3 ms·

I'm probably much older than a lot of y'all. As a kid, I had measles, mumps and chickenpox, all acquired at school when I was young as did most of my siblings.

I'm probably much older than a lot of y'all. As a kid, I had measles, mumps and chickenpox, all acquired at school when I was young as did most of my siblings. My younger siblings grew up after MMR was available and never had the direct experience with it since they were vaccinated before they started school.

qingcharles 2y ago
I just had to check when these vaccines became available. I remember my Mum being strict about getting all my shots, but I still managed to get measles, and chickenpox twice. I just had to ask GPT why the nurse gave me a sugar lump to eat, and apparently that was polio vaccine. I predate the chickenpox vaccine and I predate the advice to get two measles shots.
- doodlebugging 2y ago
  I too had the sugarcube polio vaccine. I had no idea what polio was but Mom told me that it was a bad disease that had left one of my uncles partially paralyzed. He caught polio as a young teen and had a limp until he passed away at nearly 80. Another uncle ended up deaf in one ear from a childhood infection that I think was meningitis. It left him ineligible to serve during the Vietnam War with a couple of his brothers and cousins though he tried to join every branch.
  - tialaramex 2y ago
    Oral Polio Vaccine. It's actually both more effective and cheaper than the injected vaccine used today, as well as being attractive to children (well at least me) because it's in the form of a weird fluid dripped onto a sugar code - looks like it might turn you into a superhero. The reason we don't use OPV in the rich industrial countries any more is that we don't have Polio here, so the improved efficacy and lower price aren't a worthwhile trade for the small but real risk of it reverting in some patients and producing an outbreak of Polio in the residual unvaccinated population.
tialaramex 2y ago
Then the very good news is that you needn't worry, as the article explains the one thing your body is now extremely good at is killing the measles virus. "Immune amnesia" here takes the form of (after infection with measles) an unhealthy singular focus on killing measles. Lots of immune capacity in your body is still, decades later, focused on this enemy, if you were to deliberately inhale the coughs and splutters of an infected person your body's defences will go to town on the invaders - .... Once on a school trip (like you I'm pretty old, so, we're talking 1980s) to the zoo I saw a little garden bird plop itself down near a big cat. No harm meant of course, but the cat just smashed it - one paw covered in razor sharp talons, lightning fast, dead bird. That's the fate of any unfortunate measles virus which got inside you, even all this time later.
- doodlebugging 2y ago
  I don't necessarily worry about measles, it's all the other things that the locals around here are politically conditioned to ignore. If something else came down the pike and people were dropping like flies a lot of my neighbors would blissfully continue as they always had with no regard for anyone else in the building. My grandmother was a nurse. All of my sisters became nurses. Two of my aunts are/were nurses who followed in their Mom's footsteps. A couple of my cousins became EMTs and another is a microbiologist. One of my kids is a biologist. I'm a geophysicist so not quite the same. My family has a pretty good feel on the pulse of the region where we live, which things are problems today and which could be if people are not paying attention. Luckily many of the societal issues that have torn other families apart have not affected us. We're a pretty tight group and we look out for each other. Too bad that others have been conditioned to be so selfish that ordinary people have to wonder what they could be spreading this week. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones who got measles and had no long term issues. I still remember the warm soak in the tub to help control the fever. It's pretty funny that all of us kids and cousins remember the same thing about visits to grandmas. It was like it was a perfect opportunity for her to practice her skills. We all had to take our turn getting checked out for everything from diabetes to pinworms. If you showed up with a sore throat you were definitely gonna get some merthiolate or mercurochrome swabbing. A cough got you some of the nastiest tasting cough syrup - don't worry it tastes like wild cherries - and after that you might end up like me and go years before tasting a real cherry because the memory of that syrup was so dominant. I have family up around Lubbock where the Texas outbreak is growing. That's originally why I commented on this story, because I had discussed that outbreak with them that morning since I knew they were not in a position to follow all this stuff in real time due to their job duties.

qingcharles 2y ago

I just had to check when these vaccines became available. I remember my Mum being strict about getting all my shots, but I still managed to get measles, and chickenpox twice. I just had to ask GPT why the nurse gave me a sugar lump to eat, and apparently that was polio vaccine. I predate the chickenpox vaccine and I predate the advice to get two measles shots.

doodlebugging 2y ago
I too had the sugarcube polio vaccine. I had no idea what polio was but Mom told me that it was a bad disease that had left one of my uncles partially paralyzed. He caught polio as a young teen and had a limp until he passed away at nearly 80. Another uncle ended up deaf in one ear from a childhood infection that I think was meningitis. It left him ineligible to serve during the Vietnam War with a couple of his brothers and cousins though he tried to join every branch.
- tialaramex 2y ago
  Oral Polio Vaccine. It's actually both more effective and cheaper than the injected vaccine used today, as well as being attractive to children (well at least me) because it's in the form of a weird fluid dripped onto a sugar code - looks like it might turn you into a superhero. The reason we don't use OPV in the rich industrial countries any more is that we don't have Polio here, so the improved efficacy and lower price aren't a worthwhile trade for the small but real risk of it reverting in some patients and producing an outbreak of Polio in the residual unvaccinated population.

tialaramex 2y ago

Then the very good news is that you needn't worry, as the article explains the one thing your body is now extremely good at is killing the measles virus. "Immune amnesia" here takes the form of (after infection with measles) an unhealthy singular focus on killing measles. Lots of immune capacity in your body is still, decades later, focused on this enemy, if you were to deliberately inhale the coughs and splutters of an infected person your body's defences will go to town on the invaders - .... Once on a school trip (like you I'm pretty old, so, we're talking 1980s) to the zoo I saw a little garden bird plop itself down near a big cat. No harm meant of course, but the cat just smashed it - one paw covered in razor sharp talons, lightning fast, dead bird. That's the fate of any unfortunate measles virus which got inside you, even all this time later.

doodlebugging 2y ago
I don't necessarily worry about measles, it's all the other things that the locals around here are politically conditioned to ignore. If something else came down the pike and people were dropping like flies a lot of my neighbors would blissfully continue as they always had with no regard for anyone else in the building. My grandmother was a nurse. All of my sisters became nurses. Two of my aunts are/were nurses who followed in their Mom's footsteps. A couple of my cousins became EMTs and another is a microbiologist. One of my kids is a biologist. I'm a geophysicist so not quite the same. My family has a pretty good feel on the pulse of the region where we live, which things are problems today and which could be if people are not paying attention. Luckily many of the societal issues that have torn other families apart have not affected us. We're a pretty tight group and we look out for each other. Too bad that others have been conditioned to be so selfish that ordinary people have to wonder what they could be spreading this week. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones who got measles and had no long term issues. I still remember the warm soak in the tub to help control the fever. It's pretty funny that all of us kids and cousins remember the same thing about visits to grandmas. It was like it was a perfect opportunity for her to practice her skills. We all had to take our turn getting checked out for everything from diabetes to pinworms. If you showed up with a sore throat you were definitely gonna get some merthiolate or mercurochrome swabbing. A cough got you some of the nastiest tasting cough syrup - don't worry it tastes like wild cherries - and after that you might end up like me and go years before tasting a real cherry because the memory of that syrup was so dominant. I have family up around Lubbock where the Texas outbreak is growing. That's originally why I commented on this story, because I had discussed that outbreak with them that morning since I knew they were not in a position to follow all this stuff in real time due to their job duties.