Is it possible that the large number of immunizations now possible have had the unforeseen effect of rendering Americans terrified of disease? I don’t recall a single case of measles making headline news before.
Is it possible that the large number of immunizations now possible have had the unforeseen effect of rendering Americans terrified of disease? I don’t recall a single case of measles making headline news before.
My wife has been afflicted with 12 of the last 8 known fatal diseases.
When she got Ebola fortunately it was the 24 hour kind.
😉
You can thank the anti-vaxxers for this.
70 years ago measles equals dog bites man. Now it is man bites dog. Also, with all of the immunosuppressed people we have running around, the potential consequences are much higher.
Steve
I and all of my siblings contracted all of the ordinary childhood diseases: measles (2 varieties), mumps, chicken pox. Plus lots of strep throat. A thousand people died of measles every year in the U. S. back then so I’m not so sure the consequences today are higher. I think the rarity makes it more frightening. The category “ordinary childhood diseases” doesn’t really exist any more.
Doug:
The “antivaxxers” may be a factor but I think they’re more a consequence. The immunization regime has resulted in a form of moral hazard. People just don’t have the understanding of what it means to be sick any more that they did years ago. I’m not arguing that immunizations should be abandoned. I’m pointing out that they have implications.
I don’t recall if Americans were terrified by the flu in 1918 or not. I would think maybe there was more resignation, and acceptance of death then than now.
I dunno about the 1918 flu, but I do recall how parents and kids and doctors just took as a thing that happened every so often when measles or mumps or tonsillitis swept though the elementary schools. And I recall the lines of parents and kids waiting for inoculation that were literally miles long when the Salk polio vaccine came out.