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Imaginary_Medium t1_iwvma5j wrote

Reply to comment by VaIeth in As measles outbreak sickens dozens of children in Ohio, local health officials seek help from CDC | CNN by Surly_Cynic

I think people were a little smarter about vaccines when polio vaccine became available. t was a big deal to my parents that we had miraculous vaccines in these modern times thanks to science, to protect kids. That seemed to be the attitude.

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Standard_Gauge t1_iwvr5ay wrote

> I think people were a little smarter about vaccines when polio vaccine became available.

The important thing is that everyone at that time knew someone who had complications from polio, some mild, some severe. This made them eager to line up for the vaccine when it became available. My uncle had a lifelong limp from polio, and considered himself lucky that it was just a limp and he lived a pretty much normal life. Same with Mitch McConnell, and forgetting whatever you think of his politics, is a polio survivor with some lifelong consequences (frequently falls on stairs, e.g.) and has never been an anti-vaxxer.

People today often don't know anyone who has had serious aftereffects from preventable diseases. Measles is a case in point. I am in my 60's and had measles as a young child way before there was a vaccine. Almost every child had measles at some point. I can still remember the high fever and I remember my eyes hurting a lot (might have had swelling or something) and my mom putting cold wet cloths over my eyes. As an adult I realized how lucky I was that that was the worst of it. My mom told me that one child in the neighborhood died from encephalitis caused by the measles.

The anti-vaxxers are giddy in their ignorance, and actually believe measles is a nothingburger that every child sails through in a few days. They bizarrely believe that the vaccine is more dangerous than the disease. I wish they would stop reading nonsense from weird woo sources and read some facts, such as measles having been a major cause of deafness in my day.

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Imaginary_Medium t1_iwvux88 wrote

You and I are probably fairly close in age. You are surely right about people today not having personal memories of the devastation caused by some of these diseases in the past, though they seem to have a bit of a short term memory problem when it comes to Covid. Maybe they are the ones who didn't have their lives turned upside down by the loss of a family member, or were in denial.

I worry about these anti-vaxxers, there seem to be so many, and measles is indeed not to be trifled with. Do you think our society will ever regain its respect for real science at some point? I don't expect to live to see it, but I hope it happens.

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Standard_Gauge t1_iwvwcxj wrote

> Do you think our society will ever regain its respect for real science at some point? I don't expect to live to see it, but I hope it happens

One manifestation of the "civil war" that folks allude to is a huge divide between critical thinkers and science-educated vs. magical thinking, "I saw it on YouTube so it must be true" types. Unfortunately the science deniers can do far more damage to the critical thinkers than vice versa.

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Imaginary_Medium t1_iwvz0se wrote

And they certainly are doing damage. I personally enjoy the internet, but my god, there is so much garbage out there, and it spreads. I wish knowledge would, but people seem to find it less entertaining.

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