Can we bust some myths?

[Fyrestorm]

I found this website through some links here and have been back and forth trying to get through all the info. It looks like they're doing a series of articles on vaccine myths.

This one is about CP. It's amazing to me how deadly this disease has gotten since they came up with a vaccine for it.

Parents who take their children to chicken pox parties have forgotten how devastating this childhood disease can be according to vaccination experts:

I haven't forgotten...it was fun...itchy but fun. I got to stay home from school and watch TV all day!

http://insidevaccines.com/wordpress/

[Deborah]

I like all the old news articles they are digging up

Just recently discovered Google News Archives. Did you know you can find old newspaper articles on just about any subject?

Whoops, wandering way off topic, sorry.

It really is amazing how unscary chickenpox and mumps used to be before there was a vaccine and how terrifying they are now.

[claddaghmom]

Well I did it more than a year ago so I'm not 100% quotable, but a FB friend asked me for individual research on the varicella vaccine and disease at that time and I haven't delved into it since then. I found a .002% death rate from wild chickenpox.

[Sileree]

"Parents who take their children to chicken pox parties have forgotten how devastating this childhood disease can be according to vaccination experts."

Give me a break.

[Magali]

Tetanus myths really annoy me. Like when a hcp told me that since I was refusing the tetanus vax that if I ever came to the ER with a cut from metal, I would be given the tetanus vaccine. Right, because tetanus is found only on rusty metal, and the vax starts working immediately. At any rate, that was my first and last visit with that particular hcp.

[AFWife]

Originally Posted by Magali

Tetanus myths really annoy me. Like when a hcp told me that since I was refusing the tetanus vax that if I ever came to the ER with a cut from metal, I would be given the tetanus vaccine. Right, because tetanus is found only on rusty metal, and the vax starts working immediately. At any rate, that was my first and last visit with that particular hcp.

I had this argument with my dad. I told him, "You will not get tetanus from a kitchen knife you pulled from the dishwasher." He didn't believe me.

[Tracy]

Yeah, the tetanus fear mongering myth is one of my favorites.

[AFWife]

Originally Posted by Tracy

Yeah, the tetanus fear mongering myth is one of my favorites.

If you listen to the myths you can get tetanus from any nick or scratch....and it ALWAYS causes horrible lockjaw and kills you.

Just like polio always puts you in an iron lung or a wheelchair. No one recovers...ever.

[cloak]

I know way too many people that go in for stitches from kitchen accidents and end up with a tetanus shot. Drives me crazy.

Here's another article about how vaccines saved us all. My grandmother and all her siblings were born in the early 1900's, well before vaccines were in wide use. They all lived long, healthy lives into their 80's and 90's.
http://insidevaccines.com/wordpress/...hs-round-four/

[NashvilleAwesome]

Your chicken pox was fun???? I had it... twice. The second time I was in the 8th grade and INCREDIBLY sick. I'm so thankful that my children won't suffer through that. I also work in a hospital. You are required to be immune to chicken pox if you have patient care. Its just smart. Don't forget small pox was wiped out by vaccines.
-Casey

[Sileree]

Originally Posted by NashvilleAwesome

Your chicken pox was fun???? I had it... twice. The second time I was in the 8th grade and INCREDIBLY sick.

I had chickenpox when I was in the first grade and I was not very ill at all. My friends would come over and play after school (they had already had it), and I remember wrestling with my Dad. I never went to a doctor.

I believe diseases of childhood, like measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox are generally believed to be (or were, pre-vaccine) mild between the ages of 5-10 or 15. The older you are, the more sick you may get. I want to acknowledge your experience as valid but I also hope you understand that many children did and do not get as ill as you did.

Originally Posted by NashvilleAwesome

Don't forget small pox was wiped out by vaccines.

Yeah, I was taught this in nursing school too. It's wrong, though. Smallpox was not wiped out solely with vaccines.

http://www.cdc.gov/nip/publications/pink/smallpox.pdf

"In addition, it was soon learned that even when 80% of the population was vaccinated, smallpox often persisted. Soon after the program began, it became apparent that by isolating persons with smallpox and vaccinating their contacts, outbreaks could be more rapidly contained, even in areas where vaccination coverage was low. This strategy was called surveillance and containment, and it became the key element in the global eradication program."

Not that that has anything to do with the topic of this thread... not sure why you brought it up? It sounds like a reflexive way to defend all vaccines as equally necessary and good.

[Toolip]

Originally Posted by Sileree

Yeah, I was taught this in nursing school too. It's wrong, though. Smallpox was not wiped out solely with vaccines.

http://www.cdc.gov/nip/publications/pink/smallpox.pdf



Not that that has anything to do with the topic of this thread... not sure why you brought it up? It sounds like a reflexive way to defend all vaccines as equally necessary and good.

this link gave me an error, i'd like to read more

[Sileree]

Originally Posted by Toolip

this link gave me an error, i'd like to read more

Doh! The link has changed.

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/Pubs/pin...s/smallpox.pdf

HTH.

[ammiga]

Originally Posted by NashvilleAwesome

Your chicken pox was fun???? I had it... twice. The second time I was in the 8th grade and INCREDIBLY sick. I'm so thankful that my children won't suffer through that. I also work in a hospital. You are required to be immune to chicken pox if you have patient care. Its just smart. Don't forget small pox was wiped out by vaccines.
-Casey

I loved having chicken pox! My younger sister came home with them, and the first thing my mom did was drop us in the bath together. I got them too and stayed home from school, watched tv and movies, spent the days with my grandparents playing games, and playing with my sister in the bath.

Sure, there are people who had really bad cases. But overall, I am floored at how this normal childhood disease that parents thought nothing of has morphed into a deadly killer that people shun like the plague.

[Fyrestorm]

Originally Posted by NashvilleAwesome

Your chicken pox was fun???? I had it... twice. The second time I was in the 8th grade and INCREDIBLY sick. I'm so thankful that my children won't suffer through that. I also work in a hospital. You are required to be immune to chicken pox if you have patient care. Its just smart. Don't forget small pox was wiped out by vaccines.
-Casey

What if you have never had the pox and titers show negative after vaccination? Is your career in medicine over? Or maybe they don't check titers and just believe that after vaccination you're immune? We all know that that is not necessarily true...I had the MMR 3 times and still show no immunity to the the R. I also came down with both of the Ms.....I guess I could never be a nurse...or I could just use an exemption

Oh...yeah...CP was fine...Measles kinda sucked and the mumps was pretty uncomfortable...so much for vaccines

[AFWife]

Originally Posted by Fyrestorm

What if you have never had the pox and titers show negative after vaccination? Is your career in medicine over? Or maybe they don't check titers and just believe that after vaccination you're immune? We all know that that is not necessarily true...I had the MMR 3 times and still show no immunity to the the R. I also came down with both of the Ms.....I guess I could never be a nurse...or I could just use an exemption

Oh...yeah...CP was fine...Measles kinda sucked and the mumps was pretty uncomfortable...so much for vaccines

Seriously? You got both AFTER being vaxed??

[claddaghmom]

Originally Posted by ammiga

I loved having chicken pox! My younger sister came home with them, and the first thing my mom did was drop us in the bath together. I got them too and stayed home from school, watched tv and movies, spent the days with my grandparents playing games, and playing with my sister in the bath.

Sure, there are people who had really bad cases. But overall, I am floored at how this normal childhood disease that parents thought nothing of has morphed into a deadly killer that people shun like the plague.

Oh yes, I remember loving it too haha! That is so funny, I didn't think back to it until people started sharing their stories. I just looked in my childhood photo album...there I am in my undies, completely covered in pox w/ my sister, smiling at the camera. We both had it at the same time.

Originally Posted by Fyrestorm

What if you have never had the pox and titers show negative after vaccination? Is your career in medicine over? Or maybe they don't check titers and just believe that after vaccination you're immune? We all know that that is not necessarily true...I had the MMR 3 times and still show no immunity to the the R. I also came down with both of the Ms.....I guess I could never be a nurse...or I could just use an exemption

Oh...yeah...CP was fine...Measles kinda sucked and the mumps was pretty uncomfortable...so much for vaccines

I'm wondering about this, too. The varicella vaccine doesn't have the best track record. Isn't that why they want boosters AND the shingles vaccine? NashvilleAwesome, does your employer require yearly blood draws to ensure you are immune?

Fyrestorm, I got my MMRs and Rubella...and when I was pregnant found out I STILL wasn't immune.

[stacey05]

>I also work in a hospital. You are required to be immune to chicken pox if you have patient care. Its just smart. <


I don't think the cp vaccine is super effective. I have known many friends whose kids got this vaccine and still came down with cp!!! The vaccine does not guarantee immunity...and whose to say that in a few years we won't see more adults coming down with cp because they got the vaccine in childhood (which wore off) and never had the chance to actually get the disease as a child?

[Fyrestorm]

Originally Posted by AFWife

Seriously? You got both AFTER being vaxed??

Yup...Mumps at camp in 78 and measles in High School in 81. My mom was a Ped nurse and get me everything under the sun...even those vaccines not on the schedule. She also kept meticulous records. I had 3 MMRs. Can you guess that I'm one of those that didn't seroconvert?

Back when I had CP back in the Late 60's it wasn't even considered a disease...no one ever freaked out about it...we just waited to get it and get a school vacation!

The CP vaccine was never intended for the general population. It was conceived for the immune-compromised. When they weren't making enough money off of it, they had it added to the childhood vaccine schedule and put out fearmongering campaigns to promote it.

If you ask people who grew up in the 40s - measles and mumps were no biggie...then came the vaccine and they were terrorizing to the people who grew up past the 60's. The same is true for CP...it was no biggie until the vaccine came out.

There are lots of illnesses that suck...if there is no vaccine, no one freaks about it.

[coh5108]

Originally Posted by NashvilleAwesome

Your chicken pox was fun???? I had it... twice. The second time I was in the 8th grade and INCREDIBLY sick. I'm so thankful that my children won't suffer through that. I also work in a hospital. You are required to be immune to chicken pox if you have patient care. Its just smart. Don't forget small pox was wiped out by vaccines.
-Casey

Actually smallpox was not wiped out by the vaccine.....but that is a whole other thread