Reminder that in the UK in 1900, before mass vaccination for childhood diseases began, 20% of all babies died before their fifth birthday (from diseases we currently vaccinate them against).

Madeleine Morris

@arafel He definitely helped her parents - who were devoutly Catholic and frantic about the state of her immortal soul. @cstross

Paul Walker

@bjn @cstross @lauren It's not, but I'm starting to think that the proponents of "stop vaccinating, natural selection!" should be left in a wilderness area for a week or two, on their own, with whatever tools they can make. Natural selection, right?

Charlie Stross

@arafel @bjn @lauren Preferably a wilderness area rewilded with cloned-from-DNA-samples sabretooth tigers.

Paul Walker

@cstross @bjn @lauren Well, ideally, yes. But I'm not a perfectionist, no need to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Areas densely populated by black bears would work just as well. Or even polar bears, if we're going for neutral territory to avoid favouritism.

Preston MacDougall

@cstross Good time to remind Brits that while the K in #RFK Jr. still stands for Kennedy, the RF now stands for ‘Rat Fucker’.

#Resist #kakistocracy in #USpol.

MyrddinEmerys 🍁🍂🍁

@cstross https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Alexander_(polio_survivor)

Considering he died not that long ago means there are polio survivors probably still floating around, so it isn’t that long ago polio was killing people. I also remember my mom talking about her mom taking them and standing in line for the vaccine when it came out because she knew how deadly it was.

David Scott Moyer

@cstross Trump is already the most prolific mass-murderer in history. They should give him an award. Something like a golden swaztika.

GutterPoetry

@cstross

There would be more kids left disabled or permanently harmed from these diseases, even if they did survive.

I've heard these 'common sense' views before but they're unscientific - the immune system doesn't get stronger from exposure to disease. It doesn't need to be exercised.

Ben Curthoys

@ChemicalEyeGuy @cstross also the "CE" in "ICE" stands for "Chaotic Evil".

George Collins

@Infoseepage @cstross the "we are seven" grave in Conwy churchyard left a big impression on me as a child. Wordsworth wrote a poem about it - more here: https://historypoints.org/index.php?page=we-are-seven-grave-conwy

Dr. Professor Fred Rococo

@suzannealdrich @Infoseepage @cstross I was coming here to say exactly that. Just five generations ago, in Germany, my ancestors lost six of eight children before the age of three. Two survived to adulthood.

Jérémy Pagès

@cstross Reminder that in industrialized countries, for some diseases, mortality had already dropped before vaccines were even a thing.

Berilious

@cstross better access to nutrition, housing, sanitation maternity care and drinking water also occurred at these times.

David Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)

@arafel @cstross @bjn @lauren

Playing Russian Roulette with a six shooter would give them slightly better odds than they want to give children. Load another couple of chambers with blanks (won't kill, will burst an eardrump) and you might be getting close.

Tiggy

@cstross

At which point any country with sensible leaders will require vaccinations with visas for anyone from the USA.

I think my sister still has her copy of a lengthy document proving she didn't have a long list of conditions/infections before we briefly entered the USA in the early 1950s.

Pam C

@cstross All countries should ban American entrants unless they have up to date vaccination certificates.

Tor Lillqvist

@Remittancegirl @cstross That was the most touching thing I read today. Thank you. Have to make an effort not to start crying publicly on a train.

Nikkileah 🎮🚄🏳️‍⚧️🇬🇧

@Pamela1960 @cstross absolutely. Have to be able to prove they're not a danger to public health

Infoseepage

@morgan @suzannealdrich @cstross And this sort of thing cut across all divisions of class and wealth. I was at Versailles last week and they had an exhibition about the Grand Dauphin and his family. The Grand Dauphin was the heir apparent to Louis XIV for most of his life, but his father outlived him. He died of smallpox at about the age of 50. A bunch of the dauphin's children and their wives and grandchildren were wiped out by "just measles" and other maladies.

Madeleine Morris

@tml @cstross

Good god, I certainly didn't mean to make anyone cry. I apologise.

And yet, at the same time, I wanted to pay tribute to her memory, because she was a lovely person and a very talented poet.

And it's complicated. Would she have been such a good poet without the experience of social isolation and physical extremes? Was she someone who was always destined to relinquish life? I think about her a lot.

Wandering Adventure Party

Reminder that in the UK in 1900, before mass vaccination for childhood diseases began, 20% of all babies died before their fifth birthday (from diseases we currently vaccinate them against).