"Pox Parties"

[Parvati]

The anti-vax crowd has reached a new level of nutbaggery: pox parties. The participants wait for one of their kids to get chicken pox before inviting all the other anti-vaxers' kids over so they can catch it, too. Don't have any anti-vaxers nearby? Don't worry! They've set up a Facebook site so the parents of pox-infected kids can share the virus with the less fortunate by sending a pre-licked lollipop or similar item through the postal service.

There has a to be law against that, surely.

The entire thing is violently stupid from the basic (hopelessly outdated) premise on up.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badas ... more-40180

[notorial dissent]

Ewwww, not something I would want to share. They tell me stupidity is contagious, this would seem to be proof positive. I wonder how they will feel when their little dears come down with whooping cough, which is highly contagious, and is increasing in cases the last few years. It's loads of fun too!

[Pottapaug1938]

I seem to recall things happening like this in the 50s, when diseases like this were something that you "got, got over and then never had to worry about again".

[Kestrel]

The anti-vax crowd has reached a new level of nutbaggery: pox parties. The participants wait for one of their kids to get chicken pox before inviting all the other anti-vaxers' kids over so they can catch it, too.

Before the fairly recent emergence of the Chicken Pox vaccine, pox parties were actually the way smart moms dealt with the problem. Since childhood Chicken Pox is a mild disease with lifetime immunity in most cases, albeit messy and uncomfortable, it was easier to "schedule" the disease and get all your kids through it together.

What you didn't want was to have your kids somehow avoid getting Chicken Pox before they grew up. Adult-onset Chicken Pox carries a high risk of some very serious complications.

Don't have any anti-vaxers nearby? Don't worry! They've set up a Facebook site so the parents of pox-infected kids can share the virus with the less fortunate by sending a pre-licked lollipop or similar item through the postal service.

There has a to be law against that, surely.

Now that's just disgusting. And yes, there is a law against sending undeclared biohazards through the mail. Or through any other delivery service.

[Cathulhu]

On a similar note, this story made me very happy, but I'm definitely not one of the anti-vac idiots. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healt ... -jabs.html

Having worked with a polio victim long ago, and also worked with autistic kids--any kid of mine would ABSOLUTELY get vaccinated. I don't think the anti-vac crowd has good science, just scare tactics that are leading to a resurgence of horrid diseases like polio.

[Pottapaug1938]

Check out the site www.ratbags.com. The owner of the site, Peter Bowditch, absolutely despises the anti-vaccination liars; and he exposes them not only with his own comments and those of others, but with their own words.

[Brandybuck]

Before the fairly recent emergence of the Chicken Pox vaccine, pox parties were actually the way smart moms dealt with the problem. Since childhood Chicken Pox is a mild disease with lifetime immunity in most cases, albeit messy and uncomfortable, it was easier to "schedule" the disease and get all your kids through it together

Absolutely correct, it was a common practice.. It's far better to get the disease as a kid when it's mild and harmless, when get it as an adult when it's excruciatingly painful.

Unfortunately, the anti-vax nuts extend this to other diseases like valley fever, rubella, and pertusis, which can kill.

[Lambkin]

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/ind ... gal-level/

How does anyone know that there aren’t other pathogens in there?

Good point. What else could a child contract by swapping bodily fluids with strangers? Furthermore how does idiot-mom know that the vial of something that looks like spit which showed up in the mail actually came from kid with chicken pox?

[Demosthenes]

We had pox parties when I was a kid. Unfortunately, I never caught it.

[Brandybuck]

Unfortunately, I never caught it.

See if you can get the vaccine now then, because shingles is a son of a bitch.

[obadiah]

Get the vaccine. My experience with shingles was spending 4 weeks with someone randomly hitting me in the ribs with a baseball bat, or it felt like it anyway. 3 or 4 times an hour for weeks it not a lot of fun.

[webhick]

Get the vaccine. My experience with shingles was spending 4 weeks with someone randomly hitting me in the ribs with a baseball bat, or it felt like it anyway. 3 or 4 times an hour for weeks it not a lot of fun.

And sometimes there's lingering nerve damage that can go on for years.

[notorial dissent]

Not to mention that it can recur with equal or worse results, it is not something to experience.

[Prof]

After my wife had a bout with shingles, I got the vaccine -- expensive, not on my plan, WORTH IT.

[Pottapaug1938]

About fifteen years ago, my son Danny, his best friend, the friend's parents and I were going to take a bus tour of one of the four towns flooded in 1939 to create the Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts (a mountain which remains above water provides my handle here). Unfortunately, Danny had chicken pox, just before the trip; and the woman in charge told me to leave him home because the old people on the trip (the majority of the people on the trip, and most of whom had lived in one of the four towns) would have been terrified of catching shingles through contact with him.

[Cathulhu]

Reading this has made me incredibly glad I had chickenpox when I was two! And I don't think any pox party had anything to do with it; like mumps, I managed on my own.

[Demosthenes]

Never caught chicken pox, never had the mumps, still have my tonsils. My only childhood ailments were broken bones. Horse kicked my hand. Broke a collar bone playing field hockey. Smashed an ankle falling down a brick staircase.

[JamesVincent]

Damn, I must have been blessed. Had the chicken pox, mumps, meningitis (twice), cant remember exactly how many broken bones ( dont remember how many toes have been broken, I know all of them have been broken at least once) but both ankles and wrists have been broken and one leg, one collarbone, one knee and both shoulders blown, tonsils out at 6, whatever it is that is in the side of my head, dislocated one hip and one shoulder in same dirt bike accident, 3 broken ribs, and had several bruised in a car accident. Its gonna be hell when I get as old as you guys......

[JamesVincent]

You know how most people have a slow or stop button? That was the first thing I broke. Sometime around 3, which, coincidentally, was when I broke one of my ankles. In 5 different places. And living in the backwoods had to wait for one of our relatives to get there with a car. 4 days later I got to a hospital. Fortunately it had started to heal straight so they didnt have to re-break it. But yeah, back in the day before cell phones my mother had my pediatricians home phone number. After the ankle incident she started making house calls, she never did before. After we moved to MD we lived near a hospital. Good thing too, was 7 when the rib thing happened. That actually did hurt. The dirt bike thing might not have been so bad except for the little fact I was about 2 miles from home when I did it. dislocating things was bad enough. Having to put your hip back in place, by yourself, and then walking home while pushing your bike back. That got a little tedious. But yeah, I spent up until a few years ago pretty much at full speed, doing whatever sounded fun and found out exactly how much fun it was. Along the way found a few ways of doing things that were better then others. Really sad part? Doing some of the so called "dangerous" things? Never got hurt. Hang gliding, rappelling (out of helicopters no less) no problem. Any mountain climbing, same thing. Kayaking, canoeing, hunting, camping, rafting, basically any outdoor thing, done them all.

[littleroundman]

450 lb sex partner that likes to ride you like a rented red-headed government mule?

There's something wrong with that ?

It's dangerous ???