“He had probably been vaccinated with a phonograph needle. “
The weather is still fall perfect. The high will be 68˚. The sky is partly sunny and party cloudy. I’ll try to stay on the sunny side. Gwen is hiding. She is usually sitting on the floor waiting for me. I did find her under the bed, but I didn’t pull her out. I have to give her insulin so I’ll try again in a bit to get her to surface, but I don’t want to stress her. I suspect her hiding is because of my having taken her to the vets yesterday.
This Friday I am getting a plethora of shots: flu, pneumonia and shingles.
I remember getting the smallpox vaccine before I could go to school. My doctor gave it to me close to the top of my left leg. He said he didn’t want for me to have a scar on my arm, the usual spot for the needle. The vaccine was not a shot; instead, it was on the surface. The needle pricked the skin. I remember it bled a bit, but what I remember the most is part of my scab was torn off by a branch while I was playing. I cried. I thought I’d have to get it again. I didn’t.
Before we left for Ghana, we were given yellow fever shots. In Ghana we had a medical day not long after we arrived. Table after table had, I think, nurses ready to give us the shots. I didn’t know so many shots existed. I thought they’d run out of spots for the needles. We also drank polio vaccine and got a gamma globulin shot on the butt. The only medical pieces we were responsible for taking were anti-malaria pills every week. We took Aralen, chloroquine. I did stop taking it during the dry season as there were no bugs. Peace Corps would have been unhappy bugs or no bugs.
While I was in Ghana, there was a cholera epidemic. I had two cholera shots but got a mild case anyway. By mild I’m talking lying on the bathroom floor close to the toilet hoping for only one problem orifice at a time. That was as sick as I’ve ever been. I was in Niamey, Niger by the Sahara.
My dance card has only a couple of events: CVS on Friday and Hyannis on Sunday with the uke band. I have uke practice today and a lesson tomorrow. Without my uke, I’d seldom leave the house. My sister’s birthday is today, and I surprised her by playing Happy Birthday, picking the notes on my uke. She was delighted that I had learned it just for her.
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October 12, 2021 at 12:58 pm
I do remember that smallpox vaccine and I do remember that it hurt. The first one didn’t take so I had to do it again, I wasn’t happy. I think I had the polio vaccine too but I can’t remember it. I think both those diseases are extinct now days?
Chilly but beautiful weather over here, it never reached 50F but no wind and sunshine made a really nice walk 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
October 12, 2021 at 5:03 pm
Hi Christer,
The United States has been polio-free since 1979, and I suspect Sweden is the same, but it has reappeared in places like Afghanistan and Pakistan and now strains of polio are also turning up across much of sub-Saharan Africa, Yemen, Malaysia and the Philippines.
I found this, “The last naturally occurring case of smallpox was reported in 1977. In 1980, the World Health Organization declared that smallpox had been eradicated. Currently, there is no evidence of naturally occurring smallpox transmission anywhere in the world.”
Still a nice day here, 68˚, and sunny.
October 12, 2021 at 2:14 pm
Hi Kat,
This morning, while listening to NPR on the way to work, they said that about 68 million people either haven’t or refuse to be vaccinated. They also said that until those people get the vaccine the pandemic will not be over. Yesterday, our idiot governor Greg Abbot, decreeded that no entity or business in Texas can mandate vaccinations. However, it’s a political move to please his most ardent right wing supporters. He’s running for re-election and his most far right opponents in the Republican primary are who he fears and not the Democrats next November. One of his opponents in the pimary was just hospitalized for Covid-19. He wasn’t vaccinated, of course. Federal law always supercdes state laws. Idiots are everywhere and they all have a voice on social media. 🙁
I remember standing on line in the second grade in 1954 to get the first of the three Salk polio vaccine injections. I wasn’t very happy about it at the time. No one has a problem with small pox, or pertussis, or chicken pox, or rubella vaccines being mandated for kids in public schools.
You got the full array of vaccines in the Peace Corps like our men got before going to Vietnam. Somehow and, or somewhere public health got knocked off the rails. We can only hope that a large number of those 68 million get Covid-19 and die. Unfortunately, I feel sorry for the many cows and horses that are going to die from worms because these anti-vaxer idiots are buying up all of the Ivermectin at the feed stores. 🙂
October 12, 2021 at 5:32 pm
Hi Bob,
I never realized how many stupid people live in the US.
I have no sympathy for the unvaccinated who get Covid. It was their choice. I am angry that so many resources are put to use to save them.
Greg Abbott plays to Trump and his base. He may even out-Trump Trump. Texas seems to be the forefront of all Trumpian politics and hateful speech meant to instill fear. They just hounded an election administrator who resigned.
Now most of those childhood diseases have disappeared because of vaccines. Back then, they were never politicalized. Trump wasn’t around to instill doubt.
I don’t get that people are wiling to take things like Ivermectin but not a proven vaccine. The idiots who say they’ll wait and see are courting disaster. You are right: it will never disappear when people aren’t wiling to protect themselves and all of us.
October 12, 2021 at 6:13 pm
If there were an approved pill or shot against cancer, I wonder how many would refuse it. I’m of the belief that if you refuse the vaccine and get covid, any insurance should not pay for your treatment. You’re on your own.
In Ghana during the dry season, I stopped taking my malaria pills. Than in February I got malaria. Serves me right.
October 12, 2021 at 8:17 pm
Bill,
I agree about not paying for their treatment if they have chosen to be unvaccinated. Why should resources be wasted on anti-vaxxers? Many don’t even believe covid exists. Idiots!!
I guess I was lucky. I stopped taking the malaria pills during the dry seasons and didn’t get malaria. I had forgotten you had.