Should there be a penalty for not vaccinating yourself or your kids?

This is a good point. About every 10 years for several years now, I've updated my tetanus vaccination. Last Dec, I went in for a fresh tetanus vaccination because it was close to the 10 year limit since I had received the previous dose.

I did have a reaction to the vaccine. My arm turned red and was tender for some time following the shot. This was the very first time I'd had a reaction to the tetanus vaccination. Since then, I've often wondered if the shot I received was really a tetanus shot. I also wonder if at the end of 10 years, I'll go back for another tetanus shot.

Your first dose of the polio vaccine was by injection ( Salk method) and I remember that some kids later developed polio after receiving this attenuated vaccine.
Luckily, the Sabin vaccine was developed .

If we did that here - people would be getting in line for seconds.

Pretty drastic, I agree. One that I don't see getting much consideration in the near future.

You know, I've long suspected that oral vaccines were administered surreptitiously in Guinness -- hence the "Gives you strength" bit.




(No, not really.)

Well, there's a sig line.

I'm pro vaccine. On aspects of the vaccines that trigger reactions, I dearly want any of those to be cleared up. I always thought the autism thing was bogus and it turned out to be. I think of that as a destructive rumor run amok among the already distrustful.

I chose bacteriology as a major a couple of days after reading Sinclair Lewis's oft panned book, Arrowsmith, which involved yellow fever and a cigarette..

Early this year I got three shots - flu, pneumo, and tetanus. The tetanus one hurt. I attributed it to the clinic aide's mixed ability with the plunging needle.
That went away in a day.

On tetanus vaccine - when I first learned about it, in the sixties, it was supposed to have a seven year timing. Then I think it was ten. I was told by some scientists, that I don't remember, that it really was 28. I still got a shot from time to time. For myself I'm fine with lallygagging. Re children in my care, I'd follow the scenario.

Some vaccines induce a more permanent reaction than others -- perhaps more importantly, some individuals have a more lasting response than others. Where you set the recommendation on the re-vax date depends on how many people you want to leave unprotected.

(Reminds me, I need to get my rabies titer checked. I've always suspected I have robust adaptive immunity, but I've got no actual evidence of this.)

Among the intimate things I know about myself is that I have (had) really terrific macrophages. Work in labs, volunteer blood, so it goes. Those were probably some of mine in that electron micrograph.

I think the same of myself re adaptive immunity but I hate to even murmur that.

That makes sense.