South Carolina

a few years ago i got a pop up message in mychart saying i might need an MMR booster. when i first asked the doc about it, she didn't seem worried. but i did do a little digging and found out something i wasn't aware of.

i was born and given the MMR vaccine during a period when a variant of the vaccine didn't wind up conferring long term immunity to measles. between 1963 and 1968 there were two variants: an inactivated (dead) and an attenuated (hain't dead). the inactivated virus version wasn't effective in the long term.

so, i got an MMR titer. found out i had no immunity to the two Ms. i.e., i must have gotten the inactivated version. as i told my doc, if there was a vaccine for snot i'd queue up for one.

so, i got a jab a few days ago, same time as i got my flu shot. not just because i didn't have immunity, but because a lot of other people have decided the safety of their kids and community are not important. and i happen to travel through parts of my state where a lot of people are vaccine hesitant or downright against.

i sometimes wonder if vaccine hesitation is because folks just don't like getting stuck with a needle. they can hide behind the oft debunked autism link because they don't like needles (or don't want to see their kids get jabbed with needles)