Contact tracing underway for chickenpox

A case has been reported at the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School.

66
Chickenpox was reported at Martha's Vineyard Public Charter School. —MV Times

Updated Oct. 11

Martha’s Vineyard Hospital officials announced that they are partnering with Island public health leaders to address the report of a case of chickenpox at the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School.

In a release issued Friday, the hospital reports that Island boards of health will be conducting contact tracing, and parents will be notified if their child has been exposed.

The hospital reports that “two additional cases are being investigated at this time.”

“We are working in collaboration with the board of health and the school on a solution to address potential exposure to students,” hospital chief nurse and vice president of operations Claire Seguin is quoted in the release.

The hospital reports that chickenpox complications can be serious for both children and adults, and studies have shown that chickenpox-related hospitalizations have decreased 97 percent since a vaccine became available in 1995.

Sequin said the best way to avoid chickenpox is through vaccination.

Data recently released by the state shows that the Charter School ranks among the highest in the state in terms of exemptions for vaccine requirements. 

The Charter School ranked seventh statewide, with nearly 13 percent of students receiving an exemption for at least one vaccine, on average, over the past three years. The data did not specify which vaccines the exemptions were for.

The administration at the Charter School first reported one case of chickenpox among the student population on Wednesday. School director Peter Steedman sent a letter to parents providing guidance to families to take precautions.

“We have consulted with epidemiologists at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, local boards of health, and the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital,” Steedman wrote in the letter. “If your child does not have serologic evidence of immunity to varicella (a blood test), a history of chickenpox as verified by a healthcare provider, or documentation of two doses of chickenpox vaccine, your child should be vaccinated as soon as possible,” Steedman wrote to parents on Wednesday. “If your child has already received one dose of the chickenpox vaccine, your child should receive a second dose of the vaccine.”

Steedman said that the school has made contact with the families of students the state health department has identified as an at-risk group.

Chickenpox, also called varicella, causes an itchy rash that lasts about a week. It is usually mild, but can be serious in infants under 12 months of age, adolescents, adults, pregnant people, and people with a weakened immune system, the hospital reports. Symptoms can include fever, tiredness, loss of appetite, and headache. 

The hospital also said that varicella can lead to skin infections, pneumonia, inflammation of the blood vessels, swelling of the brain and/or spinal cord covering, and infections of the bloodstream, bone, or joints.

Most people who are vaccinated with two doses of varicella vaccine will be protected for life, the hospital reported.

“Vaccines help bring the spread of chickenpox, and other infectious diseases, under control,” Seguin is quoted in Thursday’s press release. “Low vaccination rates introduce a vulnerability.”

Public health nurse and case investigator coordinator for the Martha’s Vineyard Boards of Health Betsy VanLandingham told The Times that since the first case was reported, three other cases have been investigated. Of those, one has been dismissed, and two (a school-age child and a non-school-age child) are still being looked into. 

As of Wednesday morning, “we have only identified one case at this point — the original case,” she said. 

Although symptoms point to chickenpox, with the rash being consistent with infection, the original case is not technically considered to be a confirmed case, since lab work hasn’t been done. Instead, it’s been deemed “probable,” and is being treated as a true case.

Since the first report, Martha’s Vineyard Hospital reached out to parents of children who were not fully vaccinated. Over the weekend, the hospital set up a temporary vaccine clinic with 100 doses of vaccine that had been acquired for the 100 school-age Island children who were undervaccinated or unvaccinated. 

It is not clear at this time how many of the 100 received the vaccination.

66 COMMENTS

  1. Given the recent revelation about the vaccination rate at the Chilmark school, this comes as no surprise. I would venture to guess that a fair number of students at the Charter School are not vaccinated as well.
    This island has too many scientifically illiterate people who falsely believe they know more than actual doctors. Essential oils, healing crystals, and “thoughts and prayers” cannot cure or prevent disease.
    I feel bad for the offspring of these science deniers.

    • Sounds like you got the new covid vax, flu vax and RSV vax, and get boosted regularly. These vaxes do not prevent coronavirus symptoms or stop the spread, so wear a mask, if that works, and keep getting boosted.
      On the other hand, covid vax injuries are well-documented by “actual doctors” but, probably you’ll be fine. Keep getting boosted.
      Interesting to note that the chicken pox vax prevents chicken pox symptoms, like in the original definition of “vaccine,” before it was changed in 2020 to define “the vax”.
      All meds have side effects. The risk/benefit factor is something to consider. Since covid is mild for most people, why risk life-threatening heart palpitations and blood clots?
      Maybe we shouldn’t fall into lockstep with Big Pharma. Imagine if my mother listened to her doctor in the 1950’s and took Thalidomide. Or if my brother listened to his doctor in 2010 and took Oxycontin. They didn’t listen to their doctors.
      But the covid vax? Oh, no questions there! This time Big Pharma really does cares about us, guys, and they’re so scientific, too. They not only created covid in a lab, they locked us down and fast tracked mRNA injections, all for our safety.
      Dont feel sorry for me , pal, my parents raised us right. In my family, none of us have regretted not getting “the vax.” We look into meds when necessary, but we ain’t pill-poppers.
      I feel sorry for people like you, who reiterate the TV narrative and think it makes you sound smart.

      .

      • What’s funny is your last sentence here firmly applies to your rhetoric. But please, continue to wax poetic of that which you are, to say diplomatically, missing something.

      • Hi Kay,

        I attempted last week to make the point on this page about how the US government changed the definition of “vaccination” in anticipation of the mRNA transfections, and their ultimate failure to prevent acquisition or transmittal of the Covid infection. But the post and some links never made the page.

        Previously the accepted meaning of “vaccination” (and one that most people still believe and still applies to most conventional interventions) is the injection, oral medicine or transdermal application gives the recipient immunity from the target illness. You don’t get it. You don’t transmit it.

        The data which Pfizer (and Moderna) tried to hide from the public for some 50+ years (a position vigorously supported and defended by the CDC and FDA) was overturned by the courts. That full data dump revealed (and continues to reveal) many shocking realities. Among them, is that Pfizer never even tested for transmission or acquisition.

        In other words, Pfizer never tested for immunity. The company only tested for “antibody response” and allowed the government and the media to use that as a marketing proxy for immunity. Which is absurd. Or I should say, criminal, in my opinion.

        It is more accurate and honest to say the mRNA shots are transfections, which are the processes of deliberately introducing nucleic acids with genetic coding (in this case, non-human proteins} into human cells for the purpose of reproducing a target protein. In this case, it would be the original Wuhan spike protein, and in some of the covalent shots, additional spike proteins of one or more variant.

  2. my goodness that’s unheard of!!!!

    er ah …wait a minute i had them in an undisclosed location in MA some 63 years ago

    • And now there’s a vaccine for it which prevents the seriousness of it in older people and pregnant women who’ve never had it. Once you’ve had chicken pox, you’re also at risk now for shingles, a horrible outcome from carrying the herpes virus in your body all these years. There’s a vaccine for shingles now, too.

      • Wouldn’t this only be a problem for older unvaccinated people? Or can you only get this vaccine as a child? Just curious about the medical science.

        • I googled this. Looks like there can be breakthrough cases in older people who’ve been vaxed when exposed to actively contagious chicken pox. If you are unvaxed and never had it, you can get chicken pox from someone with shingles— didn’t know that. Google will answer your questions.

    • The fear mongering around illnesses has gone too far. Everyone I knew in my childhood kindergarten to high school had chickenpox and all survived. Now the child at the charter school, and the school, itself, will become a target of germphobes Island wide!

      This type of reporting is despicable!

      • I guess you missed the memo about why responsible, knowledgeable parents vaccinate their children— the ones who aren’t selfish.

        I’ll add as an aside that every antivaxer who posts here using a phony name is worse than ignorant- they are too cowardly to stand behind the lies they promote, afraid their ridiculous beliefs will damage their island businesses— from exercise teacher, to ceramicists, to chiropractics. If these dishonest threats to the community were in any way
        honorable, they’d have nothing to fear. Instead they ridiculously lash out at newspapers for reporting reality.

        • Well, most anti vaxers are quite divorced from reality in many ways.
          If they had a grip on what’s real they wouldn’t be anti vax in the first place.
          These are the same people who take medical advice from a yoga teacher or astrologer, but refuse to see an actual doctor. It might upset their “vibrations”.

        • I’m not using a false name. And I’m not an anti-VAXer. I am an out and proud “Cautious Vaxer!” I’m also a Constitutionalist and I believe it is my right as an American to refuse vaccinations and that it is YOUR right as an American to get vaxxed-and-masked to your heart’s content!

          • Hi Shelley,
            There you go again with that Constitution and Bill of Rights stuff. Don’t you realize that petty bureaucrats and our contemporary mandarins have the moral duty to override the backbone of our nation when they trot out the word “emergency” to suit their purposes? Only they have the secret de-coder that allows them to read the invisible ink. You and I seem unable to find the words anywhere.

        • It’s with great angst that I post this comment. But Jackie I wholeheartedly agree with you. When vaccines have been around for years and proven to be effective people should get them. There are so many vaccines we can point to that fit this bill.

          On a separate topic my prayers to Israel and all her people.

        • You can help yourself become up-to-date by going to google.com, another advancement, like the chicken pox vaccine, that was unavailable to us when we were younger. Science and technology are like that, bringing changes to our lives, hopefully for the better. Some people prefer to feign ignorance, though, especially in online discussions about vaccines.

          • Absolutely, the world has come a long way since then. Back when I was a kid chicken pox was considered a nuisance but not a health crisis. What’s changed? I’m not asking this to be confrontational or challenging, just trying to update my knowledge.

      • Why chicken pox vaccine? In a word: shingles.
        You wouldn’t wish shingles on your worst enemy.
        Shingles is caused by varicella-zoster virus (VZV), the same virus that causes chickenpox. Once a person has chickenpox, the virus stays in their body. The virus can reactivate later in life and cause shingles.

  3. The problem with the antivax conspiracy menaces to society, like RFK, Jr and Naomi Wolf, is that they take a normal concern of parents, add a few grains of truth to it, and then go off on their lunatic, proven false antivax binges, bringing along every vulnerable sucker who’s only too happy to be taken in. Hello selfish, ignorant, and religiously dishonest Charter School parents who have failed to do their obligations to be responsible members of the community. You have a lot of island company.

    Healthy children get the chicken pox vaccine, not because the chicken pox is a danger to them, but to others who are older or may be pregnant and previously uninflected. Of course, pediatricians explain this to parents at doctor visits, but when selfish, stupid, and stubborn are in the mix, parents forego this vaccine as well as others. You’d think that selfish stupidity was a religion on MV.

    • Hi Jackie- just looking for a little clarification- if these vulnerable people were vaccinated, wouldn’t they be protected from the unvaccinated? I am pro-vaccination, fully vaccinated myself, and had my child go through the full battery of vaccines, so I am in favor of vaccination. Just trying to understand the science here.

      • Hi Julian,
        I think you understand the science pretty well. What is being asked of you is to understand the emotion.

        • Hi John, all of us deserve a chance to present our thoughts in these forums, but for them to be taken seriously they require validation upon request from credible references. If someone says vaccines cause people to turn into koalas, they would need solid documentation and not just refer to their feelings, or a dubious website or YouTube video. Likewise, if someone says a vaccinated person is not protected from an unvaccinated individual, that would also need credible documentation. I attempt to be open-minded and listen to the facts as presented, not just what I like to hear based on my previous biases and concepts. When I ask for clarification, as I did from Jackie, it’s out of genuine curiosity to educate myself. If she presents factual documentation that an older vaccinated person is at risk from a child who hasn’t been vaccinated, that would change my understanding of vaccines. We’re always learning.

          • Hi Julian,
            I am not sure you will see this. I took the time to write a lengthy reply to you, and noted three sources on YouTube and Rumble for you to take a look at. The censors at the MV Times apparently are hard at work.

      • Hi Julian, you can google it. There are some medical conditions that prevent some people from safely getting vaccinated or be so immune compromised that vaccines don’t work for them. There are also a few legitimate religious beliefs that stop parents from vaccinating their children. That’s why herd immunity matters. Thank you for being a responsible, community-minded parent.

        • My bias is the more vaccinations the better. I got the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it was available, had no bad reactions, and ignored the people who told me that I had a ticking time bomb inside me. So far, so good. Chickenpox is a funny one because I haven’t thought about it since I was a kid and it seems to have mostly vanished from the landscape with the arrival of the vaccines. It’s just strange to see something that was considered benign when I was a kid turn into front-page news.

          • The funny thing is that so many people are saying how benign chickenpox is but I for one am all for the vax. Never even questioned the vaccine. Same with HPV. Covid not so much. Perhaps we all need some introspection. Just saying we all have different reasoning and maybe we should we respect that.

    • Hi Jackie,
      Would it be possible in your calculus, to include the tens of millions of unvaccinated migrants who’ve “moved” to the USA as the vector for the new incidences of this diseases?

      • Don’t you have the crackpot, Naomi Wolf podcast to listen to, Budris? I don’t answer anything to conspiracy theory antivaxers. Simply, they don’t have their feet planted on this planet. And also, when it’s clear they are talking blithering baloney, they go off on wild lashings out and accusations about Nazi tactics. Next thing, they’ll be claiming Ashkenazi Jews are genetically protected from Covid.

        • Hi Julian,
          Always a pleasure corresponding with you. Whatever research I would do (were I you) it never would involve Google. When you have a moment, go to Rumble and review some of the work of Dr. Robert Epstein, and his analysis of how Google controls (and not in a good way) how the world thinks and acts. Perhaps you are aware that if you are a G-mail user, every key stroke that you make and every keystroke sent to you is saved by Google, analyzed by AI and the information sold to whomever pays the rate. The same goes for searches on Google. Duck-Duck-Go is a better choice, and for many reasons.

          • John, good to hear from you, I hope you are well! Wasn’t Goihke’s, first commandment “don’t be evil“? Iwill give that information sources you cited an open minded view. The connective tissue between theory and truth is evidence, it will be interesting to see what turns up.

          • Using Youtube and Rumble to support an argument is rather sad, yet funny. Your failstreak continues.

        • Not genetically protected Mendez but least susceptible to Covid 19 as are the Amish. Lots of studies show that. You could look it up.

      • Predictably, you mentioned immigrants in a discussion about vaccinated school children. Nice logical fallacy.
        I suspect you are a leading figure in your local chapter of the Dunning Kruger club. Off island, of course.

        • Jim,
          Basic Epidemiology 101. When in the course of a generation, tens of millions of un-vetted and un-vaccinated migrants from countries rife with disease, pour into a nation where most of these diseases have been eradicated by hygiene and medical practices, is it not logical to focus on this onslaught as the primary vector of the diseases’ resurgence? Aren’t you cute with the D/K club reference.

          • How is it that YOU know that THEY are not vaccinated?
            Polio, chicken pox, and measles ARE
            ALL
            returning to America because of the anti-vaxers.
            Believing that someone is going to control, track or poison them. When really THEY ARE CREATING A DEATH PLAN FOR THEIR OWN.
            Playing russian roulette with everyone else’s lives.

      • How many people, vaccinated and unvaccinated, have entered the US since the the start of Covid?
        Tens of millions? closer to a hundreds million?
        Data source?

    • Hi Jackie,
      It sounds as if you are quite close to “othering” those parents and kids who are not in line with your conclusions. Would yellow arm bands do? Perhaps shaved heads? After all, those kids and their parents, in your view and in your words – are “selfish, stupid, and stubborn and in the mix,” and are dangerous. Unclean. Unacceptable. What is your solution to this?

      • John– I don’t think Jackie is blaming
        the kids for the choices their parents
        make regarding their health. But I don’t agree
        that the parents are “selfish, stupid, and stubborn”.
        Nobody said “unclean”. But never mind– you can
        make things up. That’s the republican way these days.
        I think they are just ignorant and believe the easily
        debunked garbage that gets posted on such sites
        as rumble.
        The references to the nazis is deflection.
        The right wing here is the one that most mirrors
        the tactics of the nazis– right down to banning
        books and demonizing those who don’t goosestep
        to their lies. That’s how it begins…
        And to answer your question I only need one word;
        Education.

        • Don,
          Perhaps you are unaware that the horrific atrocities we associate with the Nazis during WW II began ten years earlier with the segregation of certain “others” because they were deemed to be disease carriers. I wrote “unclean,” as a one word summary of the theme of that other writer, and noted her words with quotation marks.

          • John,
            Perhaps you are unaware that the horrific atrocities we associate with the Americans during WW II that began 248 years earlier with the segregation of certain “others” because they were deemed to be genetically inferior, mentally, but not physically.

      • Perhaps her solution is the one suggested by a letter writer back in 2021. This letter was published by the MV Times on August 19, 2021.
        The MV Times apparently did not consider this to be hate speech.

        “To the Editor,

        “If you refuse to get vaccinated for whatever reason and get Covid, please do not call the hospital. Unlike you, they really do believe in science.
        Rather, call Lenny at Chapman Funeral Home and make an appointment.”

        Name of letter writer—a well-known resident of OB—withheld out of human kindness.

        Readers and editors of this paper may be interested to hear the president of Bayer Pharmaceuticals state that the covid-19 shots are gene therapy. “Two years ago” the public would have rejected having any gene therapy introduced into their bodies.
        But the Covid panic changed all that!
        Not that the public was ever told that the covid-19 shots were gene therapy and not really vaccines.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K09D6JN-9-Q

      • If unvaccinated people bring back diseases that have been nearly eradicated in this country through science, armbands would probably be appropriate. Maybe they could be pretty and say “Proudly Unvaccinated”. In a civilized society there has to be some responsibility to the greater public good.

        • well, Scott, Mr Axel thinks people who wear
          a mask in public are mentally ill and should be
          avoided in the same way one would avoid a
          person waving a machete.
          But I have no problem with unvaccinated
          people wearing MAGA hats.
          They are clearly
          mentally ill, but unlike a person who is wearing
          a mask to protect themselves and others,
          they actually are dangerous, and I avoid
          them like I would a person waving a machete
          on the street.
          No need for any mandate.

        • Hi Scott, in the two+ years of the current administration that would require some 8 million armbands.

    • ” I think we can safely “blame” island parents who failed to vaccinate their children for any chicken pox outbreaks on the island.”

      Really? Are you an epidemiologist?
      Do you possess any actual basis whatsoever for your assertion?

      BTW, I had measles, chicken pox, and mumps when I was a child.
      On Martha’s Vineyard.
      Everyone did.
      We all got these childhood illnesses at the same time in any one school.
      After that we were immune.

      It’s much better to get them as a child than to contract them as adults.

      • Katherine–
        Are you an epidemiologist?
        And what would it matter if Jackie or I
        were epidemiologist ? The anti vaxxers
        don’t listen to them anyway.
        They have a few licensed “doctors” who
        make a fortune off videos on radical right
        wing sites telling ignorant people what they
        want to hear.
        When you and I were children we
        rode in the front seat of cars with no seatbelts.
        And we all survived, except of course, those
        that didn’t. And a few survived with severe
        injuries, but most just had lacerations or a few
        broken bones. And then that mean ol’ government
        came in with their regulations and unconstitutional
        laws telling parents of small children that they have
        to put those in officially approved car seats —
        ,milk crates don’t cut it—
        Yeah, those broken bones and noses that many
        children got from being thrown into dashboards
        in minor accidents are just fine now
        were just fine.
        By the way, I had all those childhood diseases you
        mention, and they sucked. Lucky me, I was vaxxed
        against polio and smallpox. — i didn’t get those.
        But I am sure I can on rumble and be convinced
        that that was just luck, or because as we became
        more aware of the seriousness of those 2 diseases,
        more people prayed, and god fixed it.
        As a matter of fact, when the polio outbreak in
        1955 was ats peak, I know my parents went to
        their local catholic church every Sunday and the whole
        freak’in congregation prayed together for god to end the
        polio epidemic. She heard them, and stopped it dead in
        its tracks. That silly vaccination program was just
        coincidental. And I do know a few people who got it
        and survived. And they can even walk today.
        By the way– 128,000 people (children) died from
        measels and it’s complications in 2021
        https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/measles
        30 people a year die from Chickenpox each year in the U.S
        About the same number the covid deniers estimate REALLY
        died FROM Covid.
        And that’s with advanced medical capabilities that can
        save people after being shot point blank through the head
        (think Gabby Giffords) .

        • Don,
          Your ability to project the thoughts of liberals onto conservatives knows no boundaries. Now you’re saying antivaxxers are somehow “Republicans”. Interesting considering the biggest anti-vaxxer in the country is RFK jr. who until this week was a Democrat. Also I think if you look at the voting results on island over the past few decades I’d venture to say you will find the island to be decidedly Democrats. This island is ultra liberal and also ultra anti-vax according to the statistics. Just how many Republican parents do you think send their kids to the Charter School! That’s laughable.

      • Well, Katherine, at least you understand it’s not good for adults (and immunocompromised of all ages) to contract these diseases. Without realizing it, you emphasize the excellent point of why the effective and safe vaccines for most of the healthy population of children are such a blessing.

      • I find it ironic that you ask for Jackie’s medical credentials, then state “it’s much better to get them as a child” with no apparent scientific background of your own, to say nothing of your narrow view of these viruses only affecting the the children, as though they just stop with the children.

      • I and my classmates (aprox. 1969+) had a wonderful thing called ‘vaccinations’ and we all survived. My children were also vaccinated. They are still living and thriving. You CAN request that they space out the vaccines for your peace of mind. My ex had chicken pox at 36 and he was very sick, feevers even out of sorts and confused.
        The hospital could not do any more than I did at home with telephone conversations to make sure that he was taken care of. By the way he caught it while vacationing in Florida where a family from Australia had a child that was swimming with us that week WITH CHICKEN POX. His symptoms started on our return flight back home to MV.
        Far too many parents have become lack·a·dai·si·cal in their job as parents and caregivers of their children.
        Homeschooling is available for anyone who might not want their OWN children around others who might contaminate.
        There are so many who are unable to get vaccinated due to health issues and would like to be able to. Please take the time to ACTUALLY get the facts. It’s not just your own families that you are putting at risk.

  4. I had chicken pox as a child and a (mild) case of shingles as an adult. I’ve now had the shingles vaccine as my doctor said my prior case would not prevent a recurrence. Yes chicken pox is usually mild but, like shingles, as we know from the recent experience of the late Dianne Feinstein, it can be very serious. Before vaccines were available the son of one of my friends was hospitalized for over a week with severe complications from chicken pox; the disease caused swelling in his brain. This is not an infection to be taken lightly.

    • Thank you for this clarification that the relatively innocuous reputation of chicken pox can be connected to the more severe issue of shingles- I’m fortunate to have never had it but I hear it is horrible. I vaccinated my child against chicken pox- I’m glad I did.

  5. Anti vaxers personally attack people who don’t fall for their conspiracy theories (lies). They do it every time.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-bayer-vaccine/fact-check-bayer-executives-comments-misinterpreted-in-social-media-posts-idUSL1N2YF1AI
    Katherine’s interpretation that covid vaccines are gene therapy is untrue garbage.

    When known antivaxers in the community have no leg to stand on regarding the outrageous selfishess and irrepsonsibility of parents not vaccinating healthy children for these childhood diseases, they find another lie, like the claim that the covid vaccine is gene therapy– and accuse normal folks, for seeing through the antivax lies, of nazi-like behavior. This is why I have no respect for this sort of ‘disagreement’– We are talking about paranoid people inventing, believing, and repeating lies that negatively impact the health of the community. You can disagree on opinions, not on FACTS. And every antivaxer becomes enraged when people with their heads screwed on, won’t listen to their baloney. It happens in every thread on the topic.
    https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-covid-vaccines-gene-therapy-806280914802
    https://www.genomicseducation.hee.nhs.uk/blog/why-mrna-vaccines-arent-gene-therapies/

    It’s tiring and pointless to try to change the minds of people like this. But it’s important to point out the lies.

  6. FYI: It is possible for a child who gets vaccinated against chickenpox to contract the virus. When this happens it’s called a breakthrough case. This hysteria is ridiculous.

  7. “The United States was the first country to start universally vaccinating children against varicella (chickenpox) in 1995.

    Vaccination decreased cases of the disease in the United States by 97% and hospitalizations and deaths among individuals under 20 by 97% and 99%, respectively.

    Varicella vaccination prevents more than 3.8 million cases, 10,500 hospitalizations and 100 deaths in the United States each year.”

    https://www.idsociety.org/news–publications-new/articles/2022/chickenpox-now-rare-in-u.s.-due-to-routine-vaccination#:~:text=Chickenpox%20cases%20have%20decreased%2097,research%20presented%20at%20IDWeek.

    Due to the severity of COVID, I think the public has become a little desensitized to mortality rates. We are so used to seeing huge numbers that anything less gets brushed aside.

    It’s true that practically everyone got chickenpox back in the day. It’s also a statistical likelihood that everybody we knew recovered, giving the impression that CP isn’t ever fatal. At one point, that was my assumption.

    In reality, up to 138 U.S. deaths per year were recorded pre-vaccine. We were able to change that quickly with a single advancement.

    Does a potential 138 deaths (or more) warrant continuing the group effort of prevention? If you put yourselves in the shoes of families who were not so fortunate—who lost their kids—absolutely.

  8. It seems to me that debating whether vaccination is good or bad is like debating whether the world is flat or round. Vaccinations are one of the crowning medical and technological achievements of humanity that has allowed us to live life free of horrific diseases that plagued earlier generations. The eradication of smallpox in the 1970s is one of humanity‘s greatest achievements, and took place through international cooperation.

  9. Off-topic: Does anyone know how we can avoid messing up the comments section when we post links? I included one above, and now everything is askew. I can only read half of my words. The other half disappear to the right, and I can’t scroll across to see them.

    The same thing happens on my end when other commenters post links. Only a portion ot their remarks are readable. This is a recent problem. Is it just my outdated device, or does everyone see it?

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