Me too.  My mom brought home measles from school when she was 8.  Three days later her 2 year old sister was dead from measles based encephalitis.   My mom was there after raised as an only child,  who held her breath all night to see what it felt like to die.   The guilt lives on with her 62 years later. 

That is precisely the word I was looking for...”charm”.

She’s been living in an actual “Full House”/Hallmark script in her head for so long, she thinks this zany parenting “misunderstanding” can be resolved with a sweet smile in less than 30 minutes, including a commercial break.

Does Aunt Becky think she’s going to charm her way out of this? The Feds have like a 93% conviction rate. This isn’t state court with inexperienced and overburdened prosecutors. Maybe she thinks her fame and charm will get her out of this. She should think again. 

Most of these parents are old enough to have relatives that remember what life was like before antibiotics or what the polio epidemic was like. Penicillin wasn’t widely available until the 40s.

You know measles can cause “immune amnesia.” Doesn’t that sound absolutely terrifying? It is. Measles can essentially wipe out your immune system’s memory, meaning you are now susceptible to illnesses you actually have antibodies for. This can last for years! Listen to This Podcast Will Kill You if you want to learn…

I’m in my 30s and know someone with post polio syndrome. It’s pretty fucking awful. No kids or partner or family. His symptoms started again in his early 40s and he needed to move into assisted living in his 60s. He isn’t a terribly happy person these days, as you might imagine. Fuck anti-vaxxers. And fuck them on…

I support this. I’m so sick of people telling me to be tolerant of anti vaxxers because “they’re just trying to do what’s best for their children.” Yeah, and failing miserably by being willfully ignorant? Sorry I don’t care about your *feelings* or “rights as a parent” if you cause public health crises

Felicity’s statement was probably drafted by an attorney, but it felt genuine, and Felicity seems like the type of person who was well intended, but just didn’t think it through.

Up here in the U.S. we didn’t have a measles outbreaks because of dedicated vaccination efforts until we cut funding to education and raised generations of fucking morons who decided the memes they read on the internet took precedent over decades if not centuries of undisputed science and the collective education of…

How about vaccines are so successful that people stopped fearing the disease and started fearing the vaccinations? The average American doesn’t know any children with polio but does know a few children on the autism spectrum. All it took was one loud crackpot (thanks, Dr. Wakefield) to make a “link” between vaccines…

Up here in America people are ignorant and they have a president telling them that immigrants bring disease and crime; so even though most countries have better vaccination rates than the US, don’t be surprised when the blame for preventable illnesses gets put on Mexicans*.

In a lot of the coverage people seem to be conflating religious beliefs with cultural practices. Whereas a Jehovah’s Witness would reject a blood transfusion on religious grounds, the Orthodox community’s rejection of vaccines seems purely cultural. The distinction is important insofar as our laws provide exemptions…

I don’t know how to put this in a way that doesn’t sound like a 2nd grader but we are a ridiculous species that can go to the moon but still need to reminded that bad things are bad every 50 years or so, or else we forget the bad things are actually bad.

Your ghost stories end where my immune system begins.

Down here Mexico way we have 99 problems, but a measles outbreak ain’t one. You know why? Because of extensive campaigns of mandatory vaccination for children. I remember when I was 5 or 6 (this was the very early 80s), two nurses showed up at my house, “hi, we’re from IMSS (Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social);…

I say we bring back leper colonies and forcibly allow anti-vaxxers to relocate. When children become of age, they can leave the colony to get vaccines and join the real world. I’m sure there’s a lovely piece of Alaskan wilderness in need of some nut jobs.

There was an episode of This American life several years ago about a measles outbreak in some town. They talked to the mother of a little girl who was too young to be vaccinated and got sick. She was planning on getting her vaccinated when she reached the right age but got sick before then. The health department…

Yikes, there’s been an outbreak in Lakewood, NJ in the Orthodox community there as well that has spread through Ocean County. Someone went to Israel, contracted it, and brought it back with them.

Polly, the first of the Ripper’s victims, was among the crowd at Trafalgar Square. She was on the street because she didn’t have anywhere else to go. The economy was depressed; rents were rising in London. Working-class women particularly faced a steep cliff if they found themselves without a husband or some sort…

I read an advanced copy of the book. It was so spot on regarding how little things have changed in terms of perception of women. I highly recommend it. The focus is on the women and not Jack the Ripper which I like.