despite likely exposure, neither of us has ever tested positive.

Yes, we are that old and grateful to have received the benefits of vaccines and antibiotics.