Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I am close behind you in age, Jo48. I never heard of a chickenpox or measles party, let alone attended one in suburban Pittsburgh. DH is the same age as you; his experience in urban Omaha was the same as mine. We both agree that our mothers would have thought the whole concept insane.
People were very afraid of polio in the early 50s. DH had a cousin who died of it then.
Polio maybe, but certainly not measles and chicken pox. They wanted kids to catch these very young, especially boys for mumps before puberty.
I grew up in Manhattan. These parties were all around. Sometimes only on another floor of your apartment building or just across the street.
Even in the 90's chicken pox parties were not unheard of. Daughter's doctor recommended she catch chicken pox since she was 11 then and getting "old". Girl she knew from school had it and invited her friends over; whether they had it previously or not. This was on Long Island.
I read that Barbara Walters recently had chicken pox. Talk about old? At her age she never caught it in childhood? I suppose her doctors just assumed that her generation all had it. She was never vaccinated. Does that make you wonder then about measles? Maybe that blanket assumed immune born before 1980 (chicken pox) and before 1957 (measles), might not be one size fits all of those ages?
Maybe I shouldn't be saying this. Will scare too many people. Just thought it interesting that someone like Barbara Walters who has traveled all over the world for many, many years, got chicken pox at her age.
So is Planned Parenthood, when you think about it. Depending, of course, on what you mean by "planned".
Please stay on topic.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jo48
Polio maybe, but certainly not measles and chicken pox. They wanted kids to catch these very young, especially boys for mumps before puberty.
I grew up in Manhattan. These parties were all around. Sometimes only on another floor of your apartment building or just across the street.
Even in the 90's chicken pox parties were not unheard of. Daughter's doctor recommended she catch chicken pox since she was 11 then and getting "old". Girl she knew from school had it and invited her friends over; whether they had it previously or not. This was on Long Island.
I read that Barbara Walters recently had chicken pox. Talk about old? At her age she never caught it in childhood? I suppose her doctors just assumed that her generation all had it. She was never vaccinated. Does that make you wonder then about measles? Maybe that blanket assumed immune born before 1980 (chicken pox) and before 1957 (measles), might not be one size fits all of those ages?
Maybe I shouldn't be saying this. Will scare too many people. Just thought it interesting that someone like Barbara Walters who has traveled all over the world for many, many years, got chicken pox at her age.
No one I knew as a child or as an adult, even as a parent, did anything so ludicrous as a chickenpox party. I was a community health nurse in most of the 70s/80s in Pittsburgh, Champaign, IL and metro Denver and never heard of them. I did read of a chickenpox party in Evergreen, CO in the past few years.
Not everyone got those diseases. There were a few outliers.
The Goldman study is nonsense. He used VAERS reports, which cannot determine causality, and an online survey which recruited participants through anti-vax web sites to collect data. Then he combined them, did not bother to determine whether he was counting the same case more than once, used questionable statistical analysis, and came up with a worthless conclusion.
By the way, the baseline rate for miscarriage is about 15% to 20%. A 42.5 times increase in that rate would mean more pregnancies were lost than the total of all pregnancies. From the comments at the link:
1.Your first link is to a CDC web page which references 3 studies, all authored by the same researchers of whom have been the recipients of grant money from Pharmaceutical companies such as Glaxco-SmithKline & Eli-Lily, disguised as a sponsorship by the lobbying powerhouse called American Health Insurance Plans (AHIP).
2. Actually, Goldman never stated that his applied statistical analysis of VAERS data had led to any conclusion (other than indicating the need for further research).
Ironically, statistical analysis of VAERS data is stated as being conclusive of vaccine safety by the CDC in your link.
Do you have any evidence that the conclusions of the studies are incorrect? If you believe the source of funding biased the conclusion, please explain how. Do you have any studies showing flu vaccine is harmful in pregnancy? Links would be appreciated.
Goldman arrived at the conclusion that flu vaccine caused a 4250% increase in fetal deaths. As noted in my previous post, that would be more fetal deaths than the total number of pregnancies during that time. That figure is quoted all over the internet, despite the mathematical impossibility that it is true.
Yes, actual investigation of VAERS reports confirms safety in pregnancy. That is the way the system is intended to be used, not just assuming every VAERS report is evidence of harm from a vaccine, the way anti-vax people want to believe. Goldman did no investigation to determine causality.
No one I knew as a child or as an adult, even as a parent, did anything so ludicrous as a chickenpox party. I was a community health nurse in most of the 70s/80s in Pittsburgh, Champaign, IL and metro Denver and never heard of them. I did read of a chickenpox party in Evergreen, CO in the past few years.
Four people have responded about this. I also gave the experience of my husband. Thats 3 yea, two nay. But you know, I was just thinking. When I worked in public health, I saw a lot of poor people. They're frequently not as obtuse as some of the wealthier folks. They don't do dumb things like host chickenpox parties. Maybe that explains some of it.
Then again, not all of it. My family wasn't rich, but they weren't in poverty either. Neither was DH's. And you know, it's the anti-vaxers who have attended these parties, and in one case, held one (with her own kids). "Birds of a feather".
Four people have responded about this. I also gave the experience of my husband. Thats 3 yea, two nay. But you know, I was just thinking. When I worked in public health, I saw a lot of poor people. They're frequently not as obtuse as some of the wealthier folks. They don't do dumb things like host chickenpox parties. Maybe that explains some of it.
Then again, not all of it. My family wasn't rich, but they weren't in poverty either. Neither was DH's. And you know, it's the anti-vaxers who have attended these parties, and in one case, held one (with her own kids). "Birds of a feather".
I think you're getting hung up on the term, "party" really it was and is just an opportunity to expose kids as young as possible to pox so that they can catch it when the risk of complications is lower. It was very common prior to the vaccine since pretty much everyone got chicken pox at some point and parents knew that getting it young was better. I'm baffled that this is so foreign to you.
I'm in my late 30's and attended a chicken pox party with all my cousins. It was common in my neck of the woods. Also when 1 of my 4 got it, I put them all in the bathtub with some toys!
Could a pro-vax/pro-forced-choice poster please review?
No one who is pro vaccine is pro forcing anyone to vaccinate. Anyone who chooses to vaccinate in order to meet school mandates is choosing to do so of his own free will.
That being said, I am also the mother of a child who had leukemia. There were signs on every door into the hospital and outpatient clinic advising no one to enter who either had chickenpox or had been exposed to it. My child had shingles while he was on treatment, having had chicken pox before the vaccine was available.
We know now that children immunized against chicken pox who later develop leukemia are at lower risk to develop shingles than children who had wild chicken pox.
Now, the chicken pox vaccine makes it much less likely that an immunosuppressed child will be exposed to the virus. That is a good thing.
In the article in your link there is a big red box around recommendations for visitors to an immunosuppressed child. It says:
Do not allow visitors
Who have received smallpox or oral polio vaccine. Well, neither of those is on the schedule in the US.
Who have received the live nasal flu vaccine within one week. That one's easy; ask family to get the flu shot instead.
Who have a rash after the chickenpox or MMR vaccines. Chicken pox vaccine rash should be avoided just like chicken pox. There is actually no evidence that measles vaccine virus causes illness in contacts of the vaccinated person.
"Despite claims from the anti-vaccination movement, current research fails to find evidence that individuals who receive the MMR vaccine shed the measles virus, subsequently spreading the disease prevented by the vaccine."
Therefore, the recommendation to avoid people vaccinated with MMR who have a rash appears to be an over-abundance of caution.
Here are the evidence based recommendations for immunization of immunocompromised people and their household contacts:
"Healthy immunocompetent individuals who live in a household with immunocompromised patients should receive the following live vaccines based on the CDC annual schedule: combined measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccines (strong, moderate); rotavirus vaccine in infants aged 2–7 months (strong, low); varicella vaccine (VAR; strong, moderate); and zoster vaccine (ZOS; strong, moderate)."
"Oral polio vaccine (OPV) should not be administered to individuals who live in a household with immunocompromised patients (strong, moderate).
Highly immunocompromised patients should avoid handling diapers of infants who have been vaccinated with rotavirus vaccine for 4 weeks after vaccination (strong, very low).
Immunocompromised patients should avoid contact with persons who develop skin lesions after receipt VAR (chicken pox vaccine) or ZOS (zoster vaccine)until the lesions clear (strong, low)."
Your "momcologist" suggested wild measles infection could treat cancer. That is not what the articles she referenced are claiming. The articles discuss modified viruses, not wild disease.
The author also appears convinced her child's leukemia was caused by vaccination. There is no evidence that is true.
"Vaccinations against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, poliomyelitis, measles, mumps, and rubella were not associated with the risk of leukaemia. The odds ratio for each dose of Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine was 0.81 (95% CI 0.68–0.96). Compared with children who received two or fewer doses of Hib vaccine, those who received three or more doses had a significantly reduced risk of childhood leukaemia (odds ratio = 0.55, 95% confidence interval 0.32–0.94). The number of doses of hepatitis B vaccine received was not associated with leukaemia risk.
Conclusions: Hib vaccination is associated with a reduced risk of childhood leukaemia. Future studies with detailed exposure assessment and large sample sizes are needed to further address the role of vaccinations in the etiology of childhood leukaemia."
In other words "Momcologist" does not know as much as she thinks she does.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
