OMG do people NOT read history books?? If the parents of children 100+ years ago had access to vaccines they would’ve given anything to spare their children the horrors of these diseases, and to avoid the overwhelming specter of childhood mortality.
The joy and relief when the polio vaccine was introduced was enormous and life-changing. I can’t even imagine the anxiety those parents went through pre-vaccine.
I for one am grateful for modern science. And air-conditioning.
My sister got the measles when we were children and is now partially deaf in one ear. I do not understand the antivaxxers…
Diptheria… my generation is (well, before today I guess) only acquainted with that term because of Oregon Trail. Thanks, vaccines!
I remember from the Little House books that Laura and Almanzo get diphtheria and he is left disabled.
My mom is 72 and still scared of polio. I have a child with chronic health conditions. I am very thankful for antibiotics and vaccines, but D is very susceptible. She and H have weakened immune systems. I fear our nation’s herd immunity is being threatened by anti-vaxxers.
My mom is 74. Several years before she was born, an aunt who’d been exposed to diphtheria came to visit my grandma and her newborn son. He died of diphtheria.
My sister is just 2 years and 4 months older than me and she missed out on getting the MMR vaccine at a young age. She got both mumps and measles and she remembers how horrible it was! I’m glad she emerged unscathed, except for the memories.
Note that getting the actual measles can weaken one’s immunity against other infectious diseases that one has had (or had the vaccine for) previously. I.e. previous immunities acquired through infection or vaccine may be erased or weakened after getting measles. Measles vaccine, by greatly lowering the risk of getting measles, helps retain immunity against other infectious diseases.
New to this thread, but I have very strong feelings. I work at a Developmental Center which is a state-run long-term care facilty that houses individuals with developmental disabilities. I have quite a few older clients in their 50’s and 60’s who had measles as young children, and either from a high fever or from encephalitis developed permanent brain damage. I also have quite a few clients whose mother’s had German Measles while they were pregnant, which caused my client’s to be deaf and suffer brain damage. By far the saddest case I have ever had was a young boy named Dylan. In 1990 we had a spike in the Measles. He got the measles when he was 8 months old (prior to 12 months of age when you receive the vaccination). He recovered and was perfectly fine. But then 4 years later he developed SSPE (Sub-acute Sclerosing Pan-encephalitis). This is a very rare complication from the Measles. It is a progressive, debilitating neurological disorder. He went from a little boy who was in preschool, potty-trained, riding a bike, etc… to a vegetative state within a matter of months. It was absolutely heartbreaking. So all this anti-vax stuff is really scary to me.
^^^Jeez.
@sryrstress: I have a friend whose 15-year-old D has something called Primary Immunodeficiency Disease. (You can google it.) She basically has no immune system, so whenever there is something – a cold, the flu, whatever – in her school, the nurse calls and tells her to stay home. In addition, she herself is frequently weak, so she generally only makes it to school half the time. She receives immunoglobulin infusions once a month. I had never heard of it before, and it’s a really big deal.
ETA: Back in the olden days, children with PID were “bubble boys” or girls.
Took care of a kid with SSPE during residency. Unspeakably tragic for his family. The very poignant essay that author Roald Dahl wrote about his daughter, which often circulates during times that anti-vaxxers are in the news, is about her death from SSPE.
Somebody talk me down! A cousin has asked for advice from friends about whether or not to get the HPV vaccine for her boys when they are old enough. Most responses range from outright anger to happily wearing a tinfoil hat. Here are two links she has been urged to look at first.
http://www.greatergoodmovie.org
http://healthimpactnews.com/2015/gardasil-the-decision-we-will-always-regret/
I’ve only replied so far with a list of the health benefits to both boys and girls but I’m tempted to mention something snarky about Michelle Bachman and mental retardation.
Unfortunately people love a scare story. Your second link reminds me of the many anecdotal stories “proving” a link between MMR vaccines and autism. It would probably do no good to point out that there’s no mention of Guardasil here
https://journals.eventjournal.com/view_custom.php?journal_id=373&id=29548
or that the disease the family claims was activated by Guardasil, Bartonella Henselae (aka Cat Scratch Fever) is not caused by tick bites (as they claim) and there’s no evidence Guardasil causes autoimmune disease. So much easier to blame their daughter’s illness on a boogeyman vaccine than on the family cat.
http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/16/3/09-0443_article
This family clearly went diagnosis shopping. I can’t blame them for being frustrated. Having a sick kid is hard. IMHO, however, it doesn’t justify spreading stories which may prevent people from getting a vaccine with real and proven benefits.
But there are cases of death and permanent or temporary paralysis right after vaccination. One cannot just going around and shutting others up, people can choose what they believe and what they do not and how much tolerance they have for risks involved in either decision. So, others better SPEAK UP, even if there is a fault correlation, they better let others know what they think, so others may decide themselves what action they pursue in regard to their own kid after having information from different sources.
Anyway, many instances in certain areas of the country in more recent years were caused by un-vaccinated, non-tested, illegal immigrant kids, tenth of thousands of them, who were placed in these communities without any type of precautionary measure. That is where things are absolutely and definitely wrong! Nobody is mentioning that, but American kids died because these diseases in many cases were not even brought by a bug that is common in the community, it was something that was brought in artificially from other places on Earth.
MiamiDAP,
No only do the kids you reference come from countries with highervaccination rates than the US, but the standard protocol is that any unvaccinated kids placed in communities are vaccinated before placement.
@MiamiDAP, I have this strange feeling your account’s been hacked or something. That post is a bit crazy. Outbreaks caused by tens of thousands of illegal immigrants? All the evidence shows that the least vaccinated places in the US are also primarily affluent, white, and filled with American born people and that is what is facilitating outbreaks. That, and the unvaccinated Amish who brought a disease back from overseas (and then learned their lesson and started vaccinating).
^Then, I am crazy or whatever else you want to call me. I do not care though. You state what you believe it, I, guess, as a crazy person, I do not have the same right. So, be it noted. And that was exactly the point of my post (you prove what I said, then the conclusion is…?), my main point is that there are people who are going around shutting others up, well, because they gave themselves rights to do so. I guess this is the most valid reason of all.
But MiamiDAP, you have said many times that you never follow the news. So what’s your source?
The genesis of most of the recent outbreaks of serious disease is known and identified, and none of them came from undocumented kids.
Let’s hope MiamiDAP’s doctor-daughter at least understands scientific reasoning better.
For some weird reason, the following popped into my head when reading the last few posts… “goin’ off the rails on a crazy train…” 8-|