[marron]

I’m all for the polio vaccine. And on one job I was required to have all the usual vaccinations required for travel in the 3rd world.

But on the other hand, I had measles as a kid. And chickenpox. My mom nursed me, I don’t think I even went to the doctor.

So its hard for me to take some of this stuff seriously I suppose.

I have never had a flu vaccine, ever. But thats just me, I don’t get sick often thank God. But I have had flu a time or two over the years, but big deal. I just took a day or two off from work til I was able to get back on my feet. I didn’t go to the doctor because, I suppose, from my background people just don’t go to the doctor for every little thing.

I know people who do go to the doctor for everything and some of them are seriously messed up.

My observation over the years has been, if you are shot or in a car wreck, you have a broken bone or a piece of your car stuck in your chest, by all means see a doctor. They can work miracles. If on the other hand you have something weird wrong with weird symptoms, you are probably better off to avoid them.

[cripplecreek]

Obviously there are the true killers that all should be vaccinated against like polio if there’s any sign of it in the population. (My great grandmother’s sister died of polio in the early 1900s) We don’t get the smallpox vaccine anymore. I think I was about the last generation to get the vaccine and have the scar to prove it.

When people tell me that 150,000 people died of measles last year I have some questions. Right off the top I have to assume that’s global number out of some 7 billion people. I wonder about sanitation and living conditions or whether they have access to decent medical care all the time. I also need to know if the people who die did so because of the measles or due to secondary infections and complications.