Thanks to the Republican Presidential Clown Car, the anti-vaccination crusade has risen like zombie and claimed a very public platform for their nonsense. Just like the John Birch Society lunatics and their "no fluoride in MY water" crusade (which is also reviving), they're literally not just shooting themselves in the foot, but aiming at the rest of our feet, too.
Time for a reminder from someone old enough to remember life BEFORE vaccines.
But First, A Word From Our Sponsor:
Top Comments recognizes the previous day's Top Mojo and strives to promote each day's outstanding comments through nominations made by Kossacks like you. Please send comments (before 9:30pm ET) by email to topcomments@gmail.com or by our KosMail message board. Just click on the Spinning Top™ to make a submission. Look for the Spinning Top™ to pop up in diaries posts around Daily Kos.
Make sure that you include the direct link to the comment (the URL), which is available by clicking on that comment's date/time. Please let us know your Daily Kos user name if you use email so we can credit you properly. If you send a writeup with the link, we can include that as well. The diarist poster reserves the right to edit all content.
Please come in. You're invited to make yourself at home! Join us beneath the doodle...
|
Smallpox
The smallpox vaccine was the first vaccine available and so incredibly effective that no one in the US has had to take one in decades. The vaccine was so successful that Smallpox has been eradicated from the world, too. I still have the scar on my left upper arm from the vaccine "taking" after it was given when I was a baby.
For most of you who don't know what "taking" is all about (because you never had to take the vaccination), the vaccine was scraped into your skin where it caused a local reaction and a scab formed. Your doctor needed to check your arm in a few days to make sure you had the local reaction to ensure that it "took effect" to create your immunity.
Every single one of my classmates had that vaccine scar, too. Today, in it's own way, it identifies our generation and should serve as a reminder that we can eradicate a disease that killed millions of people in the past.
Diptheria, Pertussis (Whopping Cough), Tetanus (Lockjaw)
Available since the early 1950s, these vaccinations were required for entry into schools. Booster vaccinations were given at age 10 and, in my day, they were administered to every student on schedule.
Today, adults should get DT (diphtheria and tetanus boosters every 10 years). Despite modern medicine, tetanus remains a life-threatening disease. The organism routinely inhabits the intestinal tract of many animals and transfers to humans by cuts or puncture wounds.
Polio
Polio was the real fear when I was young. Old wives tales about polio spreading in the warmer months had parents keeping their kids inside during summer vacation from school with some breaks to play in their back yards. Similarly, it kept kids from community playgrounds and pools.
The development of the polio vaccine was huge. Kids in schools were lined up to take it - entire classes at a time. First came the injectable vaccine which was given across the country. Next developed, an oral form given via sugar cube. I had both.
Life blossomed after the polio vaccine. It really was a modern miracle.
People say that if polio were around today, we wouldn't have a vaccine. Instead, we'd have the best and most expensive iron lungs that could be built. That's due to the change in pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers becoming less interested in serving the public good and more interested in making profits.
Measles and Mumps
Measles and mumps were diseases that most kids in my generation experienced first-hand. You got sick, very sick, and a Quarantine sign would be on your front door. In an age when most mothers with kids were home and doctors still made "house calls" (yes, the doctor came to your house), caring for a very sick child for a week or two was possible. Today, in a world where most moms work, that would create havoc in workplaces all over this country and fill doctors offices with contagious patients.
Even worse, some of the kids who got measles got so sick they had to be hospitalized. And some of them died.
Measles isn't about getting red spots all over your body. It can threaten your life, cause your parents problems from needing so much time off from work, and leave lasting effects on your vision and hearing. I had measles so severe, it damaged some of my hearing and vision. Vaccinated people won't face that risk.
Chickenpox, Rubella, and the rest of the more "minor" diseases came and went, too, and in our turn, our generation got them all (I avoided Chickenpox, I know not how). Vaccines are now available, too, to protect the public.
I was one of the very first recipients of the Hepatitis B vaccines in the 1980s because I was a nurse who drew blood on high risk patients. Before it was available to the public, health care workers were the first vaccinated. Due to the small quantities that were available after the vaccine was developed, even health care workers had to be prioritized. Today, in full production, this vaccine is recommended for everyone and included in the list of childhood vaccinations required by schools.
The latest vaccine to HPV (human papillomavirus) was developed to prevent a sexually transmissible disease that is known to cause cervical cancer. Recommended for teens and pre-teens as a sensible means to stop a future deadly cancer, it's controversial because a few morons believe that it will encourage sex before marriage (yes, get the fainting couches ready). Those are the same folks who want to prohibit birth control, family planning services, and sex education which would actually reduce unwanted pregnancy and punish those who engage in sex mutually and responsibly.
Get your vaccines!
I do understand people being skeptical. Pharmaceutical companies, with eyes only on increasing their profits have earned our scrutiny and scorn. Rushing out a plethora of new drugs with cherry picked statistics and often knowing about serious, life threatening side effects has earned our distain. Their now wholly owned subsidiary, the FDA, no longer does anything but apply a rubber stamp of approval. The current advice to NOT take any medication that has not been available for less than 5 years remains good advice.
But vaccines aren't the same. They're given to entire populations of people. Big Pharma can't calculate those like their other new, expensive meds and price them to include the inevitable litigation and settlement costs.
So, vax-a-phobics, fear them not. Prevent disease. It's a good thing. Get them (yes, you need boosters for tetanus, diphtheria, etc. even as an adult). Make sure your kids get them. The health and life you save may be your own. Or your childs. Your "freedom" to refrain from vaccine shouldn't trample the rest of our freedom to avoid preventable contagious disease outbreaks.
Perhaps we need to return to the days when classrooms of children were taken to get their vaccinations. They were done free, in school, and given to everyone. We stopped deadly diseases that way. Today, far too many parents think their kids will be protected by herd immunity (so many people being vaccinated that diseases can't spread). With that kind of thinking and many parents not vaccinating, herd immunity isn't happening.
Let's not go back to the world before vaccines. It wasn't a nice place to be.
How incredible is this? For an explanation of How Top Mojo Works, see mik's
FAQing Top Mojo
Top Pictures for yesterday. Click any image to be taken to the full comment. Thank you jotter for the awesome image magic!