American Experience had a really good and informative hour on the polio epidemic, and the search for the vaccine, a few weeks back--it might still be available on the PBS website for viewing.

Before seeing it, I didn't know that the suspected cause of the huge increase in cases in the 20th century was the vast improvement in hygiene. Kids weren't exposed to as much viruses/bacteria/etc. in their infancy, and so didn't develop antibodies to such things as polio.

Let the kids eat dirt and drink from the dog's bowl, their immune systems will thank you.

I remember the polio sugar cube booster dose, and the nurses who came around in the first grade to peer at your shoulder to see the progress of the TB shot you got a couple of weeks before you started school. I didn't realize it had stopped being so common when someone young looked at my arm and said, "Why do you have two round scars on your arm?" I was so used to everyone having those scars that I hadn't noticed an entire generation growing up without them.

Eh, I ain't hating on people who want to spread out the vaccinations so their kids don't get them all at once. Or who want to not get a few of them that they don't feel are uber important (Hep B, which you can totally get later in life, but people are promoting earlier because hey, that's when they've GOT the kids already in there, GETTING vaccines), or something like chicken pox, where the parent may decide "hey, I lived through it, and yes, it can be deadly but maybe I'd rather my kid not get six vaccines at once, they can do without this one". That's understanable.

But stuff like rubella? polio? C'mon, y'all....

I was so used to everyone having those scars that I hadn't noticed an entire generation growing up without them.

I just made it under (over?) the wire as a 1971 baby, because I don't have one.

Eh, I ain't hating on people who want to spread out the vaccinations so their kids don't get them all at once.

Oh, god no. The vaccination schedule being spread out is not a problem. I just stress out big time over declining herd immunity when it can so easily be prevented.

a 1971 baby

Anyone born in the 70s is far too young to be a grown up person, and there's nothing you can say to convince me. Don't even get me started on those people born in the 80s. They shouldn't be driving, they're too young.

The 90s kids need their diapers changed.

I remember getting vaccinations regularly in grade school during the late '60s and early '70s. Usually, as we went to gym class, we'd pass a nurse who'd give us the shot. Though once, we had to go to the high school to get a vaccination with A Special Instrument that wasn't supposed to hurt at all (they lied). That was a big deal because the high school was 15 miles away.

Yeah. Someone once went off on me for an extended period of time about the evils of vaccination, and I finally snapped. My grandfather became a quadriplegic because of polio, and my dad lost all the muscle mass in his lower legs. I see red when someone tries to tell me vaccinations are bad. I was born in '75 (sorry, Connie, mid-30s and all grown up). I never had to get the polio vaccine because it had been eliminated. That stuns me when I think about my how my family suffered from the same illness thirty years earlier.

Oh, and did you all recently the news that it turns out the guy responsible for the "MMR vaccines cause autism" had faulty data?

Anyone born in the 70s is far too young to be a grown up person, and there's nothing you can say to convince me.

I am in total agreement with you. I feel like I'm masquerading as a grown-up.

Oh, and did you all recently the news that it turns out the guy responsible for the "MMR vaccines cause autism" had faulty data?

He falsified his data, right?

Though once, we had to go to the high school to get a vaccination with A Special Instrument that wasn't supposed to hurt at all (they lied)

The swine flu air injector! Damn, that left a bruise.

I am in total agreement with you. I feel like I'm masquerading as a grown-up.

Whipper snapper.