Showing my age: I never DREAMED I would see the day when vacccination was controversial....

[steve2470]

When I was a child and teen, if you needed a vaccination (even here in Florida for god's sakes), you just GOT it. Your doctor said you needed it for school or whatever, you got it. End of story. Not an issue whatsoever.

Did Jenny McCarthy get this madness started ?? Has this madness always been around ? I never heard of an "anti-vax" movement until I read a post here on DU about Jenny McCarthy going on Oprah years ago.

Thanks in advance,

Steve

[Decoy of Fenris]

1. There's always been anti-vax movements, even for Smallpox and Spanish Flu.

For about as long as Vaccinations have existed, there's been some form of "Anti-vax" movement somewhere.

[LeftInTX]

28. And the anti-smallpox were religious right

[spooky3]

2. There was a study that was retracted due to fraud

Or errors. It was published about 20 years ago and purported to show that vaccines caused autism. A lot of people seized on it pre-retraction and pushed anti-vaccine views.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2831678/

[El Supremo]

15. I went to a chiropractor about 10 years ago who spouted that shit.

I walked right out of his office and told him he should be in jail. The other potential patient heard me and the quack spine cracker was so upset that he called me. I told him to get lost.

[spooky3]

18. Good on you. It's hard to stand up to them. nt

[Walleye]

3. Stepped on a rusty nail, tetanus shot

[steve2470]

5. same here !

Not one thought it would be an issue to anyone.

[hamsterjill]

4. Raised the same way.

If the doc said to do it, you didn’t question. You did it. Why else would you have paid for his/her expertise if you weren’t going to follow that expertise.

[steve2470]

7. exactly !

As a society, we give them that "power" because we trust their education and training, for good reason.

[Mr.Bill]

22. At the same time it's also

acceptable to ask questions. I will follow my doctor's advice pretty much everytime, but it's also my right to be as informed as possible. A good doctor doesn't mind if you ask questions and ask for more information. Even a second opinion is part of normal medical protocol.

[hamsterjill]

29. It is now, of course.

In my childhood and teen years, however, it really wasn’t even considered. We lived in a small community in which the doctor also lived. Everyone knew him as part of the community and trusted him. If you needed a specialist, he would send you to someone. His knowledge was the full and final authority at that time.

Yes, things have changed now.

[SoCalDavidS]

6. Did You Ever Dream That You'd See An Insurrection At The Capitol?

Or an attempt to overthrow the government?

[steve2470]

8. no, very very sad !!! nt

[rurallib]

9. Was about 5 when the polio vaccine was perfected

so we learned early that vaccines are good, very good!

[Ocelot II]

10. When the Salk vaccine came out, parents couldn't wait for their kids to get it.

My mom was a nurse who had cared for kids who got polio in the late '40s; when I whined about having to get a shot I was told all about iron lungs and that was the end of my griping. Polio was no joke and people were terrified of it, but people born later than the '50s don't remember any of that.

[steve2470]

12. very off topic but apparently polio is still an issue in parts of India

I am travelling to India in 2022, so I elected to get the polio vaccine again, despite the fact that I got it about 55 years ago as a child. Just to be safe. Polio is such a horrible disease, and I can see why parents were so anxious for kids to get the vaccine.

[GoCubsGo]

27. I remember first responders lining up for a smallpox vaccination at the front end of

Dumbya's so-called "War on Terror," too. There was talk of smallpox being used as a bioweapon, so there was weeks of discussion on who needed a vaccination, and whether or not us oldsters needed a booster shot. I don't recall any protests. My local fish wrap had a front page spread featuring local cops and firefighters happily getting vaccinated. Now, a large percentage of our Public Safety Department in this Republican hellhole has or has had COVID-19, most of them unvaccinated.

[TreasonousBastard]

11. This must be something much deeper than vaxxing...

People, and Americans in particular, tend to get fed up at some point and say "stop".

Just what is it that's causing this frustration?

[marybourg]

14. Ronald Reagan belittling the government. And every publican pol

since continuing the theme. And, for white people, having had an intelligent, cultured black person as president foreshadowing more to come.

[mobeau69]

16. BINGO

[Zorro]

13. Jenny McCarthy certainly helped promote it

In her heyday she was -- in today's parlance -- an "influencer" to a certain segment of stay-at-home moms. It's also why she got the gig promoting e-cigarettes.

It's what one does when one has no real talent other than being able to influence others through the media.

[Caliman73]

17. Vaccination has always been controversial.

I think the difference you are seeing is the influence of mass personal media and the amplification of that by the legacy media. In the past, since information and information sharing was more centralized, the media (newspapers, wire services, radio, and even television) reported what the authorities said, then reported on what prominent people said in response. The process was slower and there were less voices in the mix. The antis were usually fringe elements.

Now, everyone has a voice and celebrity carries as much weight as expertise. Science still moves slowly and methodically, but lying POS's can move quickly. The media reports and editorializes based on speed and profit motive rather than on what is in the public interest.

We have a very loud, "My uninformed opinion is just as good as your facts and expertise" approach to media landscape these days.

[Mariana]

19. Has this madness always been around ?

Yes. At least, it's been with us a very long time.

Vaccination a delusion : its penal enforcement a crime, proved by the official evidence in the reports of the Royal Commission / by Alfred Russel Wallace

Published in 1898.

https://archive.org/details/b21356336

[steve2470]

21. fascinating, thanks ! nt

[Mariana]

25. It's even more fascinating that this was written by Alfred Russel Wallace.

Alfred Russel Wallace OM FRS (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist and illustrator. He is best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural selection; his paper on the subject was jointly published with some of Charles Darwin's writings in 1858. This prompted Darwin to publish On the Origin of Species.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Russel_Wallace

[Raine]

20. They always has been. nt

[csziggy]

23. A family down the street from my childhood home was anti-vax

Their daughter my age was the only person I knew who had polio, though she got it before the polio vaccine came out. When her mother heard that my mom was a nurse and brought home vaccinations to give to us, she stopped talking to my mother and kept her daughter from playing with us.

I guess she thought our family's pro-vax attitude might have been contagious!

[roamer65]

24. I never thought I'd see people eat ivermectin horse paste to fight off a virus.

[retread]

26. I remember lining up in the 4th grade for shots ar school. n/t