This Month Marks 100 Years Since The Spanish Flu Epidemic

[Jo48]

Originally Posted by kyb01

In a time when the only vaccine( or rather inoculation) available was for smallpox, he was exposed to just about everything from polio to TB.

In 1958 measles almost killed me for example. I remember the last big polio outbreak in the early 1950s before the Salk vaccine.

I had measles in 1949 when I was 6 months old. Chicken pox a month later. Not hospitalized for either as an infant. They gave us that Salk vaccine on sugar cube in elementary school when I was in 3rd grade maybe? HS when measles vaccine came out. They passed by those of us who already had measles, which was majority of us teens.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by Jo48

I had measles in 1949 when I was 6 months old. Chicken pox a month later. Not hospitalized for either as an infant. They gave us that Salk vaccine on sugar cube in elementary school when I was in 3rd grade maybe? HS when measles vaccine came out. They passed by those of us who already had measles, which was majority of us teens.

All of us older adults were exposed to measles, rubella, whooping cough, mumps and chicken pox.

I had measles and a mild case of chicken pox so, yeah, I should probably get the shingles vaccine. Afaik, kids who got so-called "childhood" diseases years ago didn't go to hospitals back in the day.

The Salk vaccine was injectable in, I think, a series of three shots. The Sabin vaccine was on the sugar cube.

Personally, I think, the anti-vaccers should learn something about the fear of getting polio for instance. Let them think for a minute about a child of theirs having to live in one of those old iron lung machines. It's the kind of fear my grandparents probably felt a lot!

[thedirtypirate]

And here we are, 102 years later, having many of the very same worries that people a century ago did.

[jazzy jeff]

I remember my Grandfather who lived through that time once telling me, "those that consumed liquor were the least to get sick". Guess it's time to stock up, LOL?

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by jazzy jeff

I remember my Grandfather who lived through that time once telling me, "those that consumed liquor were the least to get sick". Guess it's time to stock up, LOL?

I joked to a friend who posted a photo of getting-ready-for-the-blizzard lines at his local supermarket, "I think I need to hit the State Store. Alcohol disinfects, right?"

Later that evening, a friend of mine called me to ask if I wanted to join him on a trip to "buy coronoavirus supplies." (He was actually doing food shopping for his mom; he never does anything like this by himself, it seems, if he can help it.) Four of us went up to the Fresh Grocer of Wyncote in Cedarbrook Plaza (which is one of Jeff Brown's stores, which are nicer than the ones Ron Burns runs, like the Fresh Grocer of La Salle three blocks from me. Plus there's no sweetened-drink tax on that side of Cheltenham Avenue).

It was worse than getting-ready-for-the-blizzard crowded there. People were following shoppers exiting the store to grab their shopping carts after they'd unloaded them (I did this too).

And the line at the beer and wine checkout counter had about 15 people waiting in it. (Every other checkout line in the supermarket itself had about 6 or 7 people waiting in it, and there were 15 lanes open, not counting the eight self-checkouts.)

We got the food, then my friend drove over to Roxborough to get the beer.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by jazzy jeff

I remember my Grandfather who lived through that time once telling me, "those that consumed liquor were the least to get sick". Guess it's time to stock up, LOL?

Get it now, if you are so inclined, because Gov. Wolf wants to close liquor stores.