I don’t doubt that. I was in health care during the pandemic and saw the ravages in the ICU. It reminded me of the movie “ The Andromeda Strain”. I was not direct patient care, but still saw plenty that I hope we never have to see again. Be well.
Most of us older nurses suffered severe depression, anxiety, and burnout. The lack of PPE, the denial from the trump administration, and the lack of testing at the start of the pandemic made us vulnerable and raw.
I saw something regarding the current bird flu - where is some concern about transmittal from birds, cows, etc to humans. Of course dont remember which particular post or show it was. But I do think its something to take very seriously after covid - and covid isnt completely gone either - no matter how lightly its being treated.
I'm sure anyone in the medical profession who was working in the midst of that - PTSD? I'm sure.
We've had a couple of articles about it in Colorado. (Check out online newspaper Colorado Sun, or Colorado Newsline.) There has been some transmission to humans working with dairy cattle, first reported in TX and then in CO. There are also reports of Mpox and Marburg in the States along with bird/avian flu and ongoing covid strains. So I still keep my masks handy and avoid indoor crowds.
I believe there is "experimental" (eg not yet approved) hyperbaric treatments being performed successfully on PTSD patients in Miami and 2 other non-domestic places. Just throwing that out there. So many Americans are suffering PTSD symptoms...for a variety of reasons.....if there is a treatment that can alleviate the symptoms, just seems like something we should follow through on.
PTSD is a plague that will only continue. The mental health of our society is of great concern. We have a huge number of people who are not connecting with reality, and they have formed an enormous cult around the personality of Trump. Children who were affected socially by Covid are hooked on their screens, and immature, and having harder times with in person relationships. American schools give so much school work that they interfere with time for developing relationships. All of us have way too much screen time.
I have discreetly observed behavior of children sitting next to their parents in open mics where I perform and if a child has a cell, they are glued to it and their parents think it’s perfectly fine. They the parents have no understanding of the damage they are doing to their children. We are now in the 2nd generation of this behavior mode. Social media has poisoned the minds of children. I know I sound like my parents once lamenting the Beatles poisoning young people. Once after I bought a pair of black suede Beatle boots, my father turned to his friend Earnie and said, “Look, he’s now wearing girl’s shoes.” Ha, I still have those tattered beatle boots. And no, I didn’t become a girl like the social media poisoning is doing. I’d be the ugliest bald-headed woman in the universe had I switched.
And possibly not enough "real work." Seems the MAGA crowd doesn't have actual jobs. Hollowing out of American society in general over the past several decades? No doubt someone thought that was a good idea. Sigh.
This seems to me like an important story that the major media entirely missed . I am a retired mental health therapist, and many of my colleagues who were still practicing were overwhelmed with the mental health needs of clients during the pandemic and the trump administration. Why were these effects swept under the rug?
MSM entirely ignored the mental health crisis of frontline workers. It’s a damn shame, because so many of us retired earlier than we had planned. I live alone with my cat, I miss my colleagues, but the thought of working in a hospital again gives me anxiety. I pick up an occasional temp gig at an ambulatory outpatient clinic just to keep updated, and I continue with my continuing education. But good luck to anyone who is admitted to a hospital, because most of the nurses are very young.
It is obvious that Trump et al are trying to destroy our country and therefore our lives by filling his Cabinet with deeply flawed people who want to destroy America for their own personal gains. This will not stand. We have never been subjugated by tyrants. We have not been ruled by Kings or Czars or Tyrants or Fuehrers or other odious rulers. This malignant wave will come crashing down and spend itself on the shores of Democracy. It is in our country's DNA.
Yes it is obvious. In her Substack Lucid, Prof Ruth Ben-Ghiat tells us that Russell Vought, Trump's pick for Office of Budget and Management is evidence that he is following the playbook laid out in Project 2025, since Russell wrote the chapter on what needs to happen in the department he has just been placed in charge of. In explaining what that is like she says, “ 'The fascists believed that you have to destroy to create, and this is what a second Trump administration would do,' I write. This ethos of creative destruction has long been espoused by extremist Steve Bannon and is now normalized by suit-wearing subversives such as Vought." https://lucid.substack.com/p/project-2025-as-authoritarian-takeover
Prof. Timothy Snyder has made this clear too, that this is a destructive administration designed to destroy what has been built as a society to support the people. All of those supports will be pulled from everyone who is not an oligarch funding the administration, who will buy access to services that the rest will no longer have. He tells us that, "Each appointment is part of a larger picture. Taken together, Trump’s candidates constitute an attempt to wreck the American government." https://open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p/decapitation-strike?r=f0qfn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Then we have Elon Musk the self described "disruptor." Who appears to be glued to Trump's side after having bought him the White House. Since they US has evolved the kind of capitalism where the super wealthy do not have to follow any of the rules that they impose on the rest of us, they like to mess up our lives and then feel superior as we struggle with their chaos which they continue to create.
"While any are bound, none are free" but yes I take your point. The Republican Party has sought for DECADES to destroy the federal government. I have never understood the "good" they think can come from it, and now of course they do not pretend to care about the "good of the whole" as opposed to the oligarchs. But I was taught you never burn something to the ground without having put a foundation down to build anew. They do not understand the need for that.
They do not. They think, first you destroy, then you rebuild. For them that is efficient. It might be. However, for us, we will have to rebuild what was destroyed when we get rid of them, and that will be like rebuilding Ukraine, or any other society that is totally destroyed. That is what they are banking on. The decision makers believe 1) that they and their friends will not be affected because they will have access, and 2) the decision makers that are Christian Nationalists believe that they are remaking our Nation into the God worshiping country as they see it, and that means God will reward THEM and come and take them to HEAVEN, once their work is done. So, they are in a hurry.
Well, I suppose we have never accused them of being clear thinkers! And they are drunk on their own power, in particular those with all the money. (Musk, for instance, doesn't seem to reflect on what he has done to his OWN bottom line with X and Tesla.) But burning down is easy. Building up is hard. And they don't plan to build up. They seem to have no concept of what is needed in today's world as far as a functioning civilization (or nation) requires. (I confess I'm also in a hurry for them to get to their heaven...)
Biden is still president. In effect, Putin has won. To me there is probable cause to make some arrests re Russian psy ops, Russian agents and willing idiots. May be probable cause to execute hand recounts in several states.
Hand recounts: yes, I saw a proposal that because of "bullet voting" (where only one candidate is marked and the rest of the down-ballot ignored) Kamala would have reason to demand a recount of ballots, especially in "swing states" because the automatic tabulation could be flawed with such unusual patterns. Go for it, KH!
obvious to who? To the leftists who were given the middle finger by America.
How about a walk down memory lane: Yellen, SEC of Treasury completed WHIFFED on inflation. Lloyd Austin, SEC of DEFENSE completely whiffed on Afganistan, Israeli Conflict, Ukraine, Myorkis, SEC of HHA Completely whiffed on the BORDER. Garland
Attorney General, used lawfare to go after his political opponent.
SHOULD I GO ON? These people ruined America. America responded.
These months, and certainly past weeks, have me thinking of "Farenheit 451" and the resistance movement who hid in the forests and each memorized one classic book to save for future generations. I wonder what our resistance to the MAGA arsonists will look like.
A few years ago, I expressed to a life-long friend, really the sister of my longtime friend, Veronica, that she get vaccinated. I didn't know she was not only an anti-vaxer, but an extreme MAGA. She told me no never would she ever get vaccinated. She told me her sweet baby Jesus would save her.
Still, that is unnerving that they would remove the “free” flu and Covid vaccines from senior citizens who are so much more susceptible to both of those. Twice now, upon returning from traveling, I have contracted Covid, but I am convinced that because I got vaccinated before I left on my trip to Italy, that my case was milder due to being vaccinated.
Exactly my experience too, SRN! My doctor also recommended the RSV vaccine for me due to my age and asthma, and also to protect my brother who I'm caring for now after his major surgery.
I fully appreciate your post. I tend to be sensitive to vaccines, not allergic, just sensitive. I space those puppies out, just like you would for a baby or a toddler. But I do get the things because the illness they help protect us from is a thousand times worse.
I think they do. There are a lot of "unproductive" people in this country, including seniors, disabled, children, and stay at home moms. And oligarchs don't need that big a servant class anyway. I can't figure out their thinking.
Actually, it isn't thinking at ALL. It is just greed and power madness.
Insurers are cutting back already on what they cover. Check your insurer's plan for 2025. United Advantage has taken Advair off its list (but my pharmacist says it's the brand name they're dumping and there is a generic so hopefully that will be true of other things as well. The brand names are obscenely priced. More greed.
An Idaho health department has voted to halt its' Covid-19 vaccination program. There are several health departments in Texas, Florida and Michigan that are pushing back against recommended Covid vaccines. Just listen to your private medical provider.
I had my only bout of covid so far in early June 2024. Horrid symptoms different in severity and kind than my partner and our friend. I asked and got paxlovid the second day. I honestly don't think I would have survived without it. I'm still not feeling completely well at times.
It will take your body a year or so to fully recover. Give yourself time and be patient. I'm still dealing with a two-week positive case from 14 months ago. I had paxlovid the first day too.
But RFK Jr. discouraged the citizens of American Samoa from getting measles vaccines, and there were 80 some deaths, many of them children ,and more than a thousand people became seriously ill He basically scared vulnerable people into not getting vaccinated.
I got infected by the measles and the chicken pox. As a child, I still recall how much I itched and scratched. I had scares for years. Iwas given the polio vaccine and any other vaccines that were available. I have mild high blood pressure, pre diabetes and I have bronchitis. This combo would have doomed me bad I not been given the vaccines and bad I cought Covid 19. I was paranoid for most of 2020. I knew 2 people who died.
I had chicken pox, measles and mumps as a child. Mumps were painful. It boggles my mind that an environmental attorney will be making life and death medical decisions. Isn't that practicing medicine without a license, not to mention the complete lack of scientific knowledge.? How bad is this going to get?
The only vaccine available when I was a young child was the smallpox vaccine. I had measles, mumps, chickenpox, horrible flus and rubella. Fortunately, I did not contract polio. Polio was scary; you could be disabled for life or in an iron lung. For those who thought they had recovered from polio, it struck again in middle age with post-polio syndrome. To all the anti-vaxxers out there: if you had lived through the polio epidemic, like I did, you’d be first in line for any vaccine available.
Those who did not live in the pre-vaccine era have no clue what it was like to get seriously ill and/or watch others die from these illnesses. Rubella in the pregnant woman was a very common cause of birth defects before the vaccine. 90% of babies born to women who contracted rubella in the 1st trimester were born with Congenital Rubella Syndrome- that is, if they survived the pregnancy. I remember treating kids with CRS when I was in my PT clinical rotations.
I worked with some post-polio patients when I was a PT. During college, I worked as a personal care attendant for a woman who became quadriplegic from polio when she was in her teens. She spent time in an iron lung, but thankfully was able to wean off from it as she recovered. My mother lost her best friend to polio and my husband’s grandfather had a weak leg due to polio.
It’s terrifying to think we could have a resurgence of these diseases due to malicious dismantling of our public health system.
Thanks for the history on Rubella. There is a resurgence in my state of Pertussis, so we’re already seeing the consequences of false propaganda. (It’s almost time for my TDAP vaccine!)
I may opt for the TDAP before 45 becomes 47. I have resisted getting it, opting for the DT in the past because my family seems to not do well with the pertussis component- 2/3 kids had bad reactions. I had a close call this fall because a student’s family member got pertussis. I believe they had been vaccinated, but it was more than 10 years prior to this infection. The There were several sick at school.
I’m sorry to learn about your hearing loss. I still remember the excruciating earache I had from the measles when I was four years old. Fortunately I had no hearing loss. Folks who didn’t live through this pre-vaccine era cannot who fathom what kids went through and the sometimes lasting effects on their lives. I’m glad we at least had the smallpox vaccine. My dermatologist asked me what the scar on left shoulder was from. I guess he didn’t see enough older folks with this type of scar.
I think it’s going to be worse than any of us can imagine. They want to do away with all of the government institutions that protect us, it’s madness. Putting these idiots in charge of these agency’s when they hate everything the agency’s stand for and are doing is precisely his intent. Right now they are just talking, in late January they will begin doing. Every one of us was raised in a country where our government worked to some degree to protect us, that is going to change in Jan.
The year my oldest sister went to kindergarten she brought home measles, mumps and then chicken pox. there was a two week quarantine for each , we didn't get them at the same time. So Kathy had it, the next fortnight Fran had it, the third i did. Kathy went back to school and got the next disease. Basically Kathy didn't go to school again until December.
Both of my parents were teachers but my mom was a substitute teacher so was able to be home for this hellish stretch, since my grandmother was still working full-time she could not have stayed home with us.
It's all of a piece and it scares me and makes me furious
Oh so sad. There are so many such stories. And the uniter I’m sorry, divider in chief, just spit out invectives because he is so fucked up and now he gets elected. (Sorry for my word selection.)
They were not close to me. One was a retired insurance executive enjoying her retirement years. The other was an artist and former NFL player from the 1960s before football players were paid big time salaries.
I don't know your age but have you had the "permanent pneumonia" vaccine? It protected me from plurisy and bronchitis and flu as well as pneumonia, until covid hit. And it still isn't anywhere like respiratory ills before the pneumonia vaccine.
I received all my vaccines! I feel great!! When I was dismayed that people weren’t getting the Covid vaccines and people were dying (during the Trump “reign”), an unsympathetic doctor said, “Look at it this way, they will destroy their gene pool.”
I can’t get both flu shot and Covid shot at the same time. I have too huge a reaction; so does my sister. We do much better if we space them apart a few weeks. We also get them earlier - in early to mid October as they take a few weeks to “work”.
My dear wife and I did the "doublet" two months ago - NO charge for Medicare enrollees, we're NOT stupid, each has had one bout of Covid-19 despite full vaccination regimen...shit happens, right? But sailed through, thanks to to a boost from Paxlovid... science rules, people, don't let anyone tell you differently!
My husband and me, too, exactly! We had the Covid and flu shots in September, anticipating a family reunion in Fresno (can you say. “Trump country?”) Thankfully, we were safe (he’s 81, I’m 78.) And we expect to stay on an every six-month schedule for Covid as long as we can.
Songgirl Kim, an ICU RN is about as high as you can go in your profession;
a huge responsibility. Now some RNs, as we all may know are becoming nurse practitioners….my older sister likes hers better than the pcp. As for Joyce sharing her experience, another 12 out of 10. Just an aside, there’s another post I follow about what’s here, vaccines and their variations due to reactions, as well as what to watch for in the future: My local Epidemiologist. She posted a new report on substack 11/22/24.
I hope Joyce feels better asap! No pressure of course. But I’ve become slightly dependent on her pov as well as her chicken therapy, which she included today along with her helper son.
Thank you Joyce. Although I am a small fish in a big pond, as a hospice chaplain I spent covid years seeing pts in skilled nursing and other facilities dressed in my full PPE gear because at the time loves one’s were not allowed in facilities, and whenever I hear anyone breathe a hint of covid conspiracy BS (in line at the market, with current pts etc) i speak right up and set them straight. It is unbelievable to me that still so many people think covid was no big deal or it wasnt real. It offends me.
That was another year that our life expectancy stats went down. Expect it to keep rolling downhill after Jan 20, 2025. Unfreakingbeleivable that people let this monster back in the damn door!
I have to get my vaccines in secret because my family is maga and evangelical xtians who believe their god will protect them. But get them I do! I can’t believe their ignorance.
Get back with us after he brings us into a depression with his “brilliant “ economic plan, 100% tariffs and all. Then you can tell us what your family thinks.
Thank you for the comfort you provided patients at their most vulnerable time. The Government did a huge disservice to society by not constantly showing what Covid looked like and its aftermath. Maybe those skeptics may have been turned, but if not, well, sometimes you just can’t fix stupid!
I don’t know about you but I remember dead bodies being stacked up in refrigerated trucks waiting outside hospitals to accommodate the rapidly dying Covid patients.
I also remember patients on ventilators begging to be vaccinated and the doctors saying, “I’m terribly sorry but it’s too late.”
As a hospice nurse during covid, I do the same! I saw families sick with covid caring for family members dying at home from covid so they could be together.
I’m old enough that I went to school with kids paralyzed by polio. One came to class on a rolling platform her dad made for her that propped her up so she could see and participate. Specialized wheelchairs for kids who were profoundly disabled weren’t common then. I will never underestimate the importance of vaccines and I’m horrified if not surprised by Trump’s picks for various aspects of our health. We now have human incidents of bird flu in my state and I greatly fear the lack of response we will see under RFK Jr and the rest.
Joyce, thanks for the reminder and I hope you’re feeling better soon.
Our teenaged nextdoor neighbor when I was little was longterm bedridden with polio. I remember getting the sugar cube vaccine when I was maybe 3. It stood out because my mother had to be taken to another place to get it because she had juvenile diabetes and couldn't have the sugar cube. My dad and I stood in this cafeteria or multi-purpose room of a nearby elementary school, had ours and waited for her.
Not only do I have the original scar, I was revaccinated 2x in order to travel overseas (the yellow card). I also got the original Salk vaccine. I was terrified - of needles. The sane world was terrified of polio, and lined up. I had chicken pox and measles as a kid, and got both kinds of the shingles vaccines. I find the current mindset of vaccine deniers and Covid deniers and science deniers incomprehensible- and terrifying. Lotsa terrifying to go around.
My mother and I had to have a bunch of shots before they let us in in 1951. Ditto the smallpox scar. Remember, too, the public pools closing during the summers before the polio vaccine became available. I was one pissed off little kid every summer. Loved those public pools.
My mother insisted that my sister and I get the smallpox vaccine on our upper thighs. Don't know why. Maybe she thought we'd want to enter into beauty pageants or something when we got older.
I have a PhD in Public Health, I had several dinners with DA Henderson, the man who led the WHO teams to eradicate smallpox. It is worse yet when the doctors are the quacks. Found out on WED my soon to be former endocrinologist won't be getting anymore COVID shots, thinks it's time to get rid of the NIH and thinks we "need to look at all these vaccines". Cult member👀
Perhaps your former endo doc will be recruited to work with RFK Jr. You could show him/her some of the comments to this column from us Baby Boomers about polio and the lack of vaccines for other contagious diseases. With over one million Covid deaths in the US, how can anyone be against vaccines?
My ex doctor is an anti vaxxer. He did though save my life when a test he ordered found Hepatitis C. I was one of the fortunate ones I never was a big drinker and I went into protocol studies until a new three drug cocktail irradiated the disease. It (the three drugs) almost killed me but I determined to stay the course. That was about 15 plus years ago. But the old geezer just doesn’t believe in vaccines. And it permanently cured me of a dreadful disease.
I took care of post-polio patients who had to have Harrrington steel rods inserted on either side of the spine so their chests would not cave in on itself resulting in suffocation.
There is much suffering with polio, but while MAGA wants to cut taxes and spending, those debilitated by this disease face a life of expensive care in order to survive. Trump's choices make no economic sense to me, never mind medical sense.
Post polio syndrome can be devastating. As a boomer, I knew many kids who were afflicted. Our Jr Orange Bowl queen died in late middle age from post polio sequelae.
I lost a good friend to post polio. Also my close friend who had polio, married and died after the birth of her daughter. She had been warned by doc's not to get pregnant but she wanted a baby so badly.
Undermining faith in the institution of government and public health is a step in manipulating the population to rely on Big Daddy for help, safety, and information. People who no longer trust their own senses and judgement turn to magical thinking and will do what they are told.
Our grade school was next to a facility that housed children paralyzed from polio. They required constant care. Our play ground was next to theirs with only a barb wire fence separating us. They would be outside in their wheel chairs and come over to the fence to visit with us (they were no longer contagious). I remember when the vaccine came out how my parents and all our teachers celebrated and how sorry we felt about the children who didn't get a vaccine in time. My 4th grade teacher's husband was in an iron lung from it. Everyone knew someone who'd had polio. And now the Palestinian children aren't being allowed to complete their vaccines against it. Just criminal.
Same experience I had in grade school, TJ. They would bring the disabled kids over to my school to use our cafeteria for lunch, and in 4th, 5th, and 6th grades, I got to help serve and feed them lunch. That was my first experience in serving others, and it stuck. I’m now 72, and that early experience formed my sense of serving others.
How sweet that you got to help feed them. Thank you for sharing that. My sister and I wanted to help the polio kids on the other side of the barb wire fence but of course we weren't allowed to go over it. We loved them and worried about them so much.
Trump is like a mad comic book character. I have to remind myself that he is merely a pawn. Partly, he is driven by his egomania, but he is also pushed from behind by the oligarchs, Project 2025 guys, and the Heritage Foundation. They've been at this for 40 years and think they have it in the bag. They don't.
Yes he does know what he's doing, but he's also a pawn in the sense that his ego kowtows to Putin, so he can get some kind of gratification. Putin uses that need to get what he wants from trump.
My mother got polio when she was 20 years old. Hers was the only case in the county in1940. My grandparents and she worked their tails off rehabbing her so she could walk again. She was sullied to wear a hip to ankle brace but she was too hardheaded to do so so she created her own walk with a left leg that turned out to basically be just a weight that had to be dealt with. She could fall easily and did and she spent the last ten or so years of her life in a power chair. When she ended up in a nursing home, I had to instruct the staff about polio and how she needed to be handled because no one had ever seen the disease or effects from it. It’s a terrible disease that can strike communities seemingly out of the blue. So it’s this and so many others that these ignoramuses are willing to see return with a vengeance. What the whites did to the Native Americans could very well come back to bite people in the butt. Karma can be a bastard.
The other thing I understand about polio is that you can be fine (with the expected aftereffects) for years, and then suddenly it hits you again. I remember hearing about that a few years back.
True. My cousin’s spine began to collapse in her mid-50’s from the polio she had when she was 12. She had lost about seven inches in height the last time I saw her. Also, my friend’s husband still has problems/pain with his knees from childhood polio. Many years ago I dated a guy who had had polio, and one leg was shorter than the other so he had to have the sole of one shoe built up.
My uncle had polio as a child. He was not able to have children as a result. He would have made a great dad. He was a wonderful uncle. He passed three years ago.
I was one of the early recipients of the polio vaccine also. I remember how happy my parents were to have us get the vaccine (or the sugar cube) so we wouldn't end up crippled, in an Iron Lung, or worse! My blood boils when I hear idiots spouting the conspiracy theories!
I remember going to girl scout mariners gathering where one of the girls there had to sleep in an iron lung, which she brought with her. I had a chance to experience an iron lung and was shocked that people could fight it, the way I heard they did, because when someone turns the pressure up it is impossible to resist. I also remember getting my polio vaccine.
Every day I post on Facebook about the sort of things we know to be a real and present danger. Often I get lots of negative comments from the deep red sea here in central Alabama. But today I posted about vaccines, starting with the year of my birth when DPT shots began for babies, on to polio vaccines in 1955 when I was a 1st grader, on through the devopments in the life time of my children and now my grands. It's the history teacher in me! I had nothing but positive comments, even from an old friend who's a Maga. Seems people can understand the threat when it comes to our babies. And I made sure to point out what having anti-vaxers in power wil mean.
I am glad to hear of your success the second time. I do think particular angles and using hard data can help so that people can understand the direct relationship between vaccines and health. Good work !!! And thank you!
Thank you for keeping us afloat, Joyce. You’re a lifeboat. We rely on your steadfastness to keep us from letting go and slipping under. I hope you feel the love
Already had my vaccines done, including RSV. Finished them about a month ago.
I'm angry! I'm not necessarily afraid but I am damn angry about all this. I keep hearing that the Dems should have done this & that need to that. Yes, things need to be reviewed & changes made but the reason Kamala Harris lost is because of racism, misogyny, stupidity & morality. I don't care how expensive things are you don't vote for a liar, Conman, cheat, felon, serial molester. You just don't. I don't care that Kamala is a woman. I don't care the she's black/South Asian. I care that she is qualified & that a good portion of this country has lost all sense of decency!!!
Your attitude is the one we should all have. Kamala Harris is highly qualified to be president. That is what matters, not the superficial things our country focuses on.
I love a guy who wears his jammies and sits with chickens! Kudos to your son.
A vaccine is really like boot camp for your immune system. Instead of a surprise attack by an unknown enemy, there is some advance practice and warning with dummy combatants (inactivated viruses). Any military unit would prefer advance warning with time to order the right weapons and practice using them. We know an outbreak with a disease in an unvaccinated population results in more disease, morbidity, mortality, and societal costs. Looking at the data, who would choose not to get vaccinated?
My brother and sister-in-law. They got the very first Covid vaccine, and my brother may have gotten the second follow-up, but somewhere along the line the sis-in-law decided no more and has not gotten one since. I don’t know what the hell is wrong with them, they work in crowds of people. They voted for drumpf and unfortunately they will find out what a great guy he really is. It is just a matter of time.
I’ve gotten all of my boosters for the fall. I plan to keep getting them but I worry RFK Jr will disrupt production so we can’t get them. I’m also worried he’ll go after biologics like the one I get to control my asthma. Ugh…
I got my shots about a month ago and, I'm lucky, no reaction whatsoever. I'd also recommend that everyone try to get their children, relatives and friends to get their shots too. I hope we all have a very Happy Thanksgiving.
Science has to be followed. All who do, which is US, will be OK. No room for conspiracy theories regarding health, especially when it comes to any children. We are the fact based group; the rest is all noise.
Already got my seasonal vaccines and Covid booster. Now working on getting some of the more long term ones up to date like Tdap, which includes whooping cough, which seems to be spiking, at least here in California
My husband and I got the Tdap also. I remembered because our oldest granddaughter turns 10 in Dec and we got it before she was born. Who knows what will happen when the anti-vax nutjobs take over!
Although I am retired, I’m still a licensed ICU RN, and I approve this message. I also received both shots in the same arm.
Thank you for your past service as an RN. I sure it was not easy and most likely stressful. Enjoy your retirement; it is well-deserved.
Most of my close colleagues retired at the start of the pandemic. Many of them are suffering PTSD.
I don’t doubt that. I was in health care during the pandemic and saw the ravages in the ICU. It reminded me of the movie “ The Andromeda Strain”. I was not direct patient care, but still saw plenty that I hope we never have to see again. Be well.
Most of us older nurses suffered severe depression, anxiety, and burnout. The lack of PPE, the denial from the trump administration, and the lack of testing at the start of the pandemic made us vulnerable and raw.
I’m so sorry trumps administration failed you. Blessings to you and your nurse friends. And, a huge thank you.
Vickie, beautifully said.
I saw something regarding the current bird flu - where is some concern about transmittal from birds, cows, etc to humans. Of course dont remember which particular post or show it was. But I do think its something to take very seriously after covid - and covid isnt completely gone either - no matter how lightly its being treated.
I'm sure anyone in the medical profession who was working in the midst of that - PTSD? I'm sure.
We've had a couple of articles about it in Colorado. (Check out online newspaper Colorado Sun, or Colorado Newsline.) There has been some transmission to humans working with dairy cattle, first reported in TX and then in CO. There are also reports of Mpox and Marburg in the States along with bird/avian flu and ongoing covid strains. So I still keep my masks handy and avoid indoor crowds.
Stay strong, songgirl kim, you are appreciated
Thank you, Heather
I remember it well. I read a story about a young doctor who committed suicide over it. Soo sad.
Andromeda Strain! One of my all-time fav films. I will have to look for that and watch it again now! Thanks, Mike, and YOU stay well!
Thank you and you’re welcome.
I believe there is "experimental" (eg not yet approved) hyperbaric treatments being performed successfully on PTSD patients in Miami and 2 other non-domestic places. Just throwing that out there. So many Americans are suffering PTSD symptoms...for a variety of reasons.....if there is a treatment that can alleviate the symptoms, just seems like something we should follow through on.
PTSD is a plague that will only continue. The mental health of our society is of great concern. We have a huge number of people who are not connecting with reality, and they have formed an enormous cult around the personality of Trump. Children who were affected socially by Covid are hooked on their screens, and immature, and having harder times with in person relationships. American schools give so much school work that they interfere with time for developing relationships. All of us have way too much screen time.
I have discreetly observed behavior of children sitting next to their parents in open mics where I perform and if a child has a cell, they are glued to it and their parents think it’s perfectly fine. They the parents have no understanding of the damage they are doing to their children. We are now in the 2nd generation of this behavior mode. Social media has poisoned the minds of children. I know I sound like my parents once lamenting the Beatles poisoning young people. Once after I bought a pair of black suede Beatle boots, my father turned to his friend Earnie and said, “Look, he’s now wearing girl’s shoes.” Ha, I still have those tattered beatle boots. And no, I didn’t become a girl like the social media poisoning is doing. I’d be the ugliest bald-headed woman in the universe had I switched.
And possibly not enough "real work." Seems the MAGA crowd doesn't have actual jobs. Hollowing out of American society in general over the past several decades? No doubt someone thought that was a good idea. Sigh.
Oregon has legalized Psilocybin therapy for PTSD and other issues. Apparently with good results.
This seems to me like an important story that the major media entirely missed . I am a retired mental health therapist, and many of my colleagues who were still practicing were overwhelmed with the mental health needs of clients during the pandemic and the trump administration. Why were these effects swept under the rug?
MSM entirely ignored the mental health crisis of frontline workers. It’s a damn shame, because so many of us retired earlier than we had planned. I live alone with my cat, I miss my colleagues, but the thought of working in a hospital again gives me anxiety. I pick up an occasional temp gig at an ambulatory outpatient clinic just to keep updated, and I continue with my continuing education. But good luck to anyone who is admitted to a hospital, because most of the nurses are very young.
It is obvious that Trump et al are trying to destroy our country and therefore our lives by filling his Cabinet with deeply flawed people who want to destroy America for their own personal gains. This will not stand. We have never been subjugated by tyrants. We have not been ruled by Kings or Czars or Tyrants or Fuehrers or other odious rulers. This malignant wave will come crashing down and spend itself on the shores of Democracy. It is in our country's DNA.
Yes it is obvious. In her Substack Lucid, Prof Ruth Ben-Ghiat tells us that Russell Vought, Trump's pick for Office of Budget and Management is evidence that he is following the playbook laid out in Project 2025, since Russell wrote the chapter on what needs to happen in the department he has just been placed in charge of. In explaining what that is like she says, “ 'The fascists believed that you have to destroy to create, and this is what a second Trump administration would do,' I write. This ethos of creative destruction has long been espoused by extremist Steve Bannon and is now normalized by suit-wearing subversives such as Vought." https://lucid.substack.com/p/project-2025-as-authoritarian-takeover
Prof. Timothy Snyder has made this clear too, that this is a destructive administration designed to destroy what has been built as a society to support the people. All of those supports will be pulled from everyone who is not an oligarch funding the administration, who will buy access to services that the rest will no longer have. He tells us that, "Each appointment is part of a larger picture. Taken together, Trump’s candidates constitute an attempt to wreck the American government." https://open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p/decapitation-strike?r=f0qfn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Then we have Elon Musk the self described "disruptor." Who appears to be glued to Trump's side after having bought him the White House. Since they US has evolved the kind of capitalism where the super wealthy do not have to follow any of the rules that they impose on the rest of us, they like to mess up our lives and then feel superior as we struggle with their chaos which they continue to create.
"While any are bound, none are free" but yes I take your point. The Republican Party has sought for DECADES to destroy the federal government. I have never understood the "good" they think can come from it, and now of course they do not pretend to care about the "good of the whole" as opposed to the oligarchs. But I was taught you never burn something to the ground without having put a foundation down to build anew. They do not understand the need for that.
They do not. They think, first you destroy, then you rebuild. For them that is efficient. It might be. However, for us, we will have to rebuild what was destroyed when we get rid of them, and that will be like rebuilding Ukraine, or any other society that is totally destroyed. That is what they are banking on. The decision makers believe 1) that they and their friends will not be affected because they will have access, and 2) the decision makers that are Christian Nationalists believe that they are remaking our Nation into the God worshiping country as they see it, and that means God will reward THEM and come and take them to HEAVEN, once their work is done. So, they are in a hurry.
Well, I suppose we have never accused them of being clear thinkers! And they are drunk on their own power, in particular those with all the money. (Musk, for instance, doesn't seem to reflect on what he has done to his OWN bottom line with X and Tesla.) But burning down is easy. Building up is hard. And they don't plan to build up. They seem to have no concept of what is needed in today's world as far as a functioning civilization (or nation) requires. (I confess I'm also in a hurry for them to get to their heaven...)
Biden is still president. In effect, Putin has won. To me there is probable cause to make some arrests re Russian psy ops, Russian agents and willing idiots. May be probable cause to execute hand recounts in several states.
Hand recounts: yes, I saw a proposal that because of "bullet voting" (where only one candidate is marked and the rest of the down-ballot ignored) Kamala would have reason to demand a recount of ballots, especially in "swing states" because the automatic tabulation could be flawed with such unusual patterns. Go for it, KH!
More evidence from Palast. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfs2kC0xOmU
Biden's current actions in Ukraine concern me as escalations. The state of the world has not been this terrifying in a very long time.
How will we organize?
obvious to who? To the leftists who were given the middle finger by America.
How about a walk down memory lane: Yellen, SEC of Treasury completed WHIFFED on inflation. Lloyd Austin, SEC of DEFENSE completely whiffed on Afganistan, Israeli Conflict, Ukraine, Myorkis, SEC of HHA Completely whiffed on the BORDER. Garland
Attorney General, used lawfare to go after his political opponent.
SHOULD I GO ON? These people ruined America. America responded.
These months, and certainly past weeks, have me thinking of "Farenheit 451" and the resistance movement who hid in the forests and each memorized one classic book to save for future generations. I wonder what our resistance to the MAGA arsonists will look like.
A few years ago, I expressed to a life-long friend, really the sister of my longtime friend, Veronica, that she get vaccinated. I didn't know she was not only an anti-vaxer, but an extreme MAGA. She told me no never would she ever get vaccinated. She told me her sweet baby Jesus would save her.
So I wrote a song to her, recorded it on youtube and sent it to her. She screamed at me. Enjoy: Vaccine for Veronica: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6Enog4QCDQ
In case they are approved, is there any way these appointees could prevent us from getting shots?
While they may not be able to prevent you getting a vaccine, they WILL prevent Medicare and Medicaid from paying for it.
Still, that is unnerving that they would remove the “free” flu and Covid vaccines from senior citizens who are so much more susceptible to both of those. Twice now, upon returning from traveling, I have contracted Covid, but I am convinced that because I got vaccinated before I left on my trip to Italy, that my case was milder due to being vaccinated.
Exactly my experience too, SRN! My doctor also recommended the RSV vaccine for me due to my age and asthma, and also to protect my brother who I'm caring for now after his major surgery.
They can't prevent anything before January 20! The vaccines seem to be plentiful now.
Yes! I plan on getting the flu & covid vaxxes right after Thanksgiving, when I have time to be sick for 3 days.
I fully appreciate your post. I tend to be sensitive to vaccines, not allergic, just sensitive. I space those puppies out, just like you would for a baby or a toddler. But I do get the things because the illness they help protect us from is a thousand times worse.
Ugh! I got mine a week apart so if I had a reaction I would know which one caused it. Hopefully you won't! Take Ibuprofen or Tylenol if necessary.
I have no clue. He’s running with a bunch of quacks now, and science cannot be denied.
Yes, if they don't maintain a supply. Some are low profit and thus subsidized by the government.
They will do their best to deny that vaccines are even needed.
I swear, it seems like they just want people to die. They are evil incarnate.
I think they do. There are a lot of "unproductive" people in this country, including seniors, disabled, children, and stay at home moms. And oligarchs don't need that big a servant class anyway. I can't figure out their thinking.
Actually, it isn't thinking at ALL. It is just greed and power madness.
Although, Trump himself took that vaccine, quietly, privately, while in the White House.
They convinced millions before.
I'm concerned that if the FDA is trashed that vaccines might no longer be available. I'm worried about other medications that I take, too.
Insurers are cutting back already on what they cover. Check your insurer's plan for 2025. United Advantage has taken Advair off its list (but my pharmacist says it's the brand name they're dumping and there is a generic so hopefully that will be true of other things as well. The brand names are obscenely priced. More greed.
An Idaho health department has voted to halt its' Covid-19 vaccination program. There are several health departments in Texas, Florida and Michigan that are pushing back against recommended Covid vaccines. Just listen to your private medical provider.
Bunch of complete idiots.
Linda, that's terrifying!
I had my only bout of covid so far in early June 2024. Horrid symptoms different in severity and kind than my partner and our friend. I asked and got paxlovid the second day. I honestly don't think I would have survived without it. I'm still not feeling completely well at times.
It will take your body a year or so to fully recover. Give yourself time and be patient. I'm still dealing with a two-week positive case from 14 months ago. I had paxlovid the first day too.
Kennedy said he would not deny vaccinations to people who want them.Lest we forget that T, had the booster after his own bout with Covid.
But RFK Jr. discouraged the citizens of American Samoa from getting measles vaccines, and there were 80 some deaths, many of them children ,and more than a thousand people became seriously ill He basically scared vulnerable people into not getting vaccinated.
Isn’t it your insurance company that dictates that, but, of course, in the future the trump administration could have some impact on that.
And when your insurance company is Medicare? Then what?
I don’t think so. Medication can be made available.
I got infected by the measles and the chicken pox. As a child, I still recall how much I itched and scratched. I had scares for years. Iwas given the polio vaccine and any other vaccines that were available. I have mild high blood pressure, pre diabetes and I have bronchitis. This combo would have doomed me bad I not been given the vaccines and bad I cought Covid 19. I was paranoid for most of 2020. I knew 2 people who died.
I had chicken pox, measles and mumps as a child. Mumps were painful. It boggles my mind that an environmental attorney will be making life and death medical decisions. Isn't that practicing medicine without a license, not to mention the complete lack of scientific knowledge.? How bad is this going to get?
The only vaccine available when I was a young child was the smallpox vaccine. I had measles, mumps, chickenpox, horrible flus and rubella. Fortunately, I did not contract polio. Polio was scary; you could be disabled for life or in an iron lung. For those who thought they had recovered from polio, it struck again in middle age with post-polio syndrome. To all the anti-vaxxers out there: if you had lived through the polio epidemic, like I did, you’d be first in line for any vaccine available.
Those who did not live in the pre-vaccine era have no clue what it was like to get seriously ill and/or watch others die from these illnesses. Rubella in the pregnant woman was a very common cause of birth defects before the vaccine. 90% of babies born to women who contracted rubella in the 1st trimester were born with Congenital Rubella Syndrome- that is, if they survived the pregnancy. I remember treating kids with CRS when I was in my PT clinical rotations.
I worked with some post-polio patients when I was a PT. During college, I worked as a personal care attendant for a woman who became quadriplegic from polio when she was in her teens. She spent time in an iron lung, but thankfully was able to wean off from it as she recovered. My mother lost her best friend to polio and my husband’s grandfather had a weak leg due to polio.
It’s terrifying to think we could have a resurgence of these diseases due to malicious dismantling of our public health system.
Thanks for the history on Rubella. There is a resurgence in my state of Pertussis, so we’re already seeing the consequences of false propaganda. (It’s almost time for my TDAP vaccine!)
I may opt for the TDAP before 45 becomes 47. I have resisted getting it, opting for the DT in the past because my family seems to not do well with the pertussis component- 2/3 kids had bad reactions. I had a close call this fall because a student’s family member got pertussis. I believe they had been vaccinated, but it was more than 10 years prior to this infection. The There were several sick at school.
I, too, had all those illnesses. The measles left me hearing-impaired. Never goes away, never gets better and it only gets worse as I get older.
Who would want that for their children?
As I see it, the problem with these idiot anti-vaxxers today is that they were vaxxed, so they've never seen what these illnesses can do.
I’m sorry to learn about your hearing loss. I still remember the excruciating earache I had from the measles when I was four years old. Fortunately I had no hearing loss. Folks who didn’t live through this pre-vaccine era cannot who fathom what kids went through and the sometimes lasting effects on their lives. I’m glad we at least had the smallpox vaccine. My dermatologist asked me what the scar on left shoulder was from. I guess he didn’t see enough older folks with this type of scar.
You don’t want to know . . .
I think it’s going to be worse than any of us can imagine. They want to do away with all of the government institutions that protect us, it’s madness. Putting these idiots in charge of these agency’s when they hate everything the agency’s stand for and are doing is precisely his intent. Right now they are just talking, in late January they will begin doing. Every one of us was raised in a country where our government worked to some degree to protect us, that is going to change in Jan.
The year my oldest sister went to kindergarten she brought home measles, mumps and then chicken pox. there was a two week quarantine for each , we didn't get them at the same time. So Kathy had it, the next fortnight Fran had it, the third i did. Kathy went back to school and got the next disease. Basically Kathy didn't go to school again until December.
Both of my parents were teachers but my mom was a substitute teacher so was able to be home for this hellish stretch, since my grandmother was still working full-time she could not have stayed home with us.
It's all of a piece and it scares me and makes me furious
Hopefully, knock wood, he will not be confirmed.
Bad and sad.
I think it will come down to those who can afford them can get them.
So sorry about your losses. I lost a young nephew.
We lost an 8-year-old great niece in 2020, right at the beginning of the pandemic, before they knew what it was. She died on Valentine’s Day.
The family has never been the same. The father committed suicide last summer.
Oh so sad. There are so many such stories. And the uniter I’m sorry, divider in chief, just spit out invectives because he is so fucked up and now he gets elected. (Sorry for my word selection.)
They were not close to me. One was a retired insurance executive enjoying her retirement years. The other was an artist and former NFL player from the 1960s before football players were paid big time salaries.
Still affects you though. 🌷
Yes for sure.
I don't know your age but have you had the "permanent pneumonia" vaccine? It protected me from plurisy and bronchitis and flu as well as pneumonia, until covid hit. And it still isn't anywhere like respiratory ills before the pneumonia vaccine.
I received all my vaccines! I feel great!! When I was dismayed that people weren’t getting the Covid vaccines and people were dying (during the Trump “reign”), an unsympathetic doctor said, “Look at it this way, they will destroy their gene pool.”
That's what I thought too and I'm not usually that callous. Is callousness contagious, do you think? Certainly seems to be a lot of it going around.
I can’t get both flu shot and Covid shot at the same time. I have too huge a reaction; so does my sister. We do much better if we space them apart a few weeks. We also get them earlier - in early to mid October as they take a few weeks to “work”.
I space mine out, too. Otherwise I'll feel like an anvil fell on me.
Like a tumor, a malignant normality descends upon the country. 💔 Resistance is not futile but fertile. ✌🏽 Optimism in justice remains paramount. ⚖️
So does belief in science.
Not what The Borg said: “Resistance is futile.”
My dear wife and I did the "doublet" two months ago - NO charge for Medicare enrollees, we're NOT stupid, each has had one bout of Covid-19 despite full vaccination regimen...shit happens, right? But sailed through, thanks to to a boost from Paxlovid... science rules, people, don't let anyone tell you differently!
My husband and me, too, exactly! We had the Covid and flu shots in September, anticipating a family reunion in Fresno (can you say. “Trump country?”) Thankfully, we were safe (he’s 81, I’m 78.) And we expect to stay on an every six-month schedule for Covid as long as we can.
Songgirl Kim, an ICU RN is about as high as you can go in your profession;
a huge responsibility. Now some RNs, as we all may know are becoming nurse practitioners….my older sister likes hers better than the pcp. As for Joyce sharing her experience, another 12 out of 10. Just an aside, there’s another post I follow about what’s here, vaccines and their variations due to reactions, as well as what to watch for in the future: My local Epidemiologist. She posted a new report on substack 11/22/24.
I hope Joyce feels better asap! No pressure of course. But I’ve become slightly dependent on her pov as well as her chicken therapy, which she included today along with her helper son.
I get so ill from each of them that I need to have them at least a week apart.
I also received both shots, but two weeks apart because like Joyce, I have a reaction to both shots that keep me in bed for a day.
Thank you Joyce. Although I am a small fish in a big pond, as a hospice chaplain I spent covid years seeing pts in skilled nursing and other facilities dressed in my full PPE gear because at the time loves one’s were not allowed in facilities, and whenever I hear anyone breathe a hint of covid conspiracy BS (in line at the market, with current pts etc) i speak right up and set them straight. It is unbelievable to me that still so many people think covid was no big deal or it wasnt real. It offends me.
555,000 Americans died in the 12 weeks Trump did nothing. (Brookings Institute)😢💕
It became the third leading cause of death during the pandemic. Who in their right mind wouldn't take a vaccine for one of the top 5 killers?
That was another year that our life expectancy stats went down. Expect it to keep rolling downhill after Jan 20, 2025. Unfreakingbeleivable that people let this monster back in the damn door!
I hear you.
I have to get my vaccines in secret because my family is maga and evangelical xtians who believe their god will protect them. But get them I do! I can’t believe their ignorance.
Reader/Writer: GOOD FOR YOU, that you're getting protected!
Get back with us after he brings us into a depression with his “brilliant “ economic plan, 100% tariffs and all. Then you can tell us what your family thinks.
Curious, are they college graduates?
One thing that's scary is when someone almost dies from COVID and then says it's no big deal. We're talking about trump here.
Of course it was no big deal for the oaf, when he had resources, including the then experimental Paxlovid, well beyond those of the ordinary citizen.
Didn't stop it from exposing his Secret Service agents in his attempts to be macho. I wonder how they fared afterwards.
I sure hope they were all OK, despite him!
Dale - exactly! He had all the best care available!
Rotted pumpkin.
He is the ultimate ignoramus. His Wharton professor said he was the dumbest student he ever had.
Thank you for the comfort you provided patients at their most vulnerable time. The Government did a huge disservice to society by not constantly showing what Covid looked like and its aftermath. Maybe those skeptics may have been turned, but if not, well, sometimes you just can’t fix stupid!
I don’t know about you but I remember dead bodies being stacked up in refrigerated trucks waiting outside hospitals to accommodate the rapidly dying Covid patients.
I also remember patients on ventilators begging to be vaccinated and the doctors saying, “I’m terribly sorry but it’s too late.”
And too many have long COVID.
As a hospice nurse during covid, I do the same! I saw families sick with covid caring for family members dying at home from covid so they could be together.
I’m old enough that I went to school with kids paralyzed by polio. One came to class on a rolling platform her dad made for her that propped her up so she could see and participate. Specialized wheelchairs for kids who were profoundly disabled weren’t common then. I will never underestimate the importance of vaccines and I’m horrified if not surprised by Trump’s picks for various aspects of our health. We now have human incidents of bird flu in my state and I greatly fear the lack of response we will see under RFK Jr and the rest.
Joyce, thanks for the reminder and I hope you’re feeling better soon.
Our teenaged nextdoor neighbor when I was little was longterm bedridden with polio. I remember getting the sugar cube vaccine when I was maybe 3. It stood out because my mother had to be taken to another place to get it because she had juvenile diabetes and couldn't have the sugar cube. My dad and I stood in this cafeteria or multi-purpose room of a nearby elementary school, had ours and waited for her.
Ah yes, the sugar cube with the pink liquid dripped on it, I remember it well.
Me too! Also I am old enough to have a smallpox scar, thank God!
Not only do I have the original scar, I was revaccinated 2x in order to travel overseas (the yellow card). I also got the original Salk vaccine. I was terrified - of needles. The sane world was terrified of polio, and lined up. I had chicken pox and measles as a kid, and got both kinds of the shingles vaccines. I find the current mindset of vaccine deniers and Covid deniers and science deniers incomprehensible- and terrifying. Lotsa terrifying to go around.
I'm betting that many of the anti-vaxxers are not old enough to remember how scary those times were.
Oh, jeeze: I still have to get the shingles vaccine. I keep blocking that out - my bad!
It’s not a bad one! Do it soon!!
My mother and I had to have a bunch of shots before they let us in in 1951. Ditto the smallpox scar. Remember, too, the public pools closing during the summers before the polio vaccine became available. I was one pissed off little kid every summer. Loved those public pools.
My mother insisted that my sister and I get the smallpox vaccine on our upper thighs. Don't know why. Maybe she thought we'd want to enter into beauty pageants or something when we got older.
Which?
Hilarious.
Did these anti-vaxxers ever wonder how smallpox was eradicated?
I have a PhD in Public Health, I had several dinners with DA Henderson, the man who led the WHO teams to eradicate smallpox. It is worse yet when the doctors are the quacks. Found out on WED my soon to be former endocrinologist won't be getting anymore COVID shots, thinks it's time to get rid of the NIH and thinks we "need to look at all these vaccines". Cult member👀
Perhaps your former endo doc will be recruited to work with RFK Jr. You could show him/her some of the comments to this column from us Baby Boomers about polio and the lack of vaccines for other contagious diseases. With over one million Covid deaths in the US, how can anyone be against vaccines?
My ex doctor is an anti vaxxer. He did though save my life when a test he ordered found Hepatitis C. I was one of the fortunate ones I never was a big drinker and I went into protocol studies until a new three drug cocktail irradiated the disease. It (the three drugs) almost killed me but I determined to stay the course. That was about 15 plus years ago. But the old geezer just doesn’t believe in vaccines. And it permanently cured me of a dreadful disease.
I have chicken pox scars.
Also have the smallpox scar. I'd forgotten about that, but now remember the round scar on my left arm.
Same.
Hi Sharon
I remember the sugar cubes, at our elementary school!
I took care of post-polio patients who had to have Harrrington steel rods inserted on either side of the spine so their chests would not cave in on itself resulting in suffocation.
There is much suffering with polio, but while MAGA wants to cut taxes and spending, those debilitated by this disease face a life of expensive care in order to survive. Trump's choices make no economic sense to me, never mind medical sense.
Prevention is a lot cheaper than cleaning up the mess afterwards. Do it right from the beginning.
Post polio syndrome can be devastating. As a boomer, I knew many kids who were afflicted. Our Jr Orange Bowl queen died in late middle age from post polio sequelae.
I lost a good friend to post polio. Also my close friend who had polio, married and died after the birth of her daughter. She had been warned by doc's not to get pregnant but she wanted a baby so badly.
Blessings to you 💕🌷
Undermining faith in the institution of government and public health is a step in manipulating the population to rely on Big Daddy for help, safety, and information. People who no longer trust their own senses and judgement turn to magical thinking and will do what they are told.
Our grade school was next to a facility that housed children paralyzed from polio. They required constant care. Our play ground was next to theirs with only a barb wire fence separating us. They would be outside in their wheel chairs and come over to the fence to visit with us (they were no longer contagious). I remember when the vaccine came out how my parents and all our teachers celebrated and how sorry we felt about the children who didn't get a vaccine in time. My 4th grade teacher's husband was in an iron lung from it. Everyone knew someone who'd had polio. And now the Palestinian children aren't being allowed to complete their vaccines against it. Just criminal.
Same experience I had in grade school, TJ. They would bring the disabled kids over to my school to use our cafeteria for lunch, and in 4th, 5th, and 6th grades, I got to help serve and feed them lunch. That was my first experience in serving others, and it stuck. I’m now 72, and that early experience formed my sense of serving others.
How sweet that you got to help feed them. Thank you for sharing that. My sister and I wanted to help the polio kids on the other side of the barb wire fence but of course we weren't allowed to go over it. We loved them and worried about them so much.
Trump is like a mad comic book character. I have to remind myself that he is merely a pawn. Partly, he is driven by his egomania, but he is also pushed from behind by the oligarchs, Project 2025 guys, and the Heritage Foundation. They've been at this for 40 years and think they have it in the bag. They don't.
Don't leave out his Russian handlers. They are real.
I don’t see him as a pawn. He knows exactly what he’s doing.
Yes he does know what he's doing, but he's also a pawn in the sense that his ego kowtows to Putin, so he can get some kind of gratification. Putin uses that need to get what he wants from trump.
My mother got polio when she was 20 years old. Hers was the only case in the county in1940. My grandparents and she worked their tails off rehabbing her so she could walk again. She was sullied to wear a hip to ankle brace but she was too hardheaded to do so so she created her own walk with a left leg that turned out to basically be just a weight that had to be dealt with. She could fall easily and did and she spent the last ten or so years of her life in a power chair. When she ended up in a nursing home, I had to instruct the staff about polio and how she needed to be handled because no one had ever seen the disease or effects from it. It’s a terrible disease that can strike communities seemingly out of the blue. So it’s this and so many others that these ignoramuses are willing to see return with a vengeance. What the whites did to the Native Americans could very well come back to bite people in the butt. Karma can be a bastard.
The other thing I understand about polio is that you can be fine (with the expected aftereffects) for years, and then suddenly it hits you again. I remember hearing about that a few years back.
True. My cousin’s spine began to collapse in her mid-50’s from the polio she had when she was 12. She had lost about seven inches in height the last time I saw her. Also, my friend’s husband still has problems/pain with his knees from childhood polio. Many years ago I dated a guy who had had polio, and one leg was shorter than the other so he had to have the sole of one shoe built up.
My uncle had polio as a child. He was not able to have children as a result. He would have made a great dad. He was a wonderful uncle. He passed three years ago.
I was one of the early recipients of the polio vaccine also. I remember how happy my parents were to have us get the vaccine (or the sugar cube) so we wouldn't end up crippled, in an Iron Lung, or worse! My blood boils when I hear idiots spouting the conspiracy theories!
I remember going to girl scout mariners gathering where one of the girls there had to sleep in an iron lung, which she brought with her. I had a chance to experience an iron lung and was shocked that people could fight it, the way I heard they did, because when someone turns the pressure up it is impossible to resist. I also remember getting my polio vaccine.
Every day I post on Facebook about the sort of things we know to be a real and present danger. Often I get lots of negative comments from the deep red sea here in central Alabama. But today I posted about vaccines, starting with the year of my birth when DPT shots began for babies, on to polio vaccines in 1955 when I was a 1st grader, on through the devopments in the life time of my children and now my grands. It's the history teacher in me! I had nothing but positive comments, even from an old friend who's a Maga. Seems people can understand the threat when it comes to our babies. And I made sure to point out what having anti-vaxers in power wil mean.
I am glad to hear of your success the second time. I do think particular angles and using hard data can help so that people can understand the direct relationship between vaccines and health. Good work !!! And thank you!
Totally agree!!! This is not the time to be complacent and disengaged. We need to take care of ourselves. The clown car is here to hurt all of us.
Thank you for keeping us afloat, Joyce. You’re a lifeboat. We rely on your steadfastness to keep us from letting go and slipping under. I hope you feel the love
Already had my vaccines done, including RSV. Finished them about a month ago.
I'm angry! I'm not necessarily afraid but I am damn angry about all this. I keep hearing that the Dems should have done this & that need to that. Yes, things need to be reviewed & changes made but the reason Kamala Harris lost is because of racism, misogyny, stupidity & morality. I don't care how expensive things are you don't vote for a liar, Conman, cheat, felon, serial molester. You just don't. I don't care that Kamala is a woman. I don't care the she's black/South Asian. I care that she is qualified & that a good portion of this country has lost all sense of decency!!!
Your attitude is the one we should all have. Kamala Harris is highly qualified to be president. That is what matters, not the superficial things our country focuses on.
Thank you. I think so too!
Only vaccinate the children you plan to keep.
😂
Got ‘em! I too get mild flu symptom. Totally worth it.
We got ours and had what felt like a reprise of COVID for about a day and a half. But definitely still worth it.
My husband has very little reaction to the vaccines. We are all different on that score.
We’re in this for the long haul to preserve our country for the next generations.
Heck, I want to preserve it for the current generations!
If only. I think we’ve got a long fight in front of us to shame 1/2 of America out of being racists.
I love a guy who wears his jammies and sits with chickens! Kudos to your son.
A vaccine is really like boot camp for your immune system. Instead of a surprise attack by an unknown enemy, there is some advance practice and warning with dummy combatants (inactivated viruses). Any military unit would prefer advance warning with time to order the right weapons and practice using them. We know an outbreak with a disease in an unvaccinated population results in more disease, morbidity, mortality, and societal costs. Looking at the data, who would choose not to get vaccinated?
Great analogy, Bonnie!
My brother and sister-in-law. They got the very first Covid vaccine, and my brother may have gotten the second follow-up, but somewhere along the line the sis-in-law decided no more and has not gotten one since. I don’t know what the hell is wrong with them, they work in crowds of people. They voted for drumpf and unfortunately they will find out what a great guy he really is. It is just a matter of time.
Following marching orders, I'm afraid. I suppose if enough people become disillusioned with health care, it will be easier to repeal the ACA.
It is easy to worry, but it is early days yet, and if Department of Justice would disqualify Trump we would all be happier.🗽🇺🇲🇺🇦
I’ve gotten all of my boosters for the fall. I plan to keep getting them but I worry RFK Jr will disrupt production so we can’t get them. I’m also worried he’ll go after biologics like the one I get to control my asthma. Ugh…
He will do his best to make sure of it. Fight!
You are truly a blessing to us all! Thank you
Your son doesn’t seem to mind!
I got my shots about a month ago and, I'm lucky, no reaction whatsoever. I'd also recommend that everyone try to get their children, relatives and friends to get their shots too. I hope we all have a very Happy Thanksgiving.
Only vaccinated folks coming to our house.
Science has to be followed. All who do, which is US, will be OK. No room for conspiracy theories regarding health, especially when it comes to any children. We are the fact based group; the rest is all noise.
Us old folks need our medicines and vaccines, too. Age makes us more vulnerable to things like pandemics, even when we use precautions.
Your children are blessed to have you, Mike!
The storm went to the right house!🤗
Lynn, thanks. I only have a Special Needs stepson so I definitely see preventative medicine with a different lense.
See...? Knew that stork found the right house!
To your dear stepson...you are his world.
STORK! not storm ! Spell check strikes again!
Already got my seasonal vaccines and Covid booster. Now working on getting some of the more long term ones up to date like Tdap, which includes whooping cough, which seems to be spiking, at least here in California
My husband and I got the Tdap also. I remembered because our oldest granddaughter turns 10 in Dec and we got it before she was born. Who knows what will happen when the anti-vax nutjobs take over!