love* in the time of plague (and by love* i mean brexit* and other dreary matters of uk politics)

you are vulnerable to shingles if you’ve had chickenpox.

steady on calz

that sucks then xp

my understanding is if you've had chickenpox then shingles is a possibility because the virus lurks inside you forever. what you don't want is chickenpox as an adult cos that can make you very ill. had chickenpox as a child and never had shingles tho.

shingles are the dormant VZV in your nerves rising up to take advantage of a compromised immune system

And if even an ubermensch like Toby Young can get shingles - what's the hope for us subhmans?

bit of a tangent but I was reading about chickenpox vaccines and went down a wormhole leading to this article:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/28/vaccination-anti-vaxxers-measles-rubella-parents-not-vacinating

the comments are lambasting this person for not being vaccinated against rubella - and I was thinking, I never got vaccinated against measles, mumps or rubella, but I've had mumps and rubella - am I an accidental antivaxxer? should I go to the GP (not now but after lockdown) and ask to be vaccinated against measles?? I only got tetanus, polio, typhoid and whooping cough vaccines afaik. Somehow I didn't catch TB off my wife despite not getting the TB vaccine either

i believe measles is more dangerous for adults so i think the answer is yes, CP!

(or at least talk to a doctor abt it) (apparently if you were born before 1957 you are considered naturally immune)

my childhood memory of having measles at the age of 8 was that it was absolutely horrendous. Well the week before the spotty rash broke out, but memories like this aren't always reliable but I felt I was going to die and might even have been hallucinating at one point!

bit of a tangent but I was reading about chickenpox vaccines and went down a wormhole leading to this article:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/28/vaccination-anti-vaxxers-measles-rubella-parents-not-vacinating🕸

the comments are lambasting this person for not being vaccinated against rubella - and I was thinking, I never got vaccinated against measles, mumps or rubella, but I've had mumps and rubella - am I an accidental antivaxxer? should I go to the GP (not now but after lockdown) and ask to be vaccinated against measles?? I only got tetanus, polio, typhoid and whooping cough vaccines afaik. Somehow I didn't catch TB off my wife despite not getting the TB vaccine either

My mum fell for old school antivax hype resulting in me almost dying from whooping cough as a baby. I now have a chronic lung disease, probably due to the whooping cough, which makes me vulnerable to CV19. Thanks Mum!

I've never had chicken pox despite pretty much everyone I know having it at one point. I've had measles twice, which is also odd.

https://twitter.com/zaynahjpg/status/1253357337508810758

Ah!

https://twitter.com/zaynahjpg/status/1253357337508810758

Nm but tl dr Corbyn tweeted about Ramadan but not St George’s

it looks like for whatever reason the NHS didn't really bother vaccinating kids against M, M or R until 1988 when they finally got round to using the MMR vaccine which had been in existence for nearly 20 years at that point!

it wasn't because my mum was antivax or anything, they just didn't do it. bit weird no GP has ever suggested it's something that I should have, but maybe it's not weird given my experience of GPs and their use of space (wasting it, in most instances)

Ah yes St George’s Day the holiest day of the Christian year

Nm but tl dr Corbyn tweeted about Ramadan but not St George’s

Shakespeare was born and died on it, that's the only notable aspect of it - and you would think that would be notable for the English.

st george is the patron saint of palestine

his mum was palestinian

... not on the same day, of course. No Elizabethan conspiracy theories here. (xxp)

george is also the patron saint of syphilis

it looks like for whatever reason the NHS didn't really bother vaccinating kids against M, M or R until 1988 when they finally got round to using the MMR vaccine which had been in existence for nearly 20 years at that point!

it wasn't because my mum was antivax or anything, they just didn't do it. bit weird no GP has ever suggested it's something that I should have, but maybe it's not weird given my experience of GPs and their use of space (wasting it, in most instances)

A guy I know got chicken pox as an adult and lost his sight!

I had measles, mumps and whooping cough in school in the 80s and the first two were fairly common childhood illnesses, kids would regularly be off school with them. Definitely don't remember getting the MMR jab.

I also had whooping cough when I was baby, got no recollection of chicken pox other than when a friend who came back to school after having it and was showing me his arms still displaying some of the spots! Poor guy got run over and killed by a drink driver about a week later is the main reason I remember the chicken pox incident.

I *think* he's talking about the extent to which the commitment of NHS workers is being exploited (and it's hard to argue against that right now) but I'm not entirely convinced that breaks down according to racial lines. It's much more likely to be a result of housing conditions, income disparity, work travel necessities etc than other cultural factors.

these things break down according to racial lines!!! or even create/perpetuate those racial lines!!

I got mmr as a child - probably circa 1989 - but got mumps as a child anyway. it wasn't that bad for me and stood me in good stead for my gf getting mumps last autumn and spreading it to half her friends but not me.

also got bcg, which apparently helps with the VID?

ah cool, i had my TB shot so maybe that's helping

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2241590-bcg-vaccine-being-trialled-as-potential-protection-against-covid-19/

i'm going to start saying it in full to be a ponce: "did you perchance get your baccillus calmette-guérin yet?"

i thought that 6 dot jab was just a tester to see if you were safe to have the shot tbh? we had that, and then a proper big hypodermic a couple of weeks later. and yeah it scabbed and left a scar for years, i think it's cute that people of my generation often have the little TB scar on their upper arm. (of course teenage boys being monsters everybody went round punching each other on the arm after they'd just had the shot)

yes you might be right, it was a kind of infection test or something?

mine scar has definitely gone tho :(

lol i don't need to try to be a ponce it happens anyway

I think mine has more or less gone now but it lasted decades

xp. basically same although don't recall when the tester was vis a vis getting the proper needle. definitely got punched various times in the bcg.

I still have the scar and I got it circa 2000

(of course teenage boys being monsters everybody went round punching each other on the arm after they'd just had the shot)

God, yes, horrible little toerags. I've still got the scar and I had my Baccillus Calmette-Guérin considerably before 2000!

just checked, the indentation is still there and you can vaguely see it

my memory (and i'm not quite as old as marks but not far off, and also in the UK) is that about 12 or 13 (so 1980 ish) the girls got the jab that left a scar on the upper right arm, but the boys didn't, we had something, but not the thing that left the scar. i'm guessing rubella, because of the pregnancy risk. can't find any supporting evidence for this though and modern vaccinations are completely different (hpv, meningitis...)

yes there used to be an individual rubella shot which was administered to teenage girls in the eighties, think i'd already had german measles by then tbh

(of course teenage boys being monsters everybody went round punching each other on the arm after they'd just had the shot)

I remember the damp patch on my school shirt like yesterday after some 5th form bruiser bully boy repeatedly punched the tender jab area and pus was oozing out of this septic mess on my upper arm! Still got the scar.

i think there's enough of us to start a support group

my memory (and i'm not quite as old as marks but not far off, and also in the UK) is that about 12 or 13 (so 1980 ish) the girls got the jab that left a scar on the upper right arm, but the boys didn't, we had something, but not the thing that left the scar. i'm guessing rubella, because of the pregnancy risk. can't find any supporting evidence for this though and modern vaccinations are completely different (hpv, meningitis...)

BCG was compulsory between 1953 and 2005, so you would have got it, unless you had some sort of exemption.

So, apart from said exemptions, everyone in the UK aged between approx 30 and 80 would have had the BCG jag - fat lot of good it's done us.

er what. where did you read that?

I didn't get it. I had a test done as well when my wife had it - negative for antibodies. so that is bollocks, sorry

United Kingdom: The UK introduced universal BCG immunization in 1953. From then until July 2005, UK policy was to immunize all school children aged between 10 and 14 years of age, and all neonates born into high-risk groups. The injection was given only once during an individual's lifetime (as there is no evidence of additional protection from more than one vaccination). BCG was also given to protect people who had been exposed to tuberculosis. The peak of tuberculosis incidence is in adolescence and early adulthood, and an MRC trial showed efficacy lasted a maximum of 15 years.[63] Routine immunization with BCG for all school children was scrapped in July 2005 because of falling cost-effectiveness: whereas in 1953, 94 children would have to be immunized to prevent one case of TB, by 1988, the annual incidence of TB in the UK had fallen so much, 12,000 children would have to be immunized to prevent a single case of TB.[64] The vaccine is still given to at risk healthcare professionals.[65]

BCG was the injection which meant for about a month everyone was punching each other in the arm where they’d had their jab.

memorable for my brother whenever you went even close to him flinching away and going “MY BCG!”

this may or may not be a useful data point.

So, yes, there was a skin test before they gave you the vaccine, to see if you needed it.

The tuberculin skin test (also called the Mantoux test) may be given before you are offered the BCG vaccine. If you develop a hard red lump at the test site, this is a positive result. It means that your immune system already recognises TB, because you have been exposed to the disease in the past. In this case you should not be given the BCG vaccine because you already have some immunity to TB, and the vaccine may cause unpleasant side effects. If you have no reaction to the skin test, this is a negative result, and you can safely have the BCG vaccine.