Stacy: Brady Bunch Kids Had Measles, No Biggie

[Jana814]

That's just plan nuts to say that!!

[ADoyle90815]

Yes, measles wasn't that huge a deal, because what could you do? And when compared to scarlet fever and diptheria and polio a few deaths from encephalitis is almost minimal.

Measles is more dangerous than mumps or rubella (for non-embryos). The death rate for mumps is 1 in 10,000 and even infertility is rare. The current death rate for measles is 5% (according to CDC, WHO says can be 10% in malnourished). That is in the developing world, I understand the death rate in the first world wasn't that high. But, due to a massive vaccination campaign, cases and deaths in the third world have been plunging dramatically.

source: WHO

In elementary school, a classmate had scarlet fever, and the only thing I remember was that our parents got letters home about it, and to watch for any symptoms. None of us got it and the kid returned after a couple of weeks or so.

Now, at the end of 5th grade, I did get mumps despite being fully vaccinated, so it was reported to the CDC by the doctor as a vaccine failure. I think for me, the vaccine at least allowed me to have a milder case, since I didn't feel any symptoms but my mom recognized the swollen glands. I later found out that there were other cases where the vaccine wasn't effective enough to prevent mumps. I'm still very much in favor of vaccines, and I think anyone who doesn't vaccinate their children who can be vaccinated should be charged with child abuse. Obviously, if a child isn't able to get a particular vaccine due to allergies or other health reasons, that's an exception. The problem is that with the anti vax movement, herd immunity which used to protect those unable to get vaccines no longer works.

[Georgiana]

One of my acquaintances is an anti-vaxxer. She once made a joke about giving people polio because her kids aren't vaccinated. I've lived in China, where large segments of the population still don't have access to vaccination. Living in an unvaccinated society was one of the saddest and most shocking eye openers in my life. Trust me when I say that polio is NOTHING to joke about. I had to walk away. I couldn't take it.

These diseases are nothing to mess with, and no one who has seen what life looks like without vaccines would ever advocate for a return to that life.

Someday, some of these people may lose a child to a fully preventable illness. And they'll have to live with that burden for the rest of their days.

[DuggarsTheEndIsNear]

My grandfather had just about every vaccine preventable disease (except polio and small pox) in his first 4 eyars. I forget which one it was, but one of them caused him to have heart problems for the rest of his life.

[SoSoNosy]

I am partially deaf because of mumps.

My son had a school friend whose mom had Rubella when she was pregnant with him; he had multiple birth defects because of it.

[Sundaymorning]

When I was growing up, we had in the neighborhood a family with 5 children. The parents were kind of hippie, and generally didn't believe in "modern medicine" all too much. They didn't vaccinate their children. And since they weren't the only ones, and had a lot of other idiotic anti-vaccine friends, their kids caught all kinds of illnesses (mumps, measels, whooping caugh etc.). And how they suffered! I remember how ill they were and how much pain they had, it's truly child abuse what their parents did to them! While the other kids were out playing, they had to spend the time in bed feeling terrible.

As for complications, one daughter also had a slight brain damage after such an illness and had to spend lots of time in hospital because of the infections. Another daughter was (and still is) always very fragile and tired and got ill all the time, she had to interrupt her apprenticeship cause she was sick for months.

[Avalondaughter]

And the Brady girls have a FEMALE doctor. They were adamantly against seeing a man. Hope sexist fundies remember that.

I was vaccinated, but somehow got the mumps as a child. I'm not sure how that happened. I must have been a baby when I got them, but I got them from my brother. I guess at some point they didn't vaccinate for mumps and measles at the same time? Either way, I came out just fine (some might say otherwise :lol: )

[DuggarsTheEndIsNear]

And the Brady girls have a FEMALE doctor. They were adamantly against seeing a man. Hope sexist fundies remember that.

I was vaccinated, but somehow got the mumps as a child. I'm not sure how that happened. I must have been a baby when I got them, but I got them from my brother. I guess at some point they didn't vaccinate for mumps and measles at the same time? Either way, I came out just fine (some might say otherwise :lol: )

You're only partially vaccinated against MMR until you're 11 or 12. Your first dose is between 12 and 18 months, and your second dose is 11 or 12. Then you're supposed to get boosters as an adult (the boosters are 2 shots over a 28 day period; unless you're over 50, when you only get 1).

If you're partially vaccinated, you can still get the disease, but it wont be as bad as it was if you weren't vaccinated.

[Mary C Doates]

I work with adults who have severe intellectual and physical disabilities caused by measles-related encephalitis, as well as adults whose mothers had rubella in pregnancy, which resulted in severe disabilities to their infants.

Stacy can go fuck herself.

[twin2]

I have a cousin who is a raging anit-vax. Had her first vaccinated but not her second to as she is convinced vaccinations made her eldest a picky eater. I think he was a picky eater because when he was young if he didn't like what they were eating for a meal they gave him Teddy Grams.

I have to laugh the other day on her facebook page, where she linked to some buttkis article and went into a tiarade on vaccines, yet 5 posts down she had a pick of her 5-year old daughter at the salon with her hands under a UV lamp getting her gel manicure cured. :roll:

[older than allosaurs]

From the WHO website:

6 February 2014 | GENEVA - New mortality estimates from WHO show that annual measles deaths have reached historic lows, dropping 78% from more than 562 000 in 2000 to 122 000 in 2012. During this time period, an estimated 13.8 million deaths have been prevented by measles vaccination and surveillance data showed that reported cases declined 77% from 853 480 to 226 722.

Anti-measles-vaccine folks drive me crazy. And this is from someone whose daughter did indeed have a life-threatening reaction to the pertussis vaccine. I know that can, very rarely, happen. Luckily, she's a nurse and knows the stats, so when the time came she had her own daughter vaccinated. Anyone who has lived or traveled extensively in places where vaccines are hard to come by can see why they matter.

[divadivine]

My cousin and I both had Rubella. She was 3 and I was 11. Clearly, neither of us had full immunity because we both needed the boosters. However, our cases were really mild because we had some level of immunity. I cannot for the life of me understand why people refuse to vaccinate their children.

[Miggy]

I notice there is a comment from someone wanting her kids to get chicken pox too. Why? She could go out and get them immunised. No chicken pox. No risk of shingles later on. I don't understand why you would prefer your kids to get chicken pox.

[DuggarsTheEndIsNear]

My neighbor across the street decided not to get her son vaccinated against MMR because he has autism. I cannot for the life of me understand how that works. Like, I can kind of understand why you'd believe the stupid lie that MMR causes autism (assuming you've never done any research of your own and realized it's been disproved). But, he already HAS autism. What the hell is she afraid of?

[DuggarsTheEndIsNear]

I notice there is a comment from someone wanting her kids to get chicken pox too. Why? She could go out and get them immunised. No chicken pox. No risk of shingles later on. I don't understand why you would prefer your kids to get chicken pox.

When I was late 7 or early 8, the chicken pox vaccine was brand new, so no one had it yet (my brother got it when he was about a year old, so when I was about 9). Back then, it was really common for kids to get chicken pox, and people even believed that exposing their children to chicken pox was the best way to ensure they'd be safe as adults because it's safer to get chicken pox as a child (or at least, so the story was; I'm not sure if that's true).

As a result, one of the kids on the street was exposed to the chicken pox when his friend contracted them. Before he showed symptoms, he exposed everyone else on the street to chicken pox. Everyone else on the street had already gotten the chicken pox once by then, so we had an epidemic of shingles. I was the only person besides the original kid to get chicken pox because I had had a mild case of chicken pox the first time, and my body hadn't kept the immunity. But, my sister 6 year old sister was one of the ones who ended up with the shingles. And, now, has to get regular boosters against shingles (something typically saved for those 45 and older) because once you've had shingles, you're more likely to get them again without the vaccine.

One of my friends, during the same outbreak, ended up with shingles so bad that they completely scarred her face and she needed plastic surgery at the age of 7 to correct the damage. And, to this day, has no nerve sensation on half of her face.

Chicken pox is not something to take lightly. I don't care how many people had them when they were younger.

[Hane]

When my little sister and I had the measles, my mom kept the shades down in our room to protect our eyesight, because measles can cause blindness. My case was mild, but my sister's wasn't.

And the mumps? I was eleven, and they were excruciating. My friend's husband had had the mumps at 14, and they badly damaged one of his testicles, impairing his fertility.

[Chowder Head]

I just don't understand the mentality of wanting to cause your kids pain or risk their life on a gamble they will never catch it or have a mild case. Where is the fore thought of not wanting to cause others to get sick. Its like this antivaxers have their collective head up their butt and only think of themselves, Wait that exactly the mentality. :angry-banghead:

[fundiefan]

My great grandmother probably didn't totally freak out when most of her 9 kids came down with scarlet fever in 1910. At the time it was a fact of life, not something they could even consider preventing. She did what she had to do. Never mind that one of her 9 children died and another had heart issues for the rest of his shortened life. No freak out, it's all good.

I don't know her (great-grandma) personally, since she died when I was 4. But, I do know my own grandmother, who was one of those 9 kids. The entire family would have sold their souls for a way to prevent the fever from hitting their family. My grandmother proved that as she grew and raised her own family - she did and tried everything and anything to prevent deadly disease. She watched her sister die and her brother suffer for years before dying, she wasn't interested in taking chances with her own kids.

How people can possibly use the past (much less a fictional past) as justification for stupidity is so beyond me it makes me hurt.

[Fun-Dee]

Both of my parents survived potentially fatal diseases when they were kids. My dad had smallpox, and my mom had scarlet fever. My mom at age 8 lost her hair, and a lot of her memory of that time. I had every "mild" childhood disease in the 60's and early 70's before the vaccines had come out, or at least weren't common yet. The Brady Bunch episode took place at that time, so it's likely that a real family like theirs would not be vaccinated anyway.

I remember seeing the movie Cheaper by the Dozen (the one about the actual family in the 1920's). The whole family came down with whooping cough, and wasn't that a fun time for everyone! I'm glad that my mom didn't see that movie and decide not to have her kids vaccinated against whooping cough, because that family got through it well enough!

I'm so glad that my kids didn't have to go through that, well except for chicken pox, which my son brought home from kindergarten and shared with his little sister. The vaccine was just coming out at that time, and my kids hadn't gotten it.

[Flyinthesoup]

When I was late 7 or early 8, the chicken pox vaccine was brand new, so no one had it yet (my brother got it when he was about a year old, so when I was about 9). Back then, it was really common for kids to get chicken pox, and people even believed that exposing their children to chicken pox was the best way to ensure they'd be safe as adults because it's safer to get chicken pox as a child (or at least, so the story was; I'm not sure if that's true).

As a result, one of the kids on the street was exposed to the chicken pox when his friend contracted them. Before he showed symptoms, he exposed everyone else on the street to chicken pox. Everyone else on the street had already gotten the chicken pox once by then, so we had an epidemic of shingles. I was the only person besides the original kid to get chicken pox because I had had a mild case of chicken pox the first time, and my body hadn't kept the immunity. But, my sister 6 year old sister was one of the ones who ended up with the shingles. And, now, has to get regular boosters against shingles (something typically saved for those 45 and older) because once you've had shingles, you're more likely to get them again without the vaccine.

One of my friends, during the same outbreak, ended up with shingles so bad that they completely scarred her face and she needed plastic surgery at the age of 7 to correct the damage. And, to this day, has no nerve sensation on half of her face.

Chicken pox is not something to take lightly. I don't care how many people had them when they were younger.

I'm sorry, not to be rude, but......this makes no sense to me. I have never even heard of an epidemic of shingles. My family has had a few members who have had chickenpox, twice, and three of us have had shingles and my daughter was 8 when she had her first outbreak with shingles. We were told then and it has remained the 'belief' of the medical community that if you have not had chickenpox, you can get chickenpox from someone who has an active outbreak of shingles, but you cannot get shingles from someone who has an outbreak of shingles, nor can you get shingles from someone with chickenpox. What you have shared is foreign to me. Do you have any links to article or such that provide further information? I would be interested in reading it if you do.

I often wonder about the chickenpox vaccine and what affect it will have on 'shingles', long term.

[thoughtful]

I had mumps, rubella, measles and chicken pox, before there was a vaccine for any of them. All but the miserable mumps were when I was young enough that I don't remember them.

I have a clear memory of waiting in line at school for my oral polio vaccine on a sugar cube.

I know I got vaccinations when I was very little, mostly because my mother loves to tell the story of the baby-talking nurse who tried to calm me by saying "Now I'm just going to give you a little bee sting!" to which I snapped back "No, you're not -- you're gonna give me a SHOT!" :D

I guess they were for whooping cough, diphtheria and tetanus, since those vaccines existed back then.

I'm all for keeping an eye on the world of medicine, and not necessary assuming every new med is a miracle drug we should all want. But people who disdain vaccines that are long-proven and protect us all, letting their kids to go through pain and danger, makes me :angry-banghead:

[Fun-Dee]

I had mumps, rubella, measles and chicken pox, before there was a vaccine for any of them. All but the miserable mumps were when I was young enough that I don't remember them.

I have a clear memory of waiting in line at school for my oral polio vaccine on a sugar cube.

I know I got vaccinations when I was very little, mostly because my mother loves to tell the story of the baby-talking nurse who tried to calm me by saying "Now I'm just going to give you a little bee sting!" to which I snapped back "No, you're not -- you're gonna give me a SHOT!" :D

I guess they were for whooping cough, diphtheria and tetanus, since those vaccines existed back then.

I'm all for keeping an eye on the world of medicine, and not necessary assuming every new med is a miracle drug we should all want. But people who disdain vaccines that are long-proven and protect us all, letting their kids to go through pain and danger, makes me :angry-banghead:

I also remember lining up at school for the polio vaccine on a sugar cube. I remember my older brothers and sister telling me that they had gotten all of their polio vaccines on a sugar cube, but I had gotten my first ones as drops when I was a baby. I was a little upset about that, missing out on those sugar cubes!

I was a baby when I got measles and rubella, but I remember in fifth grade watching the seats in my classroom empty as one by one we got the mumps.

[Cheetah]

I know I got vaccinations when I was very little, mostly because my mother loves to tell the story of the baby-talking nurse who tried to calm me by saying "Now I'm just going to give you a little bee sting!" to which I snapped back "No, you're not -- you're gonna give me a SHOT!" :D

Oh man, you reminded me of taking my son to get his 2nd HPV shot last year. He was 12 and going through a phase of being really phobic of both insects and needles (he hadn't been scared of shots when he was younger). Anyway, he was tensing up and just getting really worked up and the nurse kind of baby-talked him and said, "well, you don't want to get sick, do you?" and then she left the room while we iced up his arm to see if that would help. Anyway, he says, "that doesn't make any sense... I had those other shots last year and I still got a cold later." I told him, "you don't get shots for minor things like colds, you get them for more serious diseases." So he says, "well, what's this shot for?" And I said, 'so you don't get warts on your privates'. And we both cracked up. Then I explained about the link between HPV and cancer and how it's a sexually-transmitted disease and he told me, completely seriously, "mom, if I ever have any kids, they are going to be adopted." LOL.

[thoughtful]

Oh man, you reminded me of taking my son to get his 2nd HPV shot last year. He was 12 and going through a phase of being really phobic of both insects and needles (he hadn't been scared of shots when he was younger). Anyway, he was tensing up and just getting really worked up and the nurse kind of baby-talked him and said, "well, you don't want to get sick, do you?" and then she left the room while we iced up his arm to see if that would help. Anyway, he says, "that doesn't make any sense... I had those other shots last year and I still got a cold later." I told him, "you don't get shots for minor things like colds, you get them for more serious diseases." So he says, "well, what's this shot for?" And I said, 'so you don't get warts on your privates'. And we both cracked up. Then I explained about the link between HPV and cancer and how it's a sexually-transmitted disease and he told me, completely seriously, "mom, if I ever have any kids, they are going to be adopted." LOL.

Besides preventing a disease, getting vaccinated is clearly worthwhile for providing parents and children with great anecdotes.

When I was actually stung by a bee, years after that incident, I realized that the nurse who'd said that to me was even more of a schmo than I'd thought. The bee sting hurt worse than a shot, and I wondered why she thought that would be comforting to any child who knew what a bee sting felt like!

[Miggy]

I wondered that when I read your post. Bee stings really hurt and the pain goes on and on and on. A needle is easy in comparison.