Re: idiots walk among us

On 3/9/2025 1:15 PM, Scott Lurndal wrote:

Mike Van Pelt <usenet@mikevanpelt.com> writes:

In article <0001HW.2D7BB48800F8D22B70000998A38F@news.supernews.com>,
WolfFan  <akwolffan@zoho.com> wrote:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/marjorie-taylor-greene-promotes-
measles-parties-for-kids-amid-deadly-outbreaks/ar-AA1At4JL
>
you can’t make this up. If someone tried to put this into the plot of a
work of SF, any competent editor would reject it as too stupid to allow
suspension of disbelief.

>
As someone on the conservative side, I find MTG to be a
<deleted> embarrasment.
>
Yeah, before the vaccine was invented, there were two
approaches to measles -- strict quarantine, which was not
very effective because measles is one of (if not the) most
contagious viruses in existence, and, yes, measles parties,
on the theory that everybody was going to get it, regardless,
and the earlier it could be gotten over, the better.  As an
old geezer, I had measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox... they
did have polio, diptheria, whooping cough, smallpox, and
tetanus vaccines, so I was vaccinated against those.

 It would have been more likely that the parties, at the time,
were for chickenpox rather than measles.    Five years
ago, it was Covid parties.   Some people never learn.
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pox_party

Looking in Google ngram, pre-internet mentions of
'measles party' have a big peak around 1958, while
'chicken pox party' peaks around 1989.
Measles vaccines came into wide use in the early 60s,
Chicken pox, to my surprise, didn't get a widely used
vaccine in the US until 1995.
Both peaks die off rapidly when the appropriate vaccine
becomes available.
pt