Given that the podcasts I've been listening to (they're all ~3 years old; I started at the beginning) were stating that there seemed to be a vaccine-resistant strain of Polio in India as of just several years ago, this is amazing. :D
Pakistan & Afghanistan still have outbreaks due to it being a warzone - the ability to get vaccine to people just isn't readily available. Nigeria, for a time, rejected the vaccine because it was made in the US and they didn't trust it. No idea if they're currently accepting vaccine, but I think they may be.
Joanna was the last known polio survivor in Oregon.
That line stopped me cold: a friend's father had postpolio syndrome, and was an Oregonian the way I am a Washingtonian. He died in 1991 after an accident with his bed-lift trapped him upside-down for eighteen hours, and the subsequent pneumonia and stroke made him a quadroplegic, dependant on a respirator- in defiance of his advanced directives and living will. It took several months of OT before he could communicate with a wand device well enough to demand that he be let go.
People who pooh-pooh vaccination efforts against polio (and equally measles) raise my ire: I grew up with way too many people whose lives had been limited by those diseases. I can only pray that they will never be shown why it's better to vaccinate.
Julia, I could tell stories all day, but unless you've known the people it's not the same.
I'm sorry about your friend"s father. That seems a terrible way to go!
I messed that sentence up - I meant to say hers was the last recorded case.That makes more sense.
I get angry with the vaccine deniers myself. I know a lot of folks in the yoga community: intelligent people who believe every fairy tale they're fed. I try to argue basic science with them, but they accuse me of being close-minded.
I. too, hope they never have a personal encounter with the truth.
Comments 4
Pakistan & Afghanistan still have outbreaks due to it being a warzone - the ability to get vaccine to people just isn't readily available. Nigeria, for a time, rejected the vaccine because it was made in the US and they didn't trust it. No idea if they're currently accepting vaccine, but I think they may be.
It's incredible, isn't it?
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$500 million is a fraction of what we've spent bombing the Afghanis. *sigh*
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That line stopped me cold: a friend's father had postpolio syndrome, and was an Oregonian the way I am a Washingtonian. He died in 1991 after an accident with his bed-lift trapped him upside-down for eighteen hours, and the subsequent pneumonia and stroke made him a quadroplegic, dependant on a respirator- in defiance of his advanced directives and living will. It took several months of OT before he could communicate with a wand device well enough to demand that he be let go.
People who pooh-pooh vaccination efforts against polio (and equally measles) raise my ire: I grew up with way too many people whose lives had been limited by those diseases. I can only pray that they will never be shown why it's better to vaccinate.
Julia, I could tell stories all day, but unless you've known the people it's not the same.
Reply
I messed that sentence up - I meant to say hers was the last recorded case.That makes more sense.
I get angry with the vaccine deniers myself. I know a lot of folks in the yoga community: intelligent people who believe every fairy tale they're fed. I try to argue basic science with them, but they accuse me of being close-minded.
I. too, hope they never have a personal encounter with the truth.
Reply
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