I got a call the other day from the person in my life who knows me better than I do and she told me that what with one thing and another and me being born so long ago and other things but mostly because it hadn't been invented back when I was a baby or toddler, I never got a measles vaccine and also never got the measles so I should be aware of that now that the media is giving the country over to the terror and fear that measles are an epidemic and will kill every unvaccinated person in minutes.... To say that I wasn't terribly concerned would be an overstatement,
However,
I had noticed a little folder in my desk drawer yesterday when I was searching for something and noticed that it was the thing I kept all my old security badges and driver's licenses in along with my fairly new international immunization record (only 29 years old). I hauled it out while I was talking and after checking it I saw that I had been swept up in the MMR frenzy in 1996.
It turns out that was a side effect of an edict that the Saudis had put out back then announcing to the world that nobody would be admitted to the Kingdom without proof of certain vaccines. Measles wasn't one of them but since I was driving across the causeway to Saudi Arabia about 10 times a month, the Corpsman I was talking to about it said I might as well get it and made a careful record of it along with the required ones.
I see that it may have all been in vein for nothing. It seems that the MMR has it's actual performance issues too. Can we really trust a vaccine to do the job when you have to keep getting it over and over again? I don't know. Not going to risk some things though. If another bat flies in my window and bites me on my thumb as I'm tossing it back out I will still head over to the clinic and get the real skinny on whether or not I need to update the rabies shots I got 5 years ago. And I'll nod and go along with anybody that suggests another tetanus shot would be a good idea. Rabies and Lockjaw are way down there on my list of things to do before I die.
5 comments:
Among all the communicable diseases out there measles isn't all that high on the threat list....especially if contracted as a child. ALL such illnesses can in rare instances have dire outcomes including death. Same can be said regarding the risks from vaccines. If you contracted measles as a child you are generally gifted with a lifetime immunity. The vaccine is not as effective at creating a robust immune response and therefore doesn't always last a lifetime. But it beats contracting measles as an adult as adult measles has a much higher risk of negative outcomes than it does as a childhood disease.
Its incredible that otherwise thoughtful intelligent people still consider vaccination?
^^^^^ yes!
I'd also consider the shingles vaccine if you haven't gotten it. You do not want shingles.
to anonymous 8.31am, thoughtful people consider risk vs benefit with vaccinations, it's not reflexively anti- or pro-vaccination.
Tom from East Tennessee
I read an interesting article on too many vaccines teaches your system to not react like that off a bee keepers system that has very little reaction to bee stings. A little might have been good. Too much and your system does not react. It was at least a storey I could relate to.
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