Have you heard of Chicken Pox parties?
Asked by
KNOWITALL (
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)
November 13th, 2013
We’ve been discussing whether it’s the responsiblity of all of us to get the flu shots, etc…and I heard that people who DO NOT want the injections now have parties when someone is sick and take their children so they can build immunities.
How do you feel about that?
Would you participate with your child?
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111 Answers
No, but when my little son got them, we tried very hard to infect my even younger daughter by letting them hang out together; it didn’t work. When she finally did come down with chicken pox, in her early forties, she felt rotten and blamed me. I said that we had really tried.
Have heard of it and it makes a certain amount of sense but probably would not have participated. My younger son did get the chicken pox from his brother though.
When I was a kid I read the Great Brain series. The author talks about growing up pre-vaccination era. His mom would “vaccinate” the kids having them get exposed to what ever virus one of them caught.
I would not do this because some of these viruses cause meningitis and permanent brain damage or even death and if I caused that in my child the guilt would be bottomless.
It’s fairly common around here.
My kids are vaccinated, however.
@drhat77 Ha! The Great Brain is what I always think of when I hear about this. And that Maurice Sendak illustration of all the brothers in the same bed.
Not “parties,” be we made a point of exposing the kids if we had the chance. Don’t know if I’d do that today, though.
When our kids were young, there wasn’t a vaccine for chicken pox but we certainly did get them all the recommended vaccines. I never do get a flu shot though.
@janbb I’m trying to decide if I want a flu shot (free with my insurance) or if I want to expose myself (not the pervy way) to germs. @rarebear made me feel guilty- lol
My feeling is this, based on an admittedly scant knowledge of immunology. The point of vaccination is to prevent incidences of people having the disease. It keeps the disease from spreading, it reduces its power. But by not allowing your child to get the disease, it means that if they are ever exposed to it after the vaccine loses its effectiveness, they may be likely to get it. And because chicken pox is dangerous to adults, it feels like the safer choice on an individual level to let the children get the disease.
However, letting children get the disease does nothing to battle the spread of chicken pox. Chicken pox remains alive and well and thriving as long as we encourage our children to get chicken pox. And don’t forget – it can be fatal in some cases.
So, we have to make a choice: vaccinate, and see chicken pox become an extremely rare disease, which benefits society as a whole, or let children get chicken pox, which benefits your one child (as long as they don’t lose the roulette game and die of encephalitis).
The tough part about this choice is that in order for vaccination to do its job to eradicate the disease, pretty much everyone has to do it. So as long as large numbers of people are having parties like this, the benefits of vaccination are being sabotaged, and the choice remains difficult.
@KNOWITALL It’s a tougher choice still with the flu shot, because of the high rates of mutation. The benefits are not as clear as they are with chicken pox (which is still arguable) or with MMR (in which vaccination should obviously be done).
” How do you feel about that? ”
I feel this is one of the most ill posed questions I have seen here.
” Would you participate with your child? ”:
Of course not!!
I have trouble understanding even the intimation of such woo.
Immunize!!!
It makes sense to me. It’s essentially what people did for centuries, pre-vaccinations, and it generally works. I don’t see any issues with it.
What is bothersome to me is that the anti-vaccine extremists will jump on this as another excuse to avoid all vaccines, thereby potentially exposing my kid to polio, smallpox, and whatever else that other parent has been deficient in providing their child.
So it’s not the act of a pox party that bothers me, it’s the mindset of the individual who participates in it.
I believe small pox has been eradicated @elbanditoroso. ” The last naturally occurring case of smallpox (Variola minor) was diagnosed on 26 October 1977.[5]” Wiki
There was no chicken pox vaccine when my children were little; trying to expose them to the disease was standard practice.
I don’t understand why a parent would knowingly risk their child to suffering, scarring, death, long term side effects and shingles later in life when it could be avoided with a simple vaccine. It’s absolutely mind boggling.
@Dutchess_III – if I am not mistaken, it has been seen recently again, perhaps in the middle east or africa.
@elbanditoroso You completely disregarding our personal rights to not put something in our bodies that we’re not comfortable with. I’m not in an at-risk group, I have no children, and except for my job working with the public, I wouldn’t even consider it based on past experiences.
If @Rarebear hadn’t been as erudite in his verbage & emotional appeal about his children, I wouldn’t consider it at all, which is my right.
@KNOWITALL One might also argue that the child is not being afforded his personal rights not to put something in his body that he’s not comfortable with. I’m pretty sure no one asks the child whether he’d like to volunteer to be infected.
But in terms of not being comfortable with what is in vaccines, I would urge you (if this is your only concern) to do some serious research about vaccines in general. The likelihood of doing oneself harm through vaccination is ridiculously small, and even smaller when compared with the likelihood of doing oneself harm through getting whatever you’re considering being vaccinated against. My arguments are coming from the standpoint of efficacy, not risk due to the contents of the vaccine.
Yes, I’ve definitely heard of these. I remember this happening a lot more when I was a kid. I think most people opt for vaccinations, though. I think avoiding shingles later in life is enough of a reason to get the chicken pox vaccination.
@glacial Of course, but some of those are almost considered a right of passage. I was immunized as a child and still got chicken pox, mono, etc…
It’s kind of like avoiding hospitals because of the germs and staph infections, if it’s unavoidable, you go, if it is avoidable, you don’t.
That dance floor looks crowded, save a spot for me.
@KNOWITALL There is no vaccine for mononucleosis and the vaccine for varicella started being used in children in the US around 1995, and didn’t become a standard vaccine until later.
@KNOWITALL The goal is to make getting the chicken pox vaccine a rite of passage also. Once it is the norm, then chicken pox outbreaks will be as rare as those for things like measles or polio. That’s what we should be working towards.
And @Rarebear is right – you wouldn’t have been immunized for chicken pox or mono as a child, so it’s not surprising that you got them. ;)
@KNOWITALL – I’m not sure that your parenting gives you the right to have your sick kid try and infect my kid.
@Rarebear That’s what I mean, you can get deathly ill with something at any time really, vaccinations or not. If it’s not the flu, it could be mono or lime disease, etc…
Geesh guys, I don’t have kids, but I’m telling you a LOT of people feel like you’re trying to force your big pharma chemicals on us against our will. Some people I know don’t use store bought soap or shampoo’s, any perfumes or anything with chemicals.
I think it’s naive of you to assume your rights trump ours, even when you invoke children and the elderly, although that emotional appeal is actually working on me a bit…lol
@Rarebear – and I gave a hypothetical response. My kids are in their 30s.
While I am not anti-vacc, pretending that the issue of parental rights vs. public good is a simple issue that we’ve figured out is not the way to go. It’s disingenuous, and is simply fuel for the anti-vacc crowd.
@tom_g Exactly. More education is the way to go, here.
I don’t like the way that those who push vaccines pretend that there is only one obvious answer. The benefit in these situations is subjective, as long as the general population is not getting mandatory vaccines. Which is the problem, really: we need across-the-board vaccination. When people stubbornly refuse to act on the basis of the science, the efficacy of the whole program is reduced – and then the anti-vac crowd calls this “proof” that they are right.
Sounds pretty dumb to me to purposefully get your child sick when you can achieve the same immunity without getting them sick.
Water is a “chemical.” Cyanide is “natural.” Buzzwords don’t help your case.
On a personal note, the varicella vaccine is one of the live viruses, which means that I as an immunosuppressed person cannot get it. I am overdue on my booster shot and have been told that if an outbreak hits campus, I will be required to leave college for a while. Your “personal” choices don’t occur in a vacuum.
I haven’t read the answers so far, but absolutely I have heard of them. I have joked I am going to rent myself out during times that my shingles acts up a lot.
My girlfriend made sure to put her kids around a cousin that had chicken pox to get her kids infected. It worked.
I’m not necessarily an anti-vaxxer, but there are a lot of people who are. I’ll probably get a flu shot this year, dang it.
If I get really sick, I’ll PM rarebear and ya’ll can come nurse me on your dime…lol
@Mariah You could get a titer done and check your immunity.
Purposely getting a child sick with an illness like chicken pox is downright cruel and irresponsible. Chicken Pox is not a walk in the park.
And having chicken pox when young increases your chances of getting shingles. being vaccinated for chicken pox does not.
And, @KNOWITALL, flu vaccine at its worst makes you feel a bit under the weather for a day. Influenza can knock you down for up to two weeks, and if you have any health issues at all, it can kill you.
@zenvelo But, if the parent doesn’t want to do the vaccine, childhood chicken pox is safer than adult.
@KNOWITALL You don’t want me nursing you. I’d make an absolutely terrible nurse.
“All that scratchin is makin me itch”
Said the DJ &...everybody else.
@zenvelo Not necessarily true. I went to the walk-in emergency clinic after getting the flu shot and had walking pneumonia. I’d not been sick before of after like that. It was so bad they gave me a bronchial inhaler as well.
@Rarebear lol, can you believe after all this that insurance told us today the flu shot was free to all employees here?! Now I have absolutely no excuse. You win. :)
There’s a vaccine now so I don’t think this would be an effective party.
I don’t think there WAS a chicken pox vaccine when my kids were little. The logic behind exposing them when they were young, was to offset the chance they they could become exposed when they were older, when the disease has a much more serious effect. It can cause things like sterility in pubescent boys and men.
@Dutchess_III That’s mumps that causes sterility in boys and men, not chicken pox. Chicken pox can lead to a temporary infertility from fever, but not sterility.
Oh. Yeah, You’re right. Sorry!
Coming in late…
Disclaimer – My mother is evil, don’t use her reasoning as sound logic.
The Varicella vaccine did not exist when I was a kid, as far as I know. Chicken pox parties were pretty common around me.
The “rules” were kind of like this: If a kid got Pox during school year, Avoid that family like the plague. But if they got it during Summer Vacation… PARTY! Get all the kids “over with” so they don’t miss any school.
It was pretty much taken for granted that the kids were going to catch pox at one point or another, and better to get it over with.
My bestie and I had it at the same time – during the school year – and he and I spent a week and a half of second grade playing Ninja Turtles and Nintendo and reading comic books. Apart from being covered in calamine lotion and itching like crazy, it was pretty cool.
However, I’m not looking forward to shingles.
My son got the Varicella vaccine.
Introducing live, multiplying disease-causing microorganisms into your kids – sounds gross and irresponsible to me. At lease with vaccines, it would be known quantities of broken pieces of those same microorganisms.
@RocketGuy So what if medical personnel along with the CDC says the opposite?
@KNOWITALL Maybe you did. What he said was basically the same thing I did in my inital post in this thread. Vaccines are better than introducing live virus that cause potentially serious illness.
@Rarebear I guess my question would be, if the live virus’ already have the mutating strains that are local to you, why would it be irresponsible? It sounds like it would be better because it definately applies whereas vaccines don’t provide for mutations. Does that make sense?
@KNOWITALL I think part of the problem here is that you’re, on some levels, trying to equate chicken pox and the flu. It’s not realistic to ask whether people should rather infect their kids with chicken pox or vaccinate against it, and then apply those answers to whether one should get a flu shot. The flu mutates from year to year; chicken pox doesn’t.
@glacial Good point, and working, too. :0
@jca It is for children not vaccinated.
@glacial I hadn’t realized that was what she was doing. I agree with you completely. It’s comparing apples and oranges.
@KNOWITALL It was once common practice to intentionally expose your children to other children with an active childhood disease. Before immunization, that was how they managed the age of the child when exposed and the timing of the illness. Obviously, if you were a farming family, you’d try to keep your kids from being exposed during planting or harvest, but once the crops were planted, late spring might be ideal.
I think that intentionally exposing a child when a vaccine is available it mildly irresponsible today. However, who’s to know if the increase in allergies isn’t somehow related to not having had childhood illness?
Good question, BTW.
A child in the UK can’t get the chickenpox vaccine unless they are being treated for cancer, aids or organ transplant. So yes, chickenpox parties are popular here.
@downtide You touched on why some parents don’t vaccinate for chicken pox in America, they feel it is still an expirement. From what I understand the UK is waiting to see what happens to the American children long term. I don’t know of that is really why the UK has chosen to vaccinate, that is just what I have heard.
@JLeslie An experiment? I thought @downtide was simply saying that it’s not covered by NHS, and therefore expensive.
@Rarebear So, it is just a money issue? Not the people in charge of public health being in a wait and see mode? I wonder if vaccinating is more expensive than dealing with doctor visits and medication for chicken pox?
Also, I was wondering if zovirax and similar drugs can treat chicken pox? I take Valtrex for shingles and it is very effective. I estimate it shortens the severity and legnth of my outbreaks by half, about 10 days. If it is effective for chicken pox, will using it lower natural immunity compared to letting the disease take it’s full course?
@glacial An experiment in that we still don’t know what happens to the kids who are vaccinated once they all are elderly.
^ Doctor visits and medication are covered by the NHS.
@Seek_Kolinahr I know. That was my point. The government decides whether to give the vaccine or not. If it is fully a mathematical monetary question, they must be weighing cost of the vaccine vs. care for chicken pox. If it is cheaper to do the vaccine that would support not vaccinating because they are waiting to see long term effects of the vaccine. I think some concern was the seemingly short time immunity stays high after vaccination. But, I am not sure what the percentages on that really are. So, the fear would be a bunch of 40 years olds coming down with chicken pox. Maybe @Rarebear can speak to that. I honestly don’t know all the concerns the government might have that they decided against vaccinating.
Countries vary on these things. We don’t give the TB “vaccine” while other countries do. Obviously TB is much less common than Chicken Pox here, and less contagious even. But, it is a big deal if you get an active case of it.
@KNOWITALL FYI.
The United States Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has published recommendations for seasonal influenza vaccination for the 2013 to 2014 influenza season [2]. As in past years, all individuals six months of age or older should be vaccinated. Both trivalent and quadrivalent vaccines are available for the 2013 to 2014 influenza season (table 1). New vaccines include a trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine produced in cultured mammalian cells (Flucelvax) and a trivalent recombinant hemagglutinin influenza vaccine (Flublok). The choice of vaccine formulation depends upon several factors, including age, comorbidities, pregnancy, and risk of adverse reactions.
@Rarebear I’m still listening & thinking, just not convinced it’s for MY own good.
Does the fact that I RARELY get sick have any effect on your opinion that I should get one? Since I’m exposed to the general public on the daily, possibly I’m building my own healthy immunities?
@KNOWITALL
See here
No, the fact that you rarely get sick doesn’t affect the opinion that you should be vaccinated.
Your immunity would help protect people who cannot be immunized. The immunization does build your immunities, at a faster and more reliable rate than your body can. Just as last year’s flu shot cannot reliably protect you from this year’s flu, being exposed to this year’s flu cannot protect you (or anyone else) from next year’s.
Think of each vaccinated person as a brick in a wall against illness. The more bricks we have, the better protected we all are. Including and especially those who are immunocompromised, and have to hide behind the wall.
@Seek_Kolinahr I think @KNOWITALL is asking for her own health, not everyone else’s.
@KNOWITALL If you are indeed just asking about yourself, my guess is @Rarebear is going to tell you the past does not predict the future when it comes to flu, and people die from it every year. Even if your chances are only slight, I have no idea the number, but let’s say 1 in 300,000 (totally made up) still if you get the flu and die, it doesn’t matter the odds, you’re still dead. Most doctors can’t understand why anyone risks it when there is a safe vaccine that helps yourself and others. I have a friend right now who has walking pneumonia. She is in her 30’s, exercises regularly, healthy, slim body, everything about her appears to be healthy. I actually knew a guy in his 20’s who died from walking pneumonia. You just never know. i realize pneumonia and flu is not the same, but they both can be deadly, and seemingly healthy people can get either, or anything for that matter with dire consequence.
I don’t take the flu shot either, but that is the argument I would give for taking it.
For the record I hate needles and I hate getting shots. But I hate getting sick even worse.
I have a funny story actually about needles. My 12 year old daughter recently had a bad case of strep throat. I took her to an urgent care and they confirmed the diagnosis. The doctor gave my daughter a choice between 10 days of pills or syrup, or a single shot.
She picked the shot. I knew that’s what she would do but the doctor said, “really?” When the nurse came with the syringe filled with penicillin to shoot into her butt, she said, “Nobody ever picks the shot.”
@Seek_Kolinahr Thank you, that is what I meant.
@JLeslie I do care about others, which is why I’m even thinking about it. I think @rarebear needs to do some PSA’s because he guilted the crap out of me- lol
The thing is that I didn’t feel like my getting a shot really affected everyone else, never even crossed my mind tbh.
@Rarebear I’m good with needles and blood, I guess I’ll call CVS and see what I need to do. Dang it, guilt as a motivator has always irritated the crap out of me, but I guess it works on people like me.
@KNOWITALL I see. Yeah, infectious disease, especially the ones that are contagious through the air are a societal concern. Herd immunity (having the majority immune) helps protect those who aren’t like the youngest babies who can’t be vaccinated, people allergic to vaccinations and people in such bad health they can’t be vaccinated. Scenerio one, If a person at your work has the flu and you get from them, then you go shopping for groceries, give it to people there and some children. They bring to their place of work and the kids bring it to school. Scenerio two, if a person at your work has the flu and you had the vaccine to prevent that strain, that’s it, you don’t get it, and you don’t infect all those other people. It’s exponential the way infection works. Like the old HIV diagram how you sleep with all the other sex partners that person has had, and all those partners are sleeping with other people. One person can infect many more. If you are immune you help stop the virus in it’s tracks.
I have heard of it and it makes sense to me. Getting chicken pox at a really young age is better than getting them as an adult. I don’t think I’d actually go so far as to attend a gathering specifically for infecting children with chicken pox but I certainly wouldn’t go out of my way to keep them separate from infected children either.
I’d like to add that I had never heard of the vaccine for chicken pox before reading this thread. If a vaccine was available then I would take that!
@Leanne1986 From @Rarebear‘s link you can get one, assuming you never had the disease before. You just have to pay, but I doubt it is extremely expensive.
I got the vaccine last year. I prefer getting a fixed number of varicella bits than multiplying numbers of varicella viruses.
For the record, I had chickenpox when I was eleven. Apart from the itchiness, I didn’t feel ill in any way, I did not need any doctor visits or medication and it didn’t affect me for much longer than a week or so. Thirty-five years on, and I have never had shingles. My partner caught it at the same time as my daughter did, when she was seven and he was thirty-one. Again, neither of them needed medical attention and neither of them suffered any long term effects or shingles. And I don’t think we are “lucky” or “special”. I think we’re typical.
@downtide I know three people who have had shingles – one was a classmate at university. She described it as like having all of her bones hurt, all the time. She said it was nearly unbearable.
@downtide Most people get through it fine. But, the people who don’t, they don’t. Some die. I think the old stats were 10,000 people hospitalized in the US and 100 die in a year. You probably know auggie, blondsjon, and I have been getting shingles since our 20’s. I’ve probably had 10–12 episodes of it the last 20 years. Blondsjon has it much worse than me, and more often. My parents have never had shingles, nor my husband, nor tons of people I know. It’s so all over the map. The hypothesis is more people in the US who had chicken pox as kids will get shingles now that we vaccinate the children here. But, I think I got shingles before the vaccine was introduced? Not sure.
@JLeslie “The hypothesis is more people in the US who had chicken pox as kids will get shingles now that we vaccinate the children here”
Because of… revenge? I can’t figure out why that would be the case.
^ HA! That just brought out some serious giggles.
@glacial They think when adults are exposed to chicken pox because kids around them get it, it boosts the adults immunity. I have my doubts though. What isn’t logical to me, but I am not a scientist, is you would think under the same theory that every time I get shingles it should be boosting my immunity, and every time I am around someone with shingles it should boost my immunity.
I had a bout with shingles for the first time in my life. It started right after I got out of the hospital about a year ago. I just ignored it and it finally went away.
Then, about 6 months later it flared up again. I went to the Dr. for a completely different reason, and just mentioned this to him. He told me what it was. I was a little floored because I don’t remember ever getting chicken pox.
Not fun.
Just so everybody knows, I got the stupid flu shot Saturday for free, so congrats @Rarebear, I shall not be Typhoid Mary! :)
@Rarebear If I don’t get deathly ill this time, I’ll tell all my skeptical friends as well. BTW- the pharmacist that gave me the shot thought it was hilarious that my doc said I didn’t need one and that you and I were arguing it, and I told him @Seek_Kolinahr‘s ‘brick in the wall’ theory and he really liked the analogy. :)
So Fluther sneaks into your real life too @KNOWITALL!
@Dutchess_III Yes, that’s why I keep coming. I just hate to be wrong about anything, that’s my problem, stubborn!
You have to admit that doctor versus doctor doesn’t occur in life too often. ;) Or maybe it does…hmmmmm.
“Better safe than sorry” I always say. Well…hell. everybody always says that.
@Rarebear Man, the comments on that article make me weep for humanity.
@Rarebear Contrary to the article, it actually IS an individual choice that affects the rest of us.
“The problem is that it is not an individual choice; it is a choice that acutely affects the rest of us.”
One of the thing’s I’ve tried to push here on fluther is that educating people and contradicting them in a way that is not ridiculing or demeaning, is the ONLY way to change people’s hearts and minds. The blog as you’ve seen, ridiculed the anti-vaxxers, and that does a disservice to us all, and causes actual harm.
@Rarebear, I appreciate you and Seek taking the time to educate me in a way that made me want to listen. :)
@glacial That article does beg the question if a 31 year old is no longer immune, assuming they were vacinated, how much herd immunity is there even if all children are vaccinated? The author says something about he shouldn’t need a booster, but if he is not immune he needs one. He is in essence not vaccinated.
@JLeslie I didn’t post the article; the reference to boosters is a link to a different article entirely.
And it raises the question. :P
None of us are at this age, @JLeslie. Are you going to go out and get a booster?
Ugh. I’ll say it again. Anti-anti-vacc articles are feeling like reading PETA articles. Maybe I’m not the intended audience, but part of me (the contrarian jerk) wants to go all anti-vacc when I read shit like that article. “Carry your baby around in a sling, feed her organic banana mash while you drink your ethical coffee, fine, but what gives you denialists the right to put my health at risk…”
We should have better than that shit.
@tom_g Yeah, I totally agree. It doesn’t help the argument at all.
@Dutchess_III Nope, but Blondsjon just suffered with pertussis recently. If boosters are needed maybe the CDC needs to address it. Our world is much smaller now, and we are exposed to diseases people bring in from other countries and that we expose ourselves to when we travel. I am kind of curious to know what my immunity is for it? Maybe I would get the vaccine if I knew I was low, especially if I heard of an outbreak near me. My nope was too hasty, I have to think about it more. So far all things I have been tested for I am still very immune. That’s just two though, German Measles and Tetanus. Shingles, I do wonder what my Varicella number is like considering I get shingles so much. I still don’t understand why having an episode doesn’t increase immunity.
I saw Jenny McCarthy during her few years there going around talking about vaccines and autism and she said over and over she wanted good studies done. This is a while back before the doctor who said autism was linked to the mercury was finally officially declared a fraud. She talked about wanting research to see what children might be more susceptible to autism possibly connected to the vaccination (her talking not me) and she felt frustrated that in her opinion medicine was not doing research to prevent what happened to her son from happening. I still think something is odd. How can so many moms talk about significant changes with their children? I never thought it was connected to the mercury though. Most childhood vaccines don’t have mercury anymore. I never read the newer studies, I don’t know how they were conducted. I always felt they should follow a group of unvaccinated kids, kids not in daycare with parents who prefer to delay vaccination. Maybe that is what they did? I am not suggesting don’t vaccinate them ever, I am only saying delay to two years old. I don’t mean all of them either. I would still give polio and some others. Although, I think polio is later anyway? I remember taking polio drops.
@glacial I know you didn’t post it, but you commented on it. The author is so busy hating celebraties and tree huggers he doesn’t stop to consider that maybe the medical establishment is failing us also. He should question more than some kids not being vaccinated if his own immunity sucked. Imagine if a decent percentage of adults aren’t immune, they compromise herd immunity also. I realize it all adds up. I would vaccinate my kid for pertussis. I wonder if the author would have taken a booster if a doctor had suggested it?
@JLeslie Recent research is pointing to autism being detectable within the first two months of a child’s life. This is before the vaccination window. I think it’s appropriate that the research be focused on things that could actually be the cause, instead of repeating work that has already been done. There is no evidence that autism is linked to vaccines, despite an effort to find that it is. That horse is dead. We need to stop flogging it.
I’m sure you’re well aware of the old saying “correlation does not mean causation”. People are good at spotting patterns where there are none. Moms may see “significant changes” (and I assume you mean they’re seeing the changes after vaccination), but this does not mean that the vaccinations are to blame for anything.
Research on the causes of autism is of course ongoing, and I would never give Jenny McCarthy credit for that happening. That woman has a lot to answer for, and none of it good.
Again: the article did not mention boosters. It contained a link to a “related story” about boosters.
@glacial The point is the author needed a booster. He was not protected, because he did not protect himself. He is just as uneducated as McCarthy, because I bet if we look at his vaccinations he is not getting his tetanus booster every ten years. Nor checking his immunity if he prefers not to vaccinate if not necessary. The last tetanus shot I had, I don’t know if it contained pertussis or not to be honest, and I had a problem with the last tetanus vaccine I had. Long story.
But it probably didn’t occur to her to get a booster, any more than it ever occurred to me. I don’t have one.
I got one with my last tetanus shot.
@glacial i wish you hadn’t pointed out the comments. Now I’m a little sick to my stomach.
@Dutchess_III But you didn’t write an article. I used to regularly get my tetanus shot evey ten years, but I honestly don’t know if it was the combination with pertussis. I hope it was.
@Rarebear Because of me? I’m not looking for an argument, just curious. Maybe you make sure your patients get their ten year booster tetanus pertussis combination. I bet a lot of doctors don’t. I have never had a doctor ask me ever. The only time it has ever come up was when for my husband as part of his racing medical check up they ask for the date of the last tetanus, and when his company sent him to travel extensively he was vaccinated with the recommendations.
@Dutchess_III: “But it probably didn’t occur to her to get a booster, any more than it ever occurred to me. I don’t have one.”
Go eat your organic banana mash, hippie.~
But she didn’t write the article until after she got sick. She didn’t realize that she was at risk. I didn’t realize I was a risk myself, until I read the article.
Organic banana mash just sounds gross so NO! I won’t!!
@Dutchess_III Do you go to the doctor on any sort of a regular basis?
No, not for general “check ups.” However, I’ve been to see him a few times this last year, maybe 5 times for specific reasons (mostly due to illness last year.) Fact, I have an appointment tomorrow.
@Dutchess_III Well, if you don’t go for regular check-ups I don’t think I can be critical of your doctor. I bet most adults have gone well past ten years for a tetanus booster. A doctor will bring up flu shots but not the other ones. Maybe they should routinely ask about tetanus and pertussis? It’s not only for the individual’s good, but for the common good. The Pertussis part, tetanus is your own problem.
Blondsjon has had a lot of lung related scares and then she caught whooping cough of all things. Maybe they should check people with weekened lungs as a high risk group? I’m just talking from nowhere now, no medical background, but it seemed like it was even more cruel for her to wind up with it.
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