# So, Vaccines are Good...Have YOU Been Vaccinated? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 7, 2015, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-vaccines-are-good-have-you-been-vaccinated/712047 "2015-02-07T15:45:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**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:** [February 9, 2015, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-vaccines-are-good-have-you-been-vaccinated/712047/61 "2015-02-09T03:36:28Z")
I should probably get boosters all around since I haven’t gotten any except flu, pneumonia, polio, smallpox, TB, and tetanus since, um, ever? Other than getting immunized the ol’ fashion way. And with rubella the diagnosis was by my mother, who is not medical. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-vaccines-are-good-have-you-been-vaccinated/712047/62 "2015-02-09T04:17:05Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Plus, before going to Africa I got tons of really interesting shots at age almost 10. Did you get an anti-malaria vaccination? Was it interesting? I mean, was it _interesting?_ Certain anti-malaria meds can _seriously_ mess with your head. See: [5 Popular Medications You Won’t Believe Mess With Your Brain](http://www.cracked.com/article_20514_the-5-most-horrifying-side-effects-common-medications.html) on Cracked dot com, scroll down to #3. The Anti-Malaria Medication That May Make You a Deranged Psychopath. Yeah, I know, Cracked isn’t always to be taken seriously. But I’ve seen this discussed in other articles from time to time, including some mentions that some people have complained of _long-term_ effects. See also: [Army Decides Elite Units Shouldn’t Take Anti-Malaria Drug Known To Cause Permanent Brain Damage](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/19/army-mefloquine-green-beret-anti-malarial-drug_n_3953584.html), Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press (seen on HuffPo _et_ elsewhere), Sept. 19, 2013. [Some U.S. troops haunted by anti-malaria drug’s drastic side effects](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/some-us-troops-haunted-by-anti-malaria-drugs-side-effects/), Wyatt Andrews, Sarah Fitzpatrick, CBS News, December 23, 2013. Discusses long-term nasty effects, focusing on case history of one soldier. Google: anti malaria medications causes brain damage to find many more cites. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-vaccines-are-good-have-you-been-vaccinated/712047/63 "2015-02-09T04:20:11Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > I don’t remember the details, but it was in the mid-70s, and it was required for one of our visas, I’m pretty sure the one for Poland, because my mother said TB was common there. I was only 9 at the time. I remember having the test, and going back to have it checked, and then, when it was negative, getting the shot, which left a very small scar. I honestly don’t remember if we got the shot at my GP or not. > > My husband also got a TB vaccine before going to Iraq. > > I used to have a TB test every year where I worked, and sometimes it looked “inconclusive.” I said maybe I still had antibodies from the vaccine, and showed the nurse my scar. She said usually TB vaccines wore off unless people were in an environment where they were constantly re-exposed, but I was never sent for a chest x-ray. Ah, maybe that long ago we were using it, I don’t know. But it’s also very possible, even probable, that you didn’t develop immunity from the vaccine. [It’s a crappy vaccine, which is why we don’t use it here very much.](http://www.drugs.com/pro/bcg-vaccine.html) ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-vaccines-are-good-have-you-been-vaccinated/712047/64 "2015-02-09T04:38:34Z")
> [@eclectic\_wench](#): > > I got a tetanus booster a year or so back, but I’d never heard of a pertussis or diphtheria booster till I read about them here. I’ll ask my doctor if they’re available over here. Those are the same one, it’s only that in most places they are referred to as “the tetanus shot”. Way back when, one of the other students in my high school’s summer camp needed stitches so Brother Cook took him to the nearest healthcare center. They said he’d give him the tetanus shot, since it had been five years since his last and better safe than sorry (we’d gotten a booster at the same time us girls got the rubella shot). He didn’t want it. They showed him pictures. He was still white as a wall by the time they drove back… ---
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-vaccines-are-good-have-you-been-vaccinated/712047/65 "2015-02-09T05:28:50Z")
I had DTap, MMR, polio, Hib, and Hep B vaccines as a child, and the meningitis shot before I went to college. The varicella shot came out when I was 7, but I had chicken pox itself at 20 months, so no need. I seem to be right on the borderline for this one: most of my friends had chicken pox, most people just a couple years younger had the shot. I’ve had a flu shot every year for the past 7 years but I think my Tdap is out of date. I may have gotten a booster in grad school but I don’t have any records past 12, so I imagine not. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-vaccines-are-good-have-you-been-vaccinated/712047/66 "2015-02-09T13:10:59Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Did you get an anti-malaria vaccination? Was it interesting? I mean, was it _interesting?_ I took it for a couple years in Peace Corps, and the primary effect on my personality is that I continue to have one. People in our program who chose not to take the medications (very much against the rules) would generally die. One of our first health trainings was a hefty list of them. Falciparum malaria is not something to mess around with. It can and will kill you within 48 hours, sometimes even before you are symptomatic. And in our area, exposure was inevitable. It killed nearly one in five children. We went to lots of malaria funerals. Mefloquine is a once-weekly pill-- not an actual vaccination. For most people, the worst it’s going to get is some vivid dreams. I didn’t even get that. We did have a few people in the history of our program that probably manifested neurological symptoms, but this was very, very rare. Anyone with any kind of mental health history or other reason not to take it would be given an alternative. Doxycycline is the primary alternative, but it’s a daily pill (meaning you are more likely to forget it) and it causes lots of side effects- primarily a wicked upset stomach and sun-sensitivity. Malarone is the other alternative. The major drawbacks are that its prohibitively expensive, and it’s also a last-ditch treatment for cases where other treatments aren’t working. If you use it as a prophylaxis, you lose it later as a treatment. And when you do get malaria you want to have as many treatment options as possible. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-vaccines-are-good-have-you-been-vaccinated/712047/67 "2015-02-11T00:23:36Z")
Up to date unless I go somewhere that has meningitis, Japanese encephalitis, or yellow fever, or needs a polio booster. I’ve had TB and chicken pox, and though I had a shingles outbreak in my 30s, they want me to wait until I’m 60. ---
**Author:** ![racepug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@racepug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racepug)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-vaccines-are-good-have-you-been-vaccinated/712047/68 "2015-02-11T01:01:13Z")
Oh, yeah. Many times over. ‘Course, I came into the world long before “anti-vaxxing” became a freakin’ MOVEMENT. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-vaccines-are-good-have-you-been-vaccinated/712047/69 "2015-02-11T01:32:04Z")
> [@racepug](#): > > Oh, yeah. Many times over. ‘Course, I came into the world long before “anti-vaxxing” became a freakin’ MOVEMENT. Actually, you didn’t. [History of Anti-Vaccination Movements](http://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/articles/history-anti-vaccination-movements) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-vaccines-are-good-have-you-been-vaccinated/712047.md?page=3)