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   Rob Ricci (ricci@discuss.systems)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Dec-2024 07:21:56 JST Rob Ricci

   With the polio vaccine in the news, I want to tell some of my mom's story:

   My mom got polio when she was a kid living in southern California, pre-vaccine. She survived it, but it put her in a wheelchair for a while, then leg braces. She was actually a literal poster child for the Polio vaccine: they used her picture on some March of Dimes posters.

   But this was not a thing that just affected her for a while, and then she was better. As a result of having Polio, her right leg is slightly shorter than her left. For her entire life, she's had to have special lifts put into her right shoe. When she drives, she uses her left foot for the brake pedal because she's concerned that her right leg might not be strong enough to stomp on the brake hard if needed. She has always been limited in how long and far she can walk: I remember many times on family vacations where the rest of us would go off to do something and she'd have to sit it out because she knew she just couldn't do that much walking.

   Now that she's elderly, a lifetime of this is catching up: her bones, joints, ligaments, tendons are all messed up from having a weak leg and an unbalanced gait. Her mobility is declining much faster than it should be, even for someone of her age. She had to have her ankle fused because of the constant pain it was causing.

   Polio didn't ruin her life, but it has stolen it in slices. Times she couldn't keep up with her kids, times she was just too tired to be able to stay on her feet, chronic pain, losing the ability to climb stairs in her own house as she ages.

   Vaccination is the greatest public health success humanity has ever produced, and we forget this only at our own peril.

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     Giliell (giliell@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 12:00:53 JST Giliell

     in reply to

     @ricci In Germany,,a child needed intensive care because the poor unvaccinated lad caught diphtheria. His antivax mom caught it, too, but because she was raised by people with more sense than her, even her weakened vaccines meant that she was only slightly ill while her child had to be put into an artificial coma.

     Bob Jonkman repeated this.
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     GinevraCat (ginevracat@toot.community)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 12:00:53 JST GinevraCat

     in reply to

     • Giliell

     @Giliell @ricci I I worked as a nursery school teacher about 15 yrs ago during a measles outbreak. One of 3 year olds ended up in intensive care. His Mom asked the doctor why his vaccinations did not protect him, and the answer
     "The vaccination is why he survived."