Politics Corner October 6th

 

photo mine (beware of Harlan)

I was so happy when I got my shingles vaccination. My mom had gotten them and they were horribly painful. Of course I had chicken pox when I was a child. I would never dare ask my mother if I was exposed at a chicken pox party because knowing what we know now she would feel even guiltier than I'm sure she already did. Or I just got infected playing with my cousins or in kindergarten. It's fairly contagious. The rule back then was that it was much worse the older you are when you contract it. That's still true. But we used to think that if your bodies held the antibodies you would be immune. Nope. You can keep getting chicken pox over and over until you die. And one day that will morph into shingles. Had chicken pos? Shingles is inside you waiting to pop up. [ProPublica]

via ProPublica

Now I'm a good boy about vaccines. I put aside my physical hatred of needles. Everyone - even junkies - hates needles. But I get a physical reaction. After a long period of being remiss, I'm back on schedule. Outside of the occasional tetanus or rabies, and annual flu shot, there isn't much to worry about. But at the beginning and end there is so much more. I love to travel so that adds so many more on top.

via New York-Presbyterian

And then I find out that research into creating a vaccine against tuberculosis that could save millions of lives in the third world and even in the United States in the places we don't want to look like crack houses, that research was bought by big pharma with the promise to follow through. They patented the research and then applied it to shingles which kills no one. You definitely don't want it but shingles won't kill you. TB will. By taking Shingrix I deprived someone of a TB vaccine. Not by choice. But it is set against my karmic balance.

So why can't the research cover both? Both vaccines require the same agent to be effective. And that is derived from a Chilean tree bark which of course is in danger from wildfires.

via AfricaCDC

Political discussion welcome