# Oh. My. God. Bonehead parents taking their kids to 'Chicken Pox Parties' **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 9, 2005, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-my-god-bonehead-parents-taking-their-kids-to-chicken-pox-parties/293712 "2005-03-09T20:26:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Arwin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Arwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arwin)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-my-god-bonehead-parents-taking-their-kids-to-chicken-pox-parties/293712/81 "2005-03-10T13:06:27Z")
After some research, I noticed the following: - nearly all sites by medical authorities state that you should keep children with chickenpox out of the vicinity of others, in particular those with a weak immune system or pregnant women, as the disease can damage the foetus. - also a consensus seems to be that once you’ve had the disease, you are protected for life. You can still get a different disease, however, which looks similar but only infects part of you, usually just one side, and in Dutch has a different name that I don’t know the English equivalent of. - it seems to me that vaccination makes sense in sparsely populated areas, but not in densely populated areas, as in the Netherlands and Belgium for instance practically everyone gets the disease naturally from others and vaccination is and has never been considered. ---
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-my-god-bonehead-parents-taking-their-kids-to-chicken-pox-parties/293712/82 "2005-03-10T13:29:29Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > They do this because they believe that actually suffering through the disease will give their children better immunity than the vaccine will. > Fuck. Just fuck. Why is that such a far fetched assumption? But isn’t it more like they believe the vaccine has some potentially very dangerous side effects? Since so many children are vaccinated, unvaccinated children are no longer sure to get natural exposure to the pox in their daily lives. Thus the parents have to make sure. Also this way they can better plan when the kid is to be sick. Anyway I think it’s a bit silly, but fail to see the Fuck-Just fuck-worthiness of it. ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-my-god-bonehead-parents-taking-their-kids-to-chicken-pox-parties/293712/83 "2005-03-10T14:10:53Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Jesus fucking Christ, the lengths people will go to to avoid paying for a fucking shot. Yeah, 'cause you know, I spent an awful lot of money on shots doe my son when we lived in Canada. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-my-god-bonehead-parents-taking-their-kids-to-chicken-pox-parties/293712/84 "2005-03-10T14:49:45Z")
I guess pox party organizers don’t see anything wrong with having large numbers of children coming down with the disease and potentially infecting adults who may have more serious illnesses. :rolleyes: It should be pointed out that the linked [sfgate.com](http://sfgate.com) article is off base and irresponsible for a number of reasons, not limited to its casual acceptance of homeopathy. It suggests that autism and other health problems are linked to vaccines, when such evidence is lacking (the supposed autism connection was ballyhooed in a British Medical Journal article which subsequently was retracted, after it was discovered that the lead investigator had ties to a lawyers group looking to sue over vaccinations - and the conclusions were not supported by the evidence). As a result of the article, though, some parents avoided the MMR vaccine, and cases of measles went up in Britain as a result. And measles can have long-lasting and even deadly complications. A lot of parents seem to also have gotten the idea that childhood illnesses are no big thing. Vaccination has been so successful in reducing their incidence, that we forget about the potential complications. Generations have also grown up without the specter of polio and kids in iron lungs, so we forget how devastating that threat was. And pregnant women have far fewer fears today about birth defects from contracting German measles from infected children, thanks to _that_ vaccine. Vaccination is one of the outstanding success stories of modern medicine. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Ruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Blue\_Ruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Ruin)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-my-god-bonehead-parents-taking-their-kids-to-chicken-pox-parties/293712/85 "2005-03-10T15:00:03Z")
I had chicken pox twice (once at 12, again at 16 or so). I always thought that was pretty unheard of, so I assumed the first time was a mistaken diagnosis (I had no other symptoms besides the itchy spots, the second time I was laid up with a fever for a few days). ---
**Author:** ![Long\_Time\_First\_Time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ad7895/32.png) [@Long\_Time\_First\_Time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Long_Time_First_Time)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-my-god-bonehead-parents-taking-their-kids-to-chicken-pox-parties/293712/86 "2005-03-10T15:08:38Z")
When I was a child, the girl next door contracted German Measles and my sister and I were sent over to catch it. (In the '60’s before vaccination was available) We were instructed to kiss her on the lips and hug her. I caught chicken pox from my 5-year-old daughter when I was 32. I have never been sicker in my life, and, to top it off, then got shingles a few years later. My 5 year old barely noticed the spots on her arm and had a fever for about half a day. It makes eminent sense to allow healthy young children to naturally contract chicken pox. True, some will get the complications. Just as some people experience severe and life-threatening reactions to vaccination. Unfortunately, the medical community launches into uncontrolled experiments based only on their good intentions all the time - sometimes with good results and sometimes bad - and the widespread vaccination against diseases that generally are mild in childhood and severe in adulthood represents another example. I just finished reading a very good book titled Baby ER which described the epidemic of blindness which occured several years ago caused by the overuse of oxygen in premature babies. It occured because the medical profession believed that if a little oxygen is good, then a lot must be better. So it was used without any study or controled trial to look at the risk/benefit of the practice. The belief that oxygen was all good was held onto for years after the first voices began questioning its liberal use. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-my-god-bonehead-parents-taking-their-kids-to-chicken-pox-parties/293712/87 "2005-03-10T15:08:58Z")
> [@elfbabe](#): > > I got the chicken pox at the end of fourth grade, so that would be in 1994. The day I started breaking out in spots, (the day you’re most contagious, supposedly) my sister’s friend, _undergoing chemotherapy at the time_, was visiting us. She got the vaccine as an emergency thing right after that, so I don’t think it was available on a non-emergency basis at that time. Maybe. …You were nine in 1994? Or thereabouts? _shaking head_ Never mind, we’re not too close to the same age. I was \*nineteen \* in 1994. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-my-god-bonehead-parents-taking-their-kids-to-chicken-pox-parties/293712/88 "2005-03-10T15:28:26Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Vaccination is one of the outstanding success stories of modern medicine. Yes, it is. And I’m a strong proponent of vaccination. But whether the overall benefit of CP vaccine _for the population as a whole_ outweighs the costs has not yet been demonstrated. We still don’t know how effective it is beyond a certain age, when or whether boosters should be given, how the morbidity and mortality differs in adults who’d been vaccinated vs. those who have not when they both acquire the disease, etc. Would I withhold it from a child? No. I’ve ordered it for many of my past pediatric patients. Am I sold on the idea that the current vaccine is a good thing for the entire population at large? No, I am not. Perhaps **DSeid** will stop by and give us a pediatrician’s perspective. I saw very few really, really sick Chicken Pox kids. I’ve actually seen far more adults suffer permanent neurological damage and death from a case of disseminated chicken pox than I’ve seen kids damaged by it. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-my-god-bonehead-parents-taking-their-kids-to-chicken-pox-parties/293712/89 "2005-03-10T15:33:02Z")
I had chicken pox that lasted one night! Muhahahahahahaha! ---
**Author:** ![Velma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/85e7bf/32.png) [@Velma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velma)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-my-god-bonehead-parents-taking-their-kids-to-chicken-pox-parties/293712/90 "2005-03-10T15:43:14Z")
So what should we do for our child? The vaccine is common in this area, so if we don’t vaccinate there is no one to catch it from. Either way it looks like he is at risk of getting it later. If everyone else is vaccinating does it make more sense for us to vaccinate too? And then if someone close to him does happen to get it somehow to expose him anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-my-god-bonehead-parents-taking-their-kids-to-chicken-pox-parties/293712/91 "2005-03-10T15:45:19Z")
> [@Velma](#): > > So what should we do for our child? The vaccine is common in this area, so if we don’t vaccinate there is no one to catch it from. Either way it looks like he is at risk of getting it later. If everyone else is vaccinating does it make more sense for us to vaccinate too? And then if someone close to him does happen to get it somehow to expose him anyway? I don’t think vaccination is a _wrong_ decision for an individual. Ask your child’s doctor. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-my-god-bonehead-parents-taking-their-kids-to-chicken-pox-parties/293712/92 "2005-03-10T16:21:46Z")
Here is a story in yesterdays paper in Chandler AZ. [Chicken pox hits despite vaccine](http://www.azcentral.com/community/chandler/articles/0309cr-pox09Z6.html). Someone in the story mentions that they were told that the vaccine is 70% - 90% effective. I don’t know how that compares with other vaccines. Also, another thing to take into account is not much is known about the lenght of time that the Smallpox vaccine lasts either. Pretty much anybody born before 1972(?) has the readily recognizable scar of the immunization, but remember the panic in the months after 9/11? The government seemed to be as sure of an attack with Smallpox as they were sure that Iraq had WMD. At that time it became clear that nobody knows if the Smallpox vaccine confers life-long immunity - not really an issue because it has been totally removed from the natural environment. Some things just make sense to vaccinate against. MMR and Polio for example, but Chickenpox just doesn’t seem to be worth the effort, IMO. Can anybody, **QtM** I’m looking at you, tell me if there is now enough vaccine for me to get a tetnus booster without a problem? There had been a shortage for a few years. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-my-god-bonehead-parents-taking-their-kids-to-chicken-pox-parties/293712/93 "2005-03-10T16:40:58Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > This just in from NPR: It seems that some parents are organizing Chicken Pox Parties, at which they expose their kids to another child who has the disease. They do this because they believe that actually suffering through the disease will give their children better immunity than the vaccine will. That’s not a new custom. Although at least publicly, I thought the idea that it was good for kids to “just get chicken pox and get it over with” was debunked some time ago. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-my-god-bonehead-parents-taking-their-kids-to-chicken-pox-parties/293712/94 "2005-03-10T16:41:14Z")
As to whether it’s worthwhile to bother vaccinating against chickenpox: consider that before the vaccine became available, there were 4 million cases of chickenpox a year, resulting in 11,000 hospitalizations and 100 deaths annually. [Link.](http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr4806a1.htm) Immunity following vaccination has been consistently demonstrated for as long as recipients have been followed (up to 25 years in Japan). More questions and answers about chickenpox vaccine from the [CDC](http://www.cdc.gov/nip/vaccine/varicella/faqs-gen-vaccine.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Reloy3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c68b51/32.png) [@Reloy3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reloy3)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-my-god-bonehead-parents-taking-their-kids-to-chicken-pox-parties/293712/95 "2005-03-10T17:06:59Z")
> [@Maureen](#): > > I’d like to point out that it’s possible to get chicken pox more than once. I got it when I was 7, and again at 24. It seems to be genetic - I had it twice, my sister had it three times, and my daughter is suffering through her third bout as I type this. It does seem to get less severe every time, however. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-my-god-bonehead-parents-taking-their-kids-to-chicken-pox-parties/293712/96 "2005-03-10T17:21:25Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > As to whether it’s worthwhile to bother vaccinating against chickenpox: consider that before the vaccine became available, there were 4 million cases of chickenpox a year, resulting in 11,000 hospitalizations and 100 deaths annually. > [Link.](http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr4806a1.htm) To put that into perspective - that is a mortality rate of 0.000025%. I’ve also seen a quote saying that the death rate was 0.0023%, but I’ll go with **Jackmanni** ’s numbers as they come from the CDC. FTR, those numbers relate to children. The death rate for adults is, from what I have seen, is about 0.0309% - that is substantially higher, but still small in the grand scheme of things. Many things written about the vaccine don’t seem to indicate that Chicken Pox is a great scourge on humanity, but rather the disease has a negative economic impact when a parent has to stay home and care for the child. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-my-god-bonehead-parents-taking-their-kids-to-chicken-pox-parties/293712/97 "2005-03-10T17:21:55Z")
> [@Qadgop the Mercotan](#): > > How so? People claimed the same thing about cowpox inoculations to prevent smallpox. This isn’t 1705, doc. We have a vaccine now. > [@](#): > > And please elaborate on how that sort of behavior is “insanely irresponsible”. See my note on what year it is. We have a vaccine. It may not be perfect but it is a start and beats the hell out of making sure your child gets sick. > [@](#): > > The immunization is no bar to shingles. How so? If the person is IMMUNIZED to the virus that causes shingles then how the hell are they going to have shingles? > [@](#): > > And when are they supposed to get a booster shot? We don’t know when to give an adult booster, nor even if it’s helpful, or harmful. These are the things we are learning as we go along. Research didn’t stop when the vaccine went on the market. > [@](#): > > Um, it’s a little more involved than that Everything is always more involved. > [@](#): > > And what difference does the fact that the virus is not eliminated make? Because that is where adult attacks of shingles come from, you moron. Recurrent infections require a primary infection. > [@](#): > > Again, we note that infection in adulthood is far, far more likely to maim and kill than infection in childhood, and that immunization has not yet been demonstrated to be an effective bar to infection in adulthood. What other childhood vaccine has been demonstrated to NOT be an effective bar to infection in adulthood? I haven’t had diptheria lately. > [@](#): > > But we’ll have a whole generation of adults to study to see if we did them any favors in just a few more decades. True, and I let other people’s kids test the side effects of the vaccine for a few years before I gave it to mine. I’m prudent, too. Just more prudent than you. > [@](#): > > QtM, MD Oh, and you allowed a girl in chemo visit your house after you had exposed your children to chickenpox? My respect for you as a physician has gone out the window. IF you knew she was coming before she was let in the house YOU ARE INSANELY IRRESPONSIBLE and if I were that girl’s father I’d’ve sued you so fast and so hard you wouldn’t know what hit you. You SHOULD know that your children SHOULD have been quarantined. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-my-god-bonehead-parents-taking-their-kids-to-chicken-pox-parties/293712/98 "2005-03-10T17:28:11Z")
**Dropzone** , where did you get your medical degree? ---
**Author:** ![Velma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/85e7bf/32.png) [@Velma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velma)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-my-god-bonehead-parents-taking-their-kids-to-chicken-pox-parties/293712/99 "2005-03-10T17:29:26Z")
**Quadgop** that is literally the fastest response I have ever gotten from a Doctor, ever! Do you get back to all your patients that fast? 🙂 They must love you! I will ask his pediatrician what he thinks. **Adam yax** I don’t know about a tetanus shortage - my husband gets them rather frequently (accident prone!) and it has never been a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Velma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/85e7bf/32.png) [@Velma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velma)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-my-god-bonehead-parents-taking-their-kids-to-chicken-pox-parties/293712/100 "2005-03-10T17:33:11Z")
Sorry about the misspelling of your name. I just automatically type that ‘u’ after a ‘q’. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-my-god-bonehead-parents-taking-their-kids-to-chicken-pox-parties/293712.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-my-god-bonehead-parents-taking-their-kids-to-chicken-pox-parties/293712.md?page=6)