That book was part of The Great Brain series, Vortex. I remember it very well.

eta: wiki link [link]

I was curious how long the immunity lasts so I looked it up. Got this off the CDC website:

The length of protection/immunity from any new vaccine is never known when it is first introduced. However, available information collected from persons vaccinated in Japan in the United States show that protection has lasted for as long as the vaccinated persons have been followed (25 years in Japan and more than 10 years in the U.S.). Follow-up studies are ongoing to determine how long protection will last and to evaluate the need and timing for booster vaccination. If it is determined in the future that a booster dose is necessary, your health-care provider will inform you. Currently, no booster dose is recommended beyond the recently recommended two-dose vaccination series.

Good to know.

That book was part of The Great Brain series, Vortex. I remember it very well.

yes! I would have named it, but I didn't think any one wild know it. silly me, I should have known that you guys would. My niece will be reading them soon!

I understand, Burrell, but tetanus shots need to be re-upped as well (OW) as do several other vaccines. Most college require proof of up-to-date vaccs, and as a DV shelter, teen shelter worker and HS teacher, I not only had to get a TB screen for each new job, but provide proof of current vacs within 30 days of contract signing (I think for rubella/diptheria? can't remember.)

There was a religious opt-out clause but employment could be denied for non-current vax for any other grounds than religious beliefs or a genuine medical issue that prevented a vaccination, like an allergy or a disease that resulted in a comprised immune system.

And while I completely understand person with those limitations wanting to become teachers, it's not the best idea to be an immuno-suppressed person working in the petri dish of direct work with kids.

Man, I caught pinkeye 4x and had lice 3x, and I was a nut about washing my hands and using Purell at work. Not to mention many, many colds; I hate flu shots, but I got one every year after my first, after I had pinkeye twice my first year of teaching, the flu 3x and strep once. PETRI DISH! You'd think I was licking random desks and pens or something, but no.

I mean, what is the argument against the chicken pox vaccine, that it can sometimes give kids a mild case of chicken pox?

Apparently they're upset about the other stuff in the vaccine. Some of them think thimerosol is still used, for instance.

And I should get the shingles vaccine at some point, I think. The world has changed: we have a shingles vaccine!

Yeah, it has a high failure rate, but is a hell of a lot better than nothing.

The pro-party people I've seen on the Gawker network talk about the inefficacy of the vaccine, primarily, the incredible risks of contracting as an adult, and the triviality of contracting it under some unspecified age.

You'd think I was licking random desks and pens or something, but no.

Okay, I laughed hard enough that I hurt my portacath, so I hope you feel *really* bad. Because I read "licking random dicks and penises". Possibly I could have skipped that last fic.

A Harvard Business Review blog gets some corrections: [link]

I'm teaching Othello this year instead of King Lear and I am totally enjoying it. We're doing more close reading for performance than we are doing just plow through and read.

I really wish we had done this in HS. I never really had a class that taught us how to get to the meat of the play.

My university college class was taught by a first year prof who decided to teach us more of Shakespeare's contemporaries than Will, and then proceeded to teach us the feminist criticism of every play. (The focus of her recently completed PhD, unsurprisingly.) Frankly, I think I needed some close readings of plays before I wanted to get into all those meta-layers of criticism. My dramaturgy class was far more valuable for understanding the context of the play.

The best was sitting around listening to actors at the Shakespeare festival where I worked one summer, some of whom had acted Shakespeare for decades talk about the plays, and about the research they had done. They made the plays come alive more than any class.

I had Actual Chickenpox at 5 (a "safe and mild" age), and it was really serious. I might have been hospitalized, except my parents were a primary care doctor and a nurse, so they sort of had that stuff taken care of. I was happy to get my kids vaccinated on that one. (And, you know, everything else, though I boggled a bit at Hep B for a newborn.)