I Weep For Humanity
By Glinda
Seriously?
People have asked other people to send them the spit-infested lollipop of a sick child so that their child could contract chicken pox?
Good Lord.
First, it’s a federal offense, second, it won’t even work and third, WHAT THE F@&# IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?
I used to give vaccine-deniers some leeway, but after being proven that a certain oft-quoted study was completely discredited, I will allow no quarter.
Vaccinate your damn kids!
That way, your damn kids won’t give a disease that should by all rights be eradicated to an unsuspecting infant or person with a lowered immune system.
Again, WHAT THE F@&# IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?
November 8th, 2011 at 9:07 am
Amen to that! I live in an area with a lot of parents that don’t vaccinate and I am super paranoid about taking my baby girl out and about. There was a bad outbreak of whooping cough recently and I am scared she will get it because she is not old enough to get the vaccine yet. So many studies have proven them safe and effective at preventing disease and keeping the population more healthy.
November 8th, 2011 at 10:01 am
Mmmm, I’m with you all the way until making it a vaccine issue. There are some vaccines that are just no question, kids should have them. DTP, anything that develops into meningitis (HiB and PCV, IIRC), etc. Chicken pox, however, is NOT on my short list of vaccines. It seems to be just about as efficacious as chicken pox parties and the disease itself is usually so mild that I’m personally not sure I’m giving it to my kid.
But the lollipop thing IS stupid.
November 8th, 2011 at 11:09 pm
MMR, please let MMR be on your short list.
While varicella is usually fairly mild and self-resolving, about 100 kids/year died of it before the vaccine was available. (100 deaths out of 4 million sick, but still!) And varicella can occasionally cause meningoencephalitis.
The varicella vaccine isn’t 100% efficacious at preventing chickenpox, but children who get the vaccine and then get chickenpox usually do have a much milder disease than those who didn’t get the vaccine. The risk of the vaccine is much lower than the risk of the disease.
November 9th, 2011 at 5:23 pm
yes, thank you. my brain was not all the way on when I wrote that — MMR all the way.
I definitely think the varicella vaccine has its place, and maybe I am speaking from a place of childhood bitterness (I was amongst the first kids to get the shot when it was released, although I was quite a bit older than kids who get it today) as I ended up contracting chicken pox from the shot, which I knew was optional and I was terrified of shots. So I’ve always held some amount of dislike for it.
But I don’t think just because there IS a shot for varicella that we need to start decrying parents who DON’T get it for their kids in the same breathe as complete shot-avoiders.
November 10th, 2011 at 2:17 am
Can we also bring up shingles as a factor as well?
People who never contract varicella do not get shingles.
And as my grandmother recently went through a long bout of shingles said, “That was the worst pain I have ever felt in my entire life,” I’m thinking avoiding shingles is a good thing.
November 8th, 2011 at 10:05 am
My parents intentionally infected me with the pox in the 80s… and now I have the scars all over my face. Even if it’s a “mild” disease, it can have lifetime effects.
November 8th, 2011 at 10:32 am
What is it with people who won’t vaccinate their kids? My great grandmother watched all seven of her children die in six days from diphtheria. She didn’t have a choice about vaccines, but had they been available, she surely would have availed herself of them.
(She then had six more children, which is why I am alive today.)
November 9th, 2011 at 2:01 am
Oh my gosh! I cannot even imgagine what your great grandmother went through when that happened. It hurts just to think about it.
And giving birth to a total of thirteen children?
I hope someone gave her a medal!
November 8th, 2011 at 4:26 pm
I’m with you Glinda. WTF people?
November 11th, 2011 at 1:18 pm
Yep, I’m also with you, Glinda. It irks me when anti-vaxxers say, “Why should it matter, if your own kid is vaccinated?” They obviously have no concept of herd immunity, and ALSO have no concept of the fact that some people (newborns, people with allergies, etc.) CAN’T get the vaccine, and all of these conspiracy nuts are putting THEM at risk.
I can definitely tell you that if I had a newborn who contracted whooping cough from the kid of some anti-vaxxers, I’d be trying to press charges against them for reckless endangerment.