JinJer 47: Sparking J-O-Y

[WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo?]

10 hours ago, mango_fandango said:

When I was a kid, I used to really hate being vaccinated and would really scream, like worse than a normal kid would. Perhaps it was related to my ASD (was diagnosed at 22, so well after I’d left school). Thankfully I’d matured by the time it came to the HPV vaccine 

My 10 year old (who also has an ASD) just got her first HPV vaccination. She was able to hold still for it better than for any of her previous vaccinations because she was playing a game on a cell phone.  She screamed for a bit after, but it was her least dramatic vaccine visit to date. It's nice to think that it might get easier for her to get vaccinations as she gets older. 

[VelociRapture]

My daughter is and will continue to be fully vaccinated for as long as her father and I have a say - that includes Gardasil and Flu shots. If she had a reaction to a vaccine then we’d discuss options with her Doctor and go from there. I think the last thing I’d do is trust the internet because so many people think they’re an expert on the subject when they really aren’t and I’d rather trust the person with a medical background who provides care for my kid than risk getting bad advice from a Jenny McCarthy acolyte.

My husband and I both get the flu shot every year. We have small kids in the family and my grandparents will be 87 this year, so doing what we can to keep them healthy is a big priority for us. Added bonus is knowing the vaccine can help lessen symptoms if we still end up getting sick. 

[AtlanticTug]

16 minutes ago, VelociRapture said:

My husband and I both get the flu shot every year. We have small kids in the family and my grandparents will be 87 this year, so doing what we can to keep them healthy is a big priority for us. Added bonus is knowing the vaccine can help lessen symptoms if we still end up getting sick. 

My grandmother died from the flu at age 88. It hit her nursing home hard and she wasn't the only one whose immune system was overwhelmed. 

We always get the flu shot as well. The chicken pox shot is not fail safe - I don't recall the exact statistic, but about 20% of kids will still get a very mild case if exposed. I don't think that was the case with the Duggars, theirs looked to be full blown chicken pox.

[SassyPantswithASideofClass]

26 minutes ago, WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo? said:

My 10 year old (who also has an ASD) just got her first HPV vaccination. She was able to hold still for it better than for any of her previous vaccinations because she was playing a game on a cell phone.  She screamed for a bit after, but it was her least dramatic vaccine visit to date. It's nice to think that it might get easier for her to get vaccinations as she gets older. 

Aww your girlie is way braver than I!  I have passed out  twice with both HPV rounds.  

[Jinder Roles]

3 hours ago, allthegoodnamesrgone said:

I haven't read up on HPV vaccine in a long time but I thought I recalled that it wasn't effective once you were sexually active, or has that changed?  I saw the other day they have something called Guardasil 9 but I didn't get a chance to read up on that. 

It is preventative, so if you’ve been exposed it’s not effective. However, there are over 100 strains of HPV, so even if you’ve been exposed to one, it can protect against others. 

[theotherelise]

Another 89 baby here and I do not remember chicken pox vax being available until I was an adult. I got it (ETA Chicken Pox) as a toddler, so it was too late for me, but I don't think it was common to get for those of us in my age range.

As for the HPV vax, I would've been at least 17 by the time it was offered to me and I declined. It really did feel like there was some uncertainty at the time. There were a couple people who had died shortly after getting it and my understanding reading the articles at the time was that they hadn't ruled out a correlation. 

I only had sex once when I was 18 before my wedding night at 25, so I was at a very low exposure risk. Looking back, I probably should have just done it. If I'd known they were going to keep extending the time between paps, maybe I would have made a different choice! Back then it was every year.

[tankgirl]

The reason many of you dont remember or didnt get the Chicken Pox vaccine, is because it wasnt released in the US until 1995. 

It actually is 98% effective in children 75% effective in teens and adults.  I just looked it up. Obviously, this is based on having the full series.

In the UK they do not regularly do the CP jab and it shows. In the U.S. CP cases have dropped significantly. Too the point a friend was misdiagnosed twice by doctors when she caught CP from her school aged child. She caught it in the UK but had no idea when she traveled she was going to come down with it as she tested immune. What antivaccers also forget is these diseases can be dangerous to foetus. My friend was pregnant and had to worry about miscarriage, birth defects or stillbirth from the disease. She got the lucky window but it was so scary for her. Her story in part also shows antivac people what can go wrong. But you can see how the vaccine has made CP much rarer in the US to the point some doctors havent seen it in a good while, vs a country that doesnt vaccinate for that disease where doctors barely bother to see kids for it  because, it most likely is CP and you cant do much about it but rest so why come in?

Forgot to add, didn't JB go all "if you get CP you dont get shingles" on us, before the kids got the disease, so we thought they skipped that jab? Or did he say that total screw up after the kids got sick? Remindiing everyone Shingles is only something those who have had CP can get, not the other way round.

[singsingsing]

JB isn’t the only stupid one. I legit thought having chicken pox made you immune to shingles. It was only when people discussed his idiocy on FJ that I realized it was the other way around!

[Satan'sFortress]

21 hours ago, allthegoodnamesrgone said:

I was referring to long term effects like what would happen in 10 years after the vaccination was given, remember this was the height of the vaccines cause Autism when guardasil came out, and they honestly weren't 100% sure they didn't yet. And there was a lot of misinformation on the internet so it was hard to tell what was real and what was junk science.  Unless you had young children at that time you don't know what went through parents minds and what some of you aren't understanding from the down votes is that my son had a reaction to vaccines

My kids are probably about the same age as yours.  It was a scary time & especially so for those of us who were otherwise very "crunchy granola" types, as I was.  Lots of confusion and conflicting information.  I remember well. I'm sorry that your son had a bad reaction.  That must have been horrible.

[Kailash]

The vaccine topic is well timed for me. My daughter is 13 and if she gets the HPV vax now, and another one after 6 months then she will be protected. Her dr said that after age 14 she will need 3 shots. I told the dr we wanted to wait but she explained that the antibodies need time to develop. I’m still hesitant, because my daughter has ASD and is immature for her age. She is scared of the idea of sex and has never been “boy crazy”. She is also very scared of shots. I think we could wait until she’s 15 or even 16, and she would have time for the vaccine to work. (I was almost 18 before I became sexually active, my husband was 22. We are each other’s only partner.) I don’t think our daughter will definitely follow in our footsteps but I think it’s very likely. My daughter wants to wait. I also felt pressure from the dr to vax and that feels very uncomfortable. 

[AliceInFundyland]

I would jump on Gardasil if I could still have it. I managed not to get hpv or herpes. I am done with my experimental phase....though still unpartnered. I’d be all over a vaccine if possible. Especially herpes. I know it doesn’t outbreak in everyone who has it - but for those who have that issue...sadness.

[Alice in Fundieland]

I am so thankful to come here and read a rational and sensible discussion about vaccines. Earlier today I had to listen to an anti-vax acquaintance go on and on about how nearly everyone who has measles right now was vaccinated and it’s a live virus that stays in you for a long time and you shed the virus and infect others. She claims that the company who manufactures Gardasil funds the CDC and it’s all a conspiracy, that if their profits are down they push the CDC to claim Gardasil is necessary. Not sure how to respond to that level of BS, I remarked that I’m overdue for my tetanus booster. 

[PennySycamore]

This was on Percolately this afternoon:

Anti-vaxx mom asks for measles protection advice

The responses are hilarious.  And pointed.  

[Cheetah]

My kids all had the gardasil full series.

Middle kid there was a funny story there.  He was having a needle phobia at the time that really flared up after the first.  We went back for the 2nd one and he kind of freaked out.  He's super smart btw.  The nurse was talking down to him in a kind of condescending way.. like, 'oh, you don't want to get sick, do you?' and then left the room for a bit to let him calm down.  He  looked at me and said, "What's she talking about?  I had the first shot and I still had that cold last month."  I said, "vaccines aren't for minor stuff like colds.  They are for more serious illnesses."  He says, "well, what's this one for?"  So I told him.  "It protects against a sexually transmitted disease that can give women cancer.  And it can give you warts on your penis."  He very seriously tells me, "Mom, if I ever have kids, they are going to be adopted!"  LOL!  

 

[Bad Wolf]

They didn't have vaccines when I was a kid. I got measles. When the polio vaccine came out my mum got me right in for the shot.

[singsingsing]

31 minutes ago, Bad Wolf said:

They didn't have vaccines when I was a kid.

The first smallpox vaccine was invented in the late 1700s. So fess up, are you a vampire or what?  

[Bad Wolf]

15 hours ago, singsingsing said:

The first smallpox vaccine was invented in the late 1700s. So fess up, are you a vampire or what?  

Don't think I'm a vampire. Hmm. I didn't get the smallpox vaccination until I came to the US. It was required. I did get a BCG vaccination to prevent TB. The wolf kids got everything except chicken pox, which wasn't around when they were young. They got chicken pox.

[Rowan]

I was born in '79, and neither my sister or I got the chicken pox, even after I was hanging out with my friend all day at school before she broke out that night in eighth grade. I was even tested after, and no actual immunity (if I had had a really light case that we hadn't noticed). When we heard the vaccination was out, my mom immediately called our doctor to set up an appointment but was told we'd have to wait a few weeks - our doctor, who had four young children of his own, had just gotten the chicken pox for the first time, literally days before the vaccination was available! 

[PreciousPantsofDoom]

Interesting all of this vaccination talk.  You have all reminded me that I was going to check on how much the new-ish Shingrix vaccination (for Shingles) would cost me. Looks like it would be about $300 Cdn for the two doses. Think I will have to check if our extended health coverage has decided to cover it yet.  The chicken pox vaccination wasn't available when I was a kid. My sister and I had an uncomfortably itchy, but not serious, case of it when we were in elementary school.  I remember being covered in calamine lotion to try and sooth the itch. 

My parents were both doctors, so we got every vaccination available when we were kids.  I was born when they were still giving smallpox vaccinations (so pre 1972 ) but I don't have the little circular scar on the outside of my left upper arm that you see on most people of my vintage.  My Mum knew it would leave a mark, so she insisted that it be given on the inside of my arm where it wouldn't be noticeable.  Thanks Mum!   I also remember getting summoned to the health room at school to get my pink sugar cube of Polio vaccine. Pretty sure they would have gotten the HPV vaccines for us if it had been available back then.  My parents were all about following recommended scientific advice, even if some of their friends were influenced by the late 60s/early 70s back to nature wheat-germ-&-homemade-yogurt will cure everything trends.

[MathQueen]

I had my smallpox shot on the inside of my arm, as well. But I ended up with an indentation on the front of my arm, evidently as a result of the inoculation. Did that happen to you, Precious Pants?

[SilverBeach]

On 2/1/2019 at 10:32 PM, Alice in Fundieland said:

I had to listen to an anti-vax acquaintance go on and on

I couldn't have done it, would have had to shut that shit down. These folks are dangerous and a public health menace.

[HarryPotterFan]

15 hours ago, SilverBeach said:

I couldn't have done it, would have had to shut that shit down. These folks are dangerous and a public health menace.

Yes. Officially declared a top 10 public health threat by the WHO.

[Carm_88]

Anti-vaxxers annoy me. You're putting your kid at risk, you're putting other vulnerable people at risk, and it's ridiculous. "But, but vaccines cause autism", no they don't, but even if they did autism is better then dead. Because polio, smallpox, measles, meningitis, and diphtheria can kill you. 

I'm still foaming at the mouth (not from rabies) from those idiots in Alberta who treated their son who had, I think meningitis, with maple syrup. He died, they're in jail, and don't believe that they should be there. They got a short sentence and they should stay in jail and not bother with the appeals. 

 

[Taylurker]

Every time I see vaccines come up in conversation, I have to say that I get really dismayed by the lack of knowledge people have, and also the pitchforks some have for "anti-vaxxers". Vaccines are not all sunshine and rainbows and to assert that they are free of risk is flat-out untrue. 

If vaccines were 100% safe, we wouldn't have VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System), which btw is voluntary and HHS estimates that only 1-10% of adverse events from vaccine are reported to it in the US. We also wouldn't have the NVICP, which pays out millions of dollars to families who are adversely affected by vaccines because you cannot sue the manufacturers for any harm they cause to you or your child.

If your child had seizures after a vaccine, would you vaccinate them again? If your child died like Holly Stavola did, would you vaccinate your next child? Have you ever read the list of possible adverse events from the MMR II insert, one of which includes meningitis? Death and injuries do happen, which is why there must be a choice to vaccinate or not. I cannot get vaccines for medical reasons, and wish I had never gotten any in the first place because of medical issues they have caused me. Therefore, I can't blame anyone for wanting to prevent that same harm to their kids. Also, really, it's none of my business what their private medical history is, so I don't even ask.

[singsingsing]

6 minutes ago, Taylurker said:

If your child had seizures after a vaccine, would you vaccinate them again? If your child died like Holly Stavola did, would you vaccinate your next child? Have you ever read the list of possible adverse events from the MMR II insert, one of which includes meningitis? Death and injuries do happen, which is why there must be a choice to vaccinate or not. I cannot get vaccines for medical reasons, and wish I had never gotten any in the first place because of medical issues they have caused me. Therefore, I can't blame anyone for wanting to prevent that same harm to their kids. Also, really, it's none of my business what their private medical history is, so I don't even ask.

That's why there are medical exemptions. Has anyone in this thread suggested that there shouldn't be medical exemptions? I'm confused as to what you're arguing against here. The vast, vast majority of people have literally no issue with vaccines, and vaccines prevent an unfathomable number of deaths every year. What exactly is your point? People are injured by airbags too. I'm not going to take the airbags out of my car because there's an infinitesimal change they might injure me.

When people are spreading misinformation and bald faced lies about vaccines, it is absolutely my business. It's everyone's business. Medical exemptions are necessary, but anti-vaxxers are an incredibly dangerous scourge on society. 

Some people are allergic to penicillin. Penicillin could literally kill them. It's generally impossible to know if your child will be allergic until they are administered penicillin and have a reaction. Should the parents of an otherwise healthy child whose doctor is telling them to give the child penicillin be able to say, "Nope, no thanks, penicillin has killed/injured other children and we're not taking that chance"?