602 Comments
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Zyxomma's avatar

Polio was the age cohort just before mine. I had no friends who caught it, but the husband of an ex's sister is still disabled from it. Our polio vaccine was administered at school, on a lump of sugar (no wonder I was drawn to the pleasures of LSD). I was born before MMR vaccines and it's only because my mother was a nurses' aide stateside during WWII that measles did not take my life. It fucked up my teeth forever, and fortunately I did not go blind. So-called "childhood" diseases used to take far too many of us, and are now poised to do so again.

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Dave Zirkle's avatar

They need to send RFK Jr. to a mental institution for the rest of his natural life. He is a fucking nut job.

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plecop's avatar

The “olds” will get this: MAKE THE MARCH OF DIMES GREAT AGAIN

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Stephanie Hobbs's avatar

Just saw the dr. and he is recommending a Tetanus shot, because it has Pertussis and he is concerned that with so many parents not vaccinating their kids Whooping Cough will make a big comeback. It already is. Jesus wept.

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Nemo's avatar

I got pertussis in 2002. I even went to the doc because it felt "different". No diagnosis, but 4 weeks in bed and 10 months of coughing fits kind of confirmed it. Confectioners sugar can still trip a coughing fit.

Goddamn anti-vaxxers.

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A Tad Impatient To 86 47's avatar

I think Z is next in Tesla world. LUNG-Z? Or, just cooler: LUNGZ?

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Permanently Confused@68's avatar

'Merika's gone 'round the bend. Whackos rule the roost. Yes, I am confused about why people are like this, but very clear on the fact that reality exists, and these guys do not live in it.

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Nemo's avatar

Conservatives get to construct their own reality. Karl Rove explained that back during the junta of Bush the Idiot. Any connection between their "reality" and actual reality is coincidental.

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Shocktreatment's avatar

Coffee first, then words

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Free beach's avatar

FDR wants the first word on this.

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JCfromNC's avatar

// Should you like to put yourself up for a job where you just might be able to contract polio, the measles, or whooping cough from one of your co-workers’ unvaccinated kids, you can take it right here. //

Apparently they got tired of people fooling around with it, because now it requires a user name and password.

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DemoCat's avatar

Autism rates skyrocketed under Biden. It’s a disgrace what’s happening. None of the diseases respect us anymore. A woman at a rally in FL came up to me and said her son started feeling autistic after seeing Joe Biden on TV. He never felt autistic during my term, not once.

We are going to treat diseases like Polio and Measles like dictators. We are going to compromise with them, treat them very fairly and they will vanish one day, like that. It will be like a miracle. Like there was a magic shot you could take and soon polio would be eradicated. But we will do it science-free with faith, patriotism, our own research and fracking!

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Angryoldman's avatar

I wish I could believe that this was written by someone with a very clever sense of humor, but it is so perfectly atuned to Dear Leader's rants I have to assume he has, in fact, become a Wonketter. Rebecca, you may want to tighten up the eligibility rules a bit.

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Shocktreatment's avatar

If yer out of horse medicine, take a tax cut. Cures all!

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Goldfish's avatar

Re clinical trials: 100% they compared the new shot to the old shot. In indications where it's unethical to use placebo (life threatening disease, as an example) the current treatment us used as a comparator. Cancer trials are run this way. If RFK thinks he's running polio trials with a placebo comparator, he will run into a buzz saw of resistance. No doctors will participate, no patients will do it, and no health authorities will approve the initiation of any such trial.

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Alikhat's avatar

The last time they ran trials like that it was called The Tuskeegee Experiment, and I don't believe it went down in history as one of our shining medical moments.

Though it does make one wonder just what "expendable" group RFK and co. are considering targeting for their placebo recipients.

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Shocktreatment's avatar

No doctors will participate, no patients will do it, and no health authorities will approve the initiation of any such trial.

Might even call the cops...

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Major Is My Spirit Animal's avatar

"Hey Siri, did you get the polio vaccine when you were a kid?"

"Yes, my parents made me."

"Can you walk and breathe?"

"Yes."

"THEN FUCK OFF!"

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Morbidly Curious Wine's avatar

We get to live with (well, the vaccinated ones do) this insanity because of vaccines' success in preventing deadly illnesses. Too many people have no memory of the before times. How many children died painfully and needlessly? How many survived, but were permanently disabled or disfigured because there was nothing to prevent the illness? The survivors were considered the 'lucky ones'. Bobby Brainworm can deny being anti-vax all he wants, but his history says otherwise. His idea of safe vaccines is 100% safe, and he knows that is an unobtainable goal, but it gives him an altruistic lie to hide behind. He's only thinking of the children. Feckless prick.

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Angryoldman's avatar

Anybody else remember a quarantine sign posted on the front porch of a house by the county health department for scarlet fever, rheumatic fever, or something like that? I do. Not collecting for the paper at that house this week!

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(((What Fresh Hell Is This)))'s avatar

The polio vaccine vs. placebo trial will not happen because who the fuck will want to risk being in the control arm? Volunteers will be thin on the ground, no matter which country you set it in.

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rags's avatar

Such a trial is forbidden in all civilized countries. At the moment, we are still one of them...

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(((What Fresh Hell Is This)))'s avatar

There isn't an Institutional Review Board in the world that would accept a vaccine vs. saline placebo trial for a vaccine that is on the market. That's what Phase 3 trials are for -- BEFORE they go on the market.

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AIB's avatar

Vaccine deniers. You just have to guarantee they’ll be in the placebo group.

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"M"'s avatar

They'll kidnap people if they can.

Migrants, perhaps.

People keep underestimating these monsters.

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(((What Fresh Hell Is This)))'s avatar

Polio vaccine uptake is over 75% in most Central and South American countries (Venezuela being a notable exception). So there's a better than even chance that any migrant they pick up will have had the polio vaccine.

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Angryoldman's avatar

After all, who remembers the Tuskegee study?

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"M"'s avatar

you

me

raises hand

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RRJKR's avatar

We know the vaccine works.

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A Tad Impatient To 86 47's avatar

Probably noted already, but McConnell appears to care about polio. Having had it as a child.

Is this what it takes to get Republicans to care about an issue? Personal experience or impact? Needz new study: Why Republicans don't recognize the word empathy.

I'm assuming Moscow Mitch will actually vote against Robert "Worm" Kennedy. But even this assumption is foolish. He's a Republican. Power first.

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Permanently Confused@68's avatar

"Is this what it takes to get Republicans to care about an issue?"

Where have you been? If they ain't had it, it ain't a thing. Pssh. Simple.

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Free beach's avatar

Make Amerikka crippled again!

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Ron Spangler's avatar

So, what do you suppose would happen if a bunch of us just decided not to pay federal income taxes for the next four years?

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RRJKR's avatar

They'd round up an handful and make horrible examples of them. the only way it would work is if all involved pledged solidarity. Agreeing to pick up the costs for the handful they round up. Fat chance!

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Ron Spangler's avatar

Not just one isolated Randy Weaver, mind you, but a few million of us.

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"M"'s avatar

First you have to get all those people to agree

As well as to understand they'd risk prosecution under Donald's IRS

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Eva Porter's avatar

My husband’s former brother in law, probably 67 years old by now, had polio as a kid. He’s always used crutches. I’m sure he would have preferred NOT to have gotten it.

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