So my brother caught the measles today. I've never caught them and I doubt I will since I've been vaccinated and I have a pretty strong immune system.
But I got to thinking about nowadays we're so addicted to cleanliness. I'm not saying we should be rolling around in the mud now, but we should cool it.
Take the chicken pox for example, I don't think people should be vaccinated against it. It rarely results in death and it's just something everyone should go through. The way we vaccinate against everything seems to be bad. I mean, imagine if in the future we have crap immune systems because of how much we try to control these things. Take a kid who lives in a bubble for example. When it comes time for them to leave the house they'll catch a million and one sicknesses and probably die because their immune system is pretty much shot because it hasn't been able to build itself up and just strengthen naturally.
What do you think? Is this obsession with cleanliness a bad thing or not?
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Vaccinations
" So my brother caught the measles today. I've never caught them and I doubt I will since I've been vaccinated and I have a pretty strong immune system. But I got to thinking about nowadays we're so addicted to cleanliness. I'm not saying we should be rolling around in the mud now, but we should cool it. Take the chicken pox for example, I don't think people should be vaccinated against it. It rarely results in death and it's just something everyone should go through. The way we vaccinate against everything seems to be bad. I mean, imagine if in the future we have crap immune systems because of how much we try to control these things. Take a kid who lives in a bubble for example. When it comes time for them to leave the house they'll catch a million and one sicknesses and probably die because their immune system is pretty much shot because it hasn't been able to build itself up and just strengthen naturally. What do you think? Is this obsession with cleanliness a bad thing or not? "People get vaccinated against chicken pox? I've never heard of a chicken pox vaccine :S (Maybe it's because i'm from England?)
The only vaccines I remember getting are MMR (measles/mumps/rubella), BCG (for TB), Tetanus/Polio and.. meningitis c.
However, you are right. A Level & degree level biology have taught me that not being 100% clean is a benefit for the body, your body makes antibodies against infection so it can fight them off, however it can only do that when you've HAD the infection, that's what a "vaccine" is. It's an injection of a weakened (or immobilised) form of the pathogen, your lymphocytes will create antibodies for it and you produce "memory cells" which stay in your lymph nodes and can create those antibodies again a hell of a lot faster next time you get the infection.
Vaccines are a good thing, however making sure everything is 100% clean isn't in the long run, you'll just be more prone to infection. However there's obviously a line somewhere in there, if you don't clean and lick every surface you come in contact with, it's not gonna be good for you.
I had the chicken pox vaccine and I was one of those rare cases where I got it anyway. It wasn't as bad but at age 18 it sure sucked. When I traveled overseas I had a total of 7 vaccinations at once, and no, I have no idea for what. I am just glad I got them, having known people that have gotten some unpleasant things.
We are addicted to cleanliness but vaccinnations are another thing, we are addicted to a sense of security we get from getting a vaccine, people worry a whole ot about work etc etc and don't want to have to worry about not catching diseases
I really don't have an opinion on this, people wanna get vaccinated against useless shit ? fine by me.
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