It all started with me wanting to know the lyrics to Pop! Goes the Weasel to go along with our Jack-in-the-Box that Rachel got for Christmas.
All around the mulberry bush
The monkey chased the weasel;
The monkey thought ’twas all in good fun,
Pop! goes the weasel.
Like many rhymes and songs that we tell and sing to our children, there’s dark connotations attached (see Ring Around the Rosie). But let’s be honest, we don’t expect to have them be true again.
Jimmy’s got the whooping cough
And Timmy’s got the measles
That’s the way the story goes
Pop! goes the weasel.
This article infuriated me. As I posted to Facebook about it, science doesn’t give two shits about your feelings. I don’t care at all if you feel that you shouldn’t put “toxins” in your child. Especially since you’re not doing that if you vaccinate.
Before Rachel, I simply thought these people were idiots. Now, I still feel that way, but I’m angry that they’re getting away with it because my daughter is too young to have the MMR yet and could potentially catch the measles from one of these people’s children. There are currently at least 84 people in 14 states that have the measles that SHOULD NOT HAVE IT. This is the United States. We do not live in a third world country. This disease, like several others, should not be an issue. This is 2015, for God’s sake. I shouldn’t have had to double check that my six month old was getting all of her polio vaccinations in 2015. This is wrong.
There is a chicken pox vaccination. I had the chicken pox in the third grade. I have scars from the chicken pox still and I had it about 30 years ago. My husband had it about 33 years ago. He had to stay at a friend’s house while he had it because his baby brother had just been born. I have fairly detailed memories as to how the chicken pox felt. And there’s a vaccine for that now! That’s amazing! That’s scientific progress in our own generation!
And yet…
Our parents are of an age to remember polio. At one time, it was feared my mother had polio, she didn’t, but the scare was there. The problem is that the people making the decision not to vaccinate their children do not fear.
I suppose with only 84 cases so far in 2015, that doesn’t constitute enough for fear to be a reasonable response. But wait until it looks like this:
Year : Cases of Paralytic Polio
1933 : 5000
1943 : 12,000
1946 : 25,000
1948 : 27,000
1950 : 33,000
1952 : 59,000
[source]
Go ahead, continue not vaccinating. I have my hypothesis about what’ll happen.
Quick book recommendation for those interested: Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: The Reason Behind the Rhyme
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