50% of people are below average. And average ain’t so smart nowadays. And a lot of those folks are listening to these snake oil peddlers about vaccination and not vaccinating their kids. We are so fscked.
– Badtux the Numbers Penguin
]]>The thing people don’t seem to understand is that many of these diseases will never go away, unlike smallpox, as they are always present wherever humans gather. The shots prevent the outbreaks, but they are always available to attack people with no immunity.
With the infrastructure deteriorating at some point cholera and the other sewer-based diseases will be back in strength in cities.
Hell, it was ‘childhood diseases’ of Europeans that decimated the Native Americans, more than guns. Disease has always been the cause of most deaths in wars.
Not everyone can have the shots, as some people are allergic to some of the things used to manufacture the vaccines [eggs, animal serum, etc.], and some of them are definitely not enjoyable [I was down for three days after one, yellow fever, I think], but they are much better than the diseases they fight.
Yes, Badtux, visit any cemetery that has been around for a century and look at the markers before 1950 and you will see a lot of children. In farming country you had a lot of kids in hopes that enough would survive to work the farm.
OWL, one of my Mother’s oldest friends had the mumps in her thirties, and it nearly killed her. You don’t bounce back like kids do. How do you keep a job if you are laid up for a week or more with the measles?
It is all about risk, Ellroon. If you are on an isolated farm, you are probably fairly safe, but you can’t live among other people in a town of city and not encounter these diseases.
These days of global travel, AIDS, SARS, and other things can be transported around the world in a day. When we moved across oceans on ships there was time for the symptoms to appear, which is why the Public Health Service was created, to check for ‘pestilence’ on ships when the entered our waters. This is also why all of the early health care measures were directed towards the merchant marine. These days they check for chocolate pudding cups when you enter the US on an aircraft, but no one checks for disease.
]]>My own kids have had all the shots.
]]>— Badtux the Roots Penguin
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