I'm old enough to remember "measles parties".  Pre vaccine it was expected that everyone would contract the disease so whenever some kid the neighborhood got sick every parent would bring their kids around.  Let's get it over with.

Oct 28, 2025 12:05 AM

Xalten2

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Measles used to be a deadly illness that claimed the lives of millions, mostly children. Before vaccines, 3 million people died from it every year. The pain of losing children and families due to preventable diseases is something we should never forget.

But things have drastically changed. Thanks to vaccines, the number of deaths worldwide has dropped by a staggering 95%. What’s even more heartbreaking is the impact on those who survived – over 60,000 people were left blind or deaf due to complications from measles.

The difference a vaccine can make is beyond clear. It’s not just a shot, it’s a life-saver. So, the next time someone dismisses the importance of vaccination, remind them of the millions of lives saved. The vaccine is literally saving lives, one shot at a time.

vaccinate_your_children

vaccines

And SSPE - subacute sclerosing panencephalitis —a truly horrifying & untreatable brain disease from measles

9 months ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

But "poorly educated" Nazis refuse to believe that!

9 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

And these morons all think they are protecting their kids. Not a single one of them ever read Wakefield's report, not RFK Jr, they only read the line "vaccines cause autism", but that is not what Wakefield said. Not defending Wakefield, he was a crook, but the assholes have taken his bullshit and spread it to all vaccines. Wakefield specifically named the MMR vax, because a company he invested in were caught short by the MMR vax and was losing money. That's all it was. Now kids are gonna die.

9 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I had measles as a kid. And I think my friends also had . Back then people didn’t know that it was so dangerous. Not where I lived at least.

But of course now everyone should be vaccinated.

9 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

And I remember quarantine certificates placed on our front door when I or one of my sibs had measles, chicken pox, etc.

9 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I remember getting chicken pox bc I had it over Halloween and wasn't allowed out trick-or-treating. My siblings took a pillowcase to collect candy for me, but they dumped it on the sidewalk and traded all their shitty candy (maryjanes, bit o honey) for my chocolate. Parents refused to make them trade back. Two months later they got chicken pox over Christmas and my grandparents gave them extra presents bc they were sick over the holidays. And I'm *still* pissed about this childhood injustice!!

9 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Measles took my hearing *nerve deafness* at age 5... In the 50's... I received the shots before the illness?? For those wondering, there is a huge difference between being *deaf* or *Deaf*... Enlighten yourselves.

9 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

They learned quickly not to do measles parties, we went to chicken pox parties. Itchy ass shit but best to get it over with as a kid.

9 months ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

My brother had rather severe near hospitalization level chicken pox. I had some in my mouth which while not dangerous, it meant I felt like I was sucking on a ghost pepper for 2 weeks straight. I held condensed milk in my mouth just to get some temp relief.

9 months ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

The percentages are a government lie, my whatoutism is best argument, vaccines make you autistic but I have no exact number of that, I trust my uncle. He works at the fish market but he sees a lot people and gets his information from facebook!/S

9 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

They'll go back to blaming the blindness on masturbation, conservatives are going full blown anti intellectual and we still have to share civilization with them

9 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

yeah roald dahls daughter got brain swelling from measles and I think died.

9 months ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Olivia Dahl died. Link to the letter Roald wrote: https://www.roalddahlfans.com/dahls-work/essays-and-articles/measles-a-dangerous-illness/

9 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

1,200,000 Americans died of Covid. The Rs wouldn't shut down, wouldn't social distance, and took horse dewormer rather than the actual vaccine.

9 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 1

Chicken pox in the 80s, a carry over from measles in guessing

9 months ago | Likes 13 Dislikes 2

there were never ever measles parties. it was chicken pox, there was no vaccine and varicella almost never kills or maims or blinds.

9 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

In spite of being vaccinated, I still managed to catch he measles when I was 6; damn near killed me and it was fucking miserable!

I also learned that not only are the measles a very dangerous disease, it resets your immune system. All those disease profiles your immune system has labored your whole life long to build so it can more efficiently destroy them before you become ill? Poof! Gone. Had to go renew all my vaccinations.

9 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Yup, been there done that. Hello, fellow geezer.

9 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 2

Yeah, my mom took us to a "chicken pox party" around 1976 or so...

9 months ago | Likes 11 Dislikes 2

I took breakfast into my sick sister so that we had it “ over with”. I got a way worse case.

9 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

BURN THE WITCH AND THEIR DEMON STICK OF SATANS BLOOD

9 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I had chicken pox when young… I’m a nope on terrible diseases.

9 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

look into getting a shingles vaccine. 1 in 3 that had chicken pox develop shingles when they get older.

9 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Getting mine as soon as I turn the 50.

9 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

i'm that old but i don't remember measles parties. measles is too deadly to have measles parties.

i do remember chicken pox parties. they are why Boomers today have a 1 in 3 chance of shingles. same virus that remains dormant until you get old and your immune system weakens then it emerges again.(which reminds me i should get the shingles vaccine one day soon.)

9 months ago | Likes 19 Dislikes 1

do it. one can get the shingles vax AFTER having it. do it get the vax. you do NOT want shingles. shingles reoccurs. GET THE VAX

9 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

i realize this. i would guess that the only thing would be not to get the vaccine while in the middle of a case of shingles. there's enough of a war going on at that time to add another factor to the battle.

my curiosity might ask if the shingles vaccine is very much different from the chicken pox vaccine since they are basically the same virus.

9 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

You don't remember 'measles parties' because they never existed.

9 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Thanks to idiots, we now have a measles problem spreading fast in Australia. Being immune compromised, its extra scary. Now I have to add it to everything else im worried about because of selfish dickheads.

9 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Republicans want to bring us back to the '50's. The 1650's.

9 months ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 1

the 'good old days' they want to go back to includes 3 million dying to measles every year

9 months ago | Likes 30 Dislikes 1

Whenever someone says something to the tune of "good old days", what they actually mean is "ignorance is bliss", because they want the world to be like through the eyes of their ignorant younger self.

9 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Good old Days are the some property of the “Fuck You Got Mine” crowd

9 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

There was no measles parties. There were chickenpox parties tho.

9 months ago | Likes 141 Dislikes 0

exactly. I was stunned at the title and thought it was a crazy anti-vaxxer for a split second.

9 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Didn't need to be measles parties, it's one of the most infectious diseases we know of. In a population with no immunity, every single person with measles will infect 14 other people, each of whom will also infect 14 other people. Measles will literally just rip through an immune-naive population like a fire.

9 months ago | Likes 35 Dislikes 1

They're referring to the post title

9 months ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

And getting chickenpox as a healthy kid is better than getting it later on, so it kinda made sense. Now we have a better way of conveying that inoculation.

9 months ago | Likes 21 Dislikes 0

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Everyone got chickenpox. Measles was taken seriously.

9 months ago | Likes 17 Dislikes 0

My Toddler got the Measles before he was old enough for the vaccine, brought him to the Doc, to be told : " it's only the Measles " never went back to that Doctor

9 months ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

There were NEVER 'measles parties'. People avoided people with measles like the (ahem) plague.

There were chicken pox parties. At least I've heard that term and I've heard of people that heard of people that did them. No one I knew ever did.

9 months ago | Likes 75 Dislikes 1

I was a chicken pox party kid. My mom intentionally took me to a kids house who had chicken pox and then I got it.

9 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Unfortunately, I was the chicken pox party. I ended up getting my entire daycare infected.

9 months ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

I did multiple chicken pox parties. Never got chicken pox. I should get the vaccine but it's a genetic immunity. I'm not a science person so maybe I'll die. But my mom never got it either and she cared for my older (adopted brother) when he got.

9 months ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Yeah, and there's at least some logic to the chicken pox parties: the disease is so much worse the older you are when you get it. Deliberately getting the chicken pox isn't without risk, but the hope of avoiding a very, very severe illness a decade later makes sense.

I am so happy that my daughter is just gonna get a vaccine. I had two weeks of hell, made all the worse by the fact that I got it during summer vacation. Sweaty, itchy, and running a low-grade fever sucked.

9 months ago | Likes 14 Dislikes 0

No one I knew did either. Thankfully, I didn't have fucking dumb parents.

9 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 1

Chicken pox parties actually did make some sense. When you get it as a kid, it's annoying and itchy and you get better after two weeks. It sucks, but it's almost never life-threatening. If you get it as an adult, is it so, so much worse. It is a life-threatening ailment then. Instead of pox just on your skin, you get pox all over your skin and down your throat and into your lungs sometimes. So if you're basically guaranteed to get exposed, better to get it over with as a kid.

9 months ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

I did have dumb parents and we still didn't do that shit

9 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0