OK, my mailman husband has never had chicken pox and has been dragging his feet on getting vaccinated. I’m sending him this link and telling him to march his ass on down to the health dept. ASAP. These people are insane.
My husband is a postal worker. Now that I think of it, I’m not sure he’s had chicken pox ever. I told him about this and he was absolutely infuriated.
People who do get chicken pox, as linked earlier, are at risk for shingles decades down the line, when the virus re-emerges from dormancy in the nervous system. Those who are lucky will “just” have a very painful rash. In some people, that pain may last months to a couple years. Others may be, as noted, unlucky enough to have that virus re-emerge on their face, with a 40% chance of infecting the eye from there. Any damage the virus does to your eye has an excellent chance of leaving permanent after-effects, especially if it infects the retina.
There’s a vaccine against shingles. I plan on getting it as soon as I’m eligible - which isn’t until age 60ish, so I do have a couple decades, but reading about the effects of shingles has made me that motivated to avoid it.
Drag him down there if you have to.
I had it at the age of 31. Missed 2 months work, restricted to part time for several months and took over a year to regain my normal level of activity.
And I didn’t even feel that bad when i actually had it, just crushing fatigue after I got over the actual illness.
There was no vaccine when I was at prime pox age, and Mom says it was fairly common for parents to try to get their kids infected when they were small to get it over with. (And so that they wouldn’t get it worse later.)
Which led to a small panic when I was, oh, 30, when my boss got chickenpox, and the rest of us were on pins and needles waiting to see if we’d get it too - Mom couldn’t remember whether I’d had it, or that there was no vaccine at that time. Luckily, nobody else in the office got it, but my boss was pretty miserable at home with her steroids and oatmeal baths. I was feeling very lucky, because a call to the pediatrician’s office (yes, he’s still in practice in spite of being about a million years old, and yes, they still had my records) revealed no history of chickenpox or the vaccine.
Later, of course (much later - last Christmas in fact), I discovered my sister had apparently had chickenpox, because she was diagnosed with shingles. Which probably means I had it, too. Apparently it was a pretty mild case, because Mom didn’t remember it at all.
Anyone requesting a filled, tied off condom?
Did this happen to anyone else? When I was six (1973), my parents took me to a ‘pox party’ with all the other neighborhood kids. Sure enough I got it.
Gave me shingles in my twenties too.
ETA: sorry Eva Luna, missed your post.
This sounds like an episode of Southpark!
What confuses me is how prevalent these people are on the parenting forums. Basically no one bothers to argue with them, so if you’re reading parenting forums, not vaccinating can seem like a popular, normal, viable route to take.
From what I’ve heard, dissenting views on at least some parenting forums are removed and the dissenters are banned (i.e. on smothering.com, where pro-vaccination views are deemed antithetical to the mission of the board).
Mailing items infected with chickenpox virus (and whatever other infectious agents hitchhike along) seems like a natural progression for the antivax/disease-is-natural crowd. They’ve never been concerned about the impact of their beliefs on society at large (my child is all that matters), so why not expose additional people including postal workers to their pox-infected offspring?
There is a contingent on a particularly radical message board who proudly asserts that they don’t use soap, shampoo, or toothpaste. If these aren’t the exact dipshits who are mailing viruses, then I’ll eat dirt.
Um, nope, nope, we’re good, thanks though. We’ll keep your offer on file.
In my personal life, the anti-vaxxers are so shrill, evangelical, and utterly, utterly arrogant that I can’t even be in the same space with them when they start with the “western medicine is killing our children!” crap. There’s no arguing with them AT ALL. So, I’ve given up. Let someone else take that bullet.
Well, if they are asking for mumps-infected lollies as well, they might neutertheir husbands, which would be a start.
Hey, eating dirt must be good for you, it’s natural and all. Maybe someone would be willing to mail you their own dirt, for enhanced immune stimulation (India and Southeast Asia hold exciting possibilities).
So, you’re gonna eat dirt to show how natural and organic you are? 
Curiously, the vaccine cart came by my work the other day. All the MDs sprang out of hiding and demanded flu shots. There’s no double standard about vaccines at work.
ETA: Damn you Jackmannii! Your joke was better.
I’m sure that with a sprinkling of collodial silver on top, fresh Asian dirt would make a fabulously tempting meal!
In truth, I have great pride in my intake of laboratory chemicals. I’ll get vaccinated against anything. puffs out chest
Oh god. My dad had a Pox Party when he was knee high, I think, and I’ve read about it in books. I think the Great Brain had something like occur. But… fuck. This day and age. Not… not really a surprise when you thank Ms. Jenny McCarthy. But…
awgoddamnfuckwhistle.
Stupid idiotic people.
They do know that an unvaccinated mail worker could contract varicella and spread it to others, right? Others who may include pregnant women and their foetuses, cancer patients, and infants?
People who might die?
Especially if they don’t restrict it to just chicken pox, but decide to diversify the franchise with measles, whooping cough, rubella and mumps.
They need a federal charge for biohazard mishandling or whatever, because eventually they’ll get a negligent homicide charge or wrongful death suit.
Mothering Dot Com is currently having a debate about women should be allowed to have a c-section forum to talk about their c-sections in anything other than “I was birth-raped and may never get over the trauma until I have a healing unassisted vaginal birth at home!” terms.
Because a safe surgery that resulted in a healthy baby is WAY, WAY worse that delivering your baby, at home, alone, far from any kind of medical assistance, with a 1 in 200 risk of catastrophic uterine rupture, just in case you didn’t know.
On MDC suggesting that a Vitamin K shot ( a Vitamin produced in the body, naturally) and given at birth to prevent neonatal hemorrhage, is actually a good idea is considered equivalent to an open admission that you approve of child abuse, baby killing and puppy stomping.
These people spread the ignorance we try to fight.
There isn’t enough :smack: in the world.
I’ve had my annual 'flu vaccination for the last 3 years- FWIW.
Yep, the soap/toothpaste haters reside there. Check out the “Health and Healing” section sometime.
I feel so sorry for those poor kids, having idiots like this for parents. I hope they can escape the idiocy, but I fear it will be passed along from generation to generation, like bigotry, racism, and abuse so often is. 
Has anyone heard if Facebook is moving to close this group? Would Facebook be considered liable if someone died as a result of the group’s actions?