fnord wrote:

I went to grade school with a girl who wore leg braces because of Polio.  Her parents believed immunizations interfered with God’s Will.  The rest of the children at my school had received the newfangled Polio vaccine, which had become available less than a decade before.  Up until around the time of my birth, Polio was a major fear of every parent.  At the first hint of a rumor about an outbreak of Polio, children were sent to visit relatives in the country in order to avoid infection.  My mother had been sent away several times as a child because of Polio outbreaks.

Each of the rest of the children at my school also had a smallpox scar (usually on the left arm) as a result of smallpox vaccination.  Smallpox wasn't in America during those years but hadn’t been completely wiped out in all parts of the world.  I can't believe this girl's parents were stupid enough to believe God wanted their daughter to contract Polio, and were OK with the idea that he might want to smite her with Smallpox as well!

I got the sugar cube when I was five or six. 

Mexican immigrants and wetbacks are arriving in Texas with old diseases in antibiotic resistant bodies.  Add in these cults who think their magical god will heal them and, well, evolution is running it's course.  I expect the plague to break out down here some day.

fnord wrote:

I went to grade school with a girl who wore leg braces because of Polio.  Her parents believed immunizations interfered with God’s Will.  The rest of the children at my school had received the newfangled Polio vaccine, which had become available less than a decade before.

The Polio and Thalidomide victims I knew as a toddler, most just a year or two older, populated my worst nightmares for years.

Last edited by choad (2013-08-27 19:01:36)