I work as an OT in a physical rehab facility for the elderly and medically complex. Polio is a bitch, man. Sure you can survive it... Just to get post-polio syndrome in adulthood. I’ve seen it twice in my short career and the (English) research on it is scant, at times contradictory and basically shrug emoticon…

Hmm, interesting. Luckily, I’ve been very healthy since then, but adult measles certainly wasn’t a joke back then. I can definitely see how it could be lethal to some people and it’s not very surprising if there are some negative after effects.

A-fucking-men sister. I’m so glad you were one of the “lucky ones” who didn’t succumb to those illnesses. There were so many more who didn’t make it.

I’m so glad you’re healthy now and here to educate us. You went through hell and have seen what anti-science can do to people.

Polio vaccination rates below that of much of the developing world.**

I’m 64 and had most of those childhood diseases they now vaccinate for. I still remember the delirium and hallucinations from my high fever due to measles. I was 40, just before the chickenpox vaccination became available and I caught it. The most miserable month of my life. Spots everywhere including my gums, inside…

Word. For some reason, my body can’t produce antibodies for chicken pox (I have an otherwise fully respectable immune system) so I get it over and over again. It is... less than ideal. I’m confused about why people who CAN get a vaccine and avoid something like that would chose not to (also it would benefit me if more…

My mother contracted polio a couple of years before the vaccine was released. She’s now in her late 60s and the polio is STILL trying to destroy her. Vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate.

My father spent almost an entire school year in the hospital because of polio. He was similarly unimpressed with the anti-vaccination movement.

If they are doing a ppd, they often draw a circle around the site so you can find it more easily two days later, and see if there is a reaction. It’s easy to see when you inject that tiny amount just right in the first layers of skin when you do it, but if there’s no reaction, you can lose track of it when you have to…

I have written this before, but I am a Baby Boomer born before the Salk vaccine. Polio was terrifying, for children and their parents. I went to nursery school with a girl who contracted polio as a baby. She wore heavy metal braces and could not run and play with the other kids. There is also a post-polio syndrome…

I had measles too and nearly died and nearly lost my sight and nearly had my foot cut off. I was 1. People have no idea. Thankfully I was taken care by the NHS staff in the UK here but with so much ignorance out there, infected kids may get bad care and live with the consequences that probably have a different health…

I’m up Western Washington, too. I’d offer a drink, but I’m not of age yet. ;)

I feel you. I can’t wait til september to get my flu shot.

Don’t forget TWO hospitals. Fellow Seattleite here. *hugs* for your childhood ordeal, my chickenpox was amazingly minor, I think I had 3 bumps.

I brought it from 69 to 70. It was a hard choice. I feel like I have failed my inner adolescent somehow.

Yeah, we get nurses and pharmacists as short term volunteers to go to them now. The point is, it's infuriating that people here refuse something that mamas all over the world walk for days for.

King County has one of the lowest vaccination rates in North America. It makes me beyond mad, I live in the PNW as well (near Victoria) and the attitude is very similar. When I was working in Guatemala, I met women who- no word of a lie-bundled up their kids and hiked over a VOLCANO to get their kids immunized. Unless…

You know those anti-smoking ads that show the horrendous after effects that smokers go through later in life? Why aren’t we do that with people who didn’t get vaccinated (cause your story would scare some parents straight... also, my condolences, and if you’re in Oregon anytime, you can have a drink on me)?

Anti-vaxxer bullshit knows no party lines.