@davidaugust @realcarlallen My friend Gary died of polio. I was five, he was seven. He was the boy next door. I remember playing with him in the stream where he likely contracted it. I remember going to the community centre for the sugar cube at the local vaccination drive that followed. Those of us that lived through it need to tell our stories.
@maryeffrancis @davidaugust @realcarlallen my mother’s oldest brother died of polio as a toddler. His parents held him in their arms while he struggled to breathe then watched him die. In 1927 there was nothing that could help him and no vaccines to prevent it
@FaithinBones @maryeffrancis @realcarlallen I’m sorry that happened. That was so familiar and hard for so many families.
@davidaugust @maryeffrancis @realcarlallen I worry that the antivaxxers are going to be responsible for the comeback of polio in this country
@FaithinBones @maryeffrancis @realcarlallen I worry that too. I know many immunologists and vaccinologists do too.
@davidaugust @FaithinBones @realcarlallen
Measles is making a comeback in the U.K. Here’s the article in the British Medical Journal blowing the whistle on Andrew Wakefield’s claims that the MMR Vaccine caused Autism. Wakefield faked the data, and had his licence to practise medicine in the U.K. revoked as a consequence. I believe he now continues his deadly campaign in the USA:
@maryeffrancis @davidaugust @realcarlallen the problem with the antivaxxers is they claim a lot of diseases are childhood diseases and they’re benign. No disease is benign and they refuse to admit that measles can actually kill. What’s really interesting is that most antivaxxers were given vaccines to prevent these diseases when they were young but want to doom their children