Rant #1,367: Measles, Smeasales ...

Yes, that is what a lot of people say.

Why get vaccinated? Heaven knows what else the vaccinations do to kids, even if it does protect them from getting the disease, which is, in most cases, done and gone in a week or two.

To those people, I say, bah!

How stupid can you possibly be?

We just about obliterated measles by vaccinations of generations of kids.

We heard about the disease, but not in the U.S.A. All of our kids got vaccinated, so nobody had to deal with that disease here.

Well, a new generation of parents, who are convinced that the vaccination brings its own baggage to the kids that get immunized, are staying away from vaccinations, in particular, out west, where they must be drinking or smoking something to give them this fear that the cure is worse than the disease.

The measles outbreak in the western part of the country has been traced to Disneyland, where some kid must have had the disease, and due to touching and bumping into people and just being there, has now spread to hundreds of cases.

All because the parents of these kids refused, and I do mean, refused, to get their kids immunized.

Let me tell you, having measles is no picnic in the sand, no two weeks off to do whatever you want to do.

It is not a cold. It is a virus that can kill you, in extreme cases, but yes, it can be deadly.

I had it, so I should know. And I had it when their was no vaccine against it, so yes, I could I have died from it.

I was a little kid, maybe a few months or a year old, and I had it. I was very young to get such a thing, but somehow, I got it.

It provided perhaps among the first memories of my life that I can remember, even all these years later.

I was quarantined in my room. The lights were out most of the time, because light can make those that have it more uncomfortable.

I remember that my mother and my grandmother--my mom's mother--were able to care for me, because they, too, had had measles when they were younger.

I don't think my father had measles when he was a kid, so I don't remember if he was in the house or he stayed at his parents for the duration of this, at my paternal grandparents, for the two weeks or so that I had it.

It was all over me, but I think that I had a mild case, but it took two solid weeks for me to rid myself of this disease and get back to normal.

I know our family doctor, Dr. Geller, cared for me during this time, but it wasn't a good time in my young life.

Knowing me, I was probably impossible to live with then, because I was a very active child. For me to be cooped up for two weeks probably was like caging a tiger, with no room to move around.

I also remember that my mom scheduled a picture taking session weeks before, and she was hoping that I would come out of this fine, and that I would be able to keep the session, which I did by the skin of my teeth. See the photos above for the results. I was smiling because I wasn't in discomfort anymore.

Look, I was actually lucky, I had a mild case, and a few years later, doctors created a vaccine for the disease, so succeeding generations would not have to go through what I did.

I cam out fine, but yes, it is a disease that in extreme cases, can kill you, or maim you for life, upsetting your immune system and even making you blind.

And if an adult contracts the disease, it could have even more dire consequences.

This is not fun and games, and for parents to withhold the shot from their kids for their own selfish reasons ... well, to me, it is almost akin to child abuse.

I simply cannot believe that some parents are preventing their children from getting this shot, but they are.

And the disease is spreading. It is moving east from California, getting into neighboring states, and probably within a few months, it will move east, impacting the entire Continental United States.

So, if you know any parents that are holding off on giving their kids this shot, please beg them to reconsider their stance.

Yes, for most kids, it is two weeks and done, but it is a potential life-long headache that if these parents were thinking clearly, they would not want to experience first-hand.

Give your kids the shot. It is as simple as that.