Even without talking about all the complications, my mom had measles as an adult, and she was extremely miserable. And she was young and healthy - I imagine seniors would fare much worse.
A friend’s daughter (who has a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics and Genomics and has done 2 postdocs in neuroeptigenics and neurotoxicology) has written extensively trying to educate people about the truth and benefits of vaccines. She gets. constantly harassed by anti-vaxxers, particularly by some apparent wingnut who calls herself “foodbabe”. You can, however, follow her on facebook, where she has 31,000 “likes”
Here are some of her comments about being harassed, attacked and insulted in her attempts to increase public understanding of science:
I knew Raold Dahl and Patricia Neal had lost a child, but thought it was another cause. How sad. Within a span of only a few years, they lost their oldest daughter (7 years old) as a result of measles, and nearly lost another child who was seriously injured when his baby carriage was hit by a car. Then Patricia Neal suffered a devastating series of aneurysms while still in her 30s. Not surprisingly, Dahl became an avid immunization proponent.
Excellent link in post 3639 - it’s an article from 1986 that Dahl wrote about his daughter’s death, urging parents to immunize their children. He states that, because immunizations are required in America, measles has been nearly wiped out here. If only that were still true.
Some anti-vaxxers seem to be perfect examples of the Dunnung-Kruger effect. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780123855220000056
@Creekland, this cancer/measles thing sounds totally bogus to me.
I think it is safe to say that virtually everyone who is now in their “old age” was not vaccinated for measles, since the vaccine did not exist during their childhood and that therefor the vast majority of them probably had the measles–and obviously survived. Certainly I, my sister, and my husband, just to name the three people I know best, all had the measles and all have had cancer. (I realize that this is only anecdote, not evidence.)
Not to mention the fact that many people probably have no recollection of having the measles since they were little kids at the time, and even if they do remember being sick might not know whether they had chicken pox, German measles, or regular measles. The likelihood that medical records regarding their childhood diseases survive is slim, to say the least. Gathering the data would be almost impossible.
I remember having the measles in 1960-61 when I was 6. I was extremely ill and recall being carried into the back entrance of our family doctor’s office, my parents having been warned not to bring me into the regular waiting room of the office since I was extremely contagious. I spent the next week or so in a darkened room because being exposed to daylight was considered a threat to my eyesight and still recall how miserably sick I was. I missed my first communion with my class at my Catholic school and had to receive it at a later date along with all the other kids from my class who had also been ill at the same time; there were 12 of us from a class of about 30. IMO, any parent who would be willing to put their child through this experience when it could be avoided should be subject to prosecution for neglect.
@romanigypsyeyes , my antivaxx SIL asked to use my kids’ records to get an exemption for her son, who was applying to college. I flat out refused.
I know I was vaccinated! My pediatrician was instrumental the development of the vaccine. He was the first to isolate the measles at a Boston area boy’s school.
Something I did not know but learned from reading the good doctor’s Wikipedia page, “In the late 1950s and early 1960s, nearly twice as many children died from measles as from polio.”
Scary.
Seems like the only thing that will change the opinions of anti-vaccine people is measles (or whatever disease) itself.
@ucbalumnus – or death. Seeing their child die of a totally avoidable disease may change some minds. As a health official says, anti vaxxers exist because they haven’t seen enough death, and are too narrow minded to imagine it. 
Maybe not adults, but I have a pretty good influence on many high schoolers who are just starting to be able to use reason and I emphasize science as a base, often showing how to look for reputable vs not sources.
At our lunch table we more or less bristled about the recent condemnation of teachers from Powers That Be. I can’t go further than that I suspect. The measles epidemic came up too - all part of the same conversation and using real science studies to base foundations.
This is why we need a sarcasm font or something to denote sarcasm…
I actually got measles, despite having the vaccine. but it was a very mild case. I had a low fever for a day, and then, after it dropped and I felt fine, the spots came. Most colds that I’ve had were worse. It was in Israel in the 1970s, so there were no brain-dead antivaxxers, and all of my friends had been vaccinated (as had everybody else I interacted with), so nobody else came down with it. I’m not sure who I got it from, though, since I didn’t hear of anybody I knew who had it. I think that vaccines are better today (I was vaccinated as a kid in the late 1960s), so I don’t even think that kids would get even this mild a case.
@Consolation I agree with you. I haven’t looked at all for anything to substantiate what the kid said. Even if basic stats exist, there are oodles of potentially confounding variables all of which are plausible.
I am, however, keeping a list of real studies presented here and elsewhere supporting vaxs so I can share those.
@MWolf How about some sarcasm emojis ? ;)) :)) :-j ^:)^ :D/
Well, I wanted my post to Hannah to “look” sincere, because that’s the kind of things they say. But even though I’ve been posting here for 11 years about nursing issues/health and medical treatment, not everyone here knows my history. I thinkHannah recognizes my screen name, but probably shouldn’t assume.
Believe it or not, I had measles and rubella (which they used to call German measles) simultaneously. This was early 1960s. When I was preparing to conceive my first child, my ob/gyn didn’t believe that was possible. When the titer came back, lo and behold, I’m immune to both.
I have had measles, german measles and mumps but not whooping cough. My older brother and sister had all of those too but I’m not positive about our younger siblings. My kids have had chickenpox but been vaccinated against nearly everything else, except shingles–they’re both too young. They don’t get flu shots because their doctors agree that they could get extremely ill from them due to their chronic health conditions (they’ve tried flu shots time and again and finally everyone agreed its better for them not to get them).
I’m old enough to have been vaccinated against smallpox. I still have the little scar on my upper arm that we all had from the vaccine.
Ah yes, we were all vaccinated vs smallpox as well. Mine is on my upper thigh, which has left a significant scar–young babies get the darndest places wet! I think the pediatrician learned not to vaccinate the upper thigh after me, since none of my sibs have a scar in that location.
In early childhood, I had an undiagnosed, untreated case of polio. The guilt was sufficient to keep me in $60 orthopedic shoes from age 5 - 12. A vague parental admission was passed from my sister to me in adulthood. The news made sense of a curious memory from my preschool years. My parents were poor, ignorant, overwhelmed, and secretive. They didn’t know what they didn’t know.