How is everyone in the current situation? General Chat

Compulsory smallpox vaccination in England and Wales was discontinued in 1971 although neither of my children [born in 1968 and 1970] were vaccinated against it.

When twin and I had the smallpox vaccine Mother asked for it to be given on the outside of our left legs, just above our ankles. I cannot see the mark on my ankle now as I cannot bend to look, but I can feel it as it feels slightly different to the surrounding skin.

I thought that was the TB jab

Chris, the BCG vaccine against TB was introduced into the UK in 1953 and initially was only given to children aged 14 years old. I remember that only too well because Father had TB when we were 12, so that would have been in 1954. We all had to have the skin prick test - Mother and I were positive so had to have chest Xrays - both clear but we did not need the BCG as it was assumed that we were immune. Twin tested negative so had to have the BCG, and I remember them explaining to Mother that they had just started vaccinating the 14 year olds.

It was believed that Father caught it in the London underground on his way to the office, and he had to go to a sanatorium and was there for just under a year.

The TB one is a little smaller and rounder than the smallpox scar. It used to have a slight depression but that seems to have vanished.
Does this help? TB above, smallpox below.

I think it must have been the TB one, but it never left a scar with me

I can't remember having another one - my mum didn't think much of vaccines and didn't really want me to have whichever it was, but all my mates were having it so I twisted her arm up her back until she signed the consent form

I know I got the mumps, measles, rubella - they had just come out with the combined MMR vaccine and my Mom told me to get it done at school. Needles hurt me so I had to make my friends promise to keep me in line for the shot because my Mom would kill me if I didn't get it. When I got to the table, the nurse said "we've run out of the combination shot, so you will need to get three separate shots". Yes, it has been seared into my memory as a day from hell.

I have a small white scar on my arm - smaller than a dime. I'm guessing it's the TB. My Mom's uncle got polio. He recovered, but always had a limp and his voice box was damaged. In later life, it affected his throat area to the point he had to be put on a ventilator and be tube fed. Seeing how it came back to make his end of life miserable has sold me on getting vaccinated.

I do worry that those who have gotten Covid will see similar effects with their respiratory systems years down the road - even if they seem to have made it through the virus with little issue.

Sorry - I hit Post too quickly, Hit Edit and typed what I was going to answer, and apparently I was too late for the edit window.

Basically we did not have any vaccine except for smallpox as that was all there was in those days. So we got measles, chicken pox, rubella - luckily missed diphtheria, whooping cough and polio. Got the polio vaccine when we were 15.

The MMR vaccine was not yet out when my children were babies although they did have the diphtheria and pertussis by then. So they caught measles, chickenpox, rubella and mumps.

I have not been able to have the Covid vaccine. Those who know me know why. Those who do not know me call me an anti-vaxxer - and that is the polite ones. The impolite ones call me every name under the sun. None of them fit to repeat.

I got the chicken pox. Missed all the others. Having seen videos of babies with whooping cough - and having had asthma attacks - I can say I would never not protect a child from that.

There are plenty of legitimate reasons that a person can't get the Covid vaccine. To lump those into the same category as anti-vaxxers is cruel and thoughtless.

I took my children to the US for the summer of 1975 to stay with my twin. My then 5 year old son had had a mild cough but my doctor said it was an allergy so we had no problems getting visas and off we went. Two days later my 7 year old daughter whooped and my son followed. As my twin had four young sons we could not stay, so after an emergency middle-of-the-night visit to the Children's Hospital in Boston as my son was then choking, the British Embassy [or whatever it was in Boston] managed to get us back home ten days later.

Probably illegal as the airline would not have let us on the plane had they known, but the were doped up with Phenergan and as soon as we were on the plane they both fell asleep, and slept all the way back to the UK.

Both my children had been vaccinated against whooping cough in the combined Diphtheria/Pertussis/Polio/Tetanus shots given before the MMR was developed, but due to many children not having been vaccinated due to the later dismissed "reports" of the MMR vaccine causing autism, in 1975 there was a bad epidemic of whooping cough, among other things, and a lot of children, like mine, caught it even though they had been vaccinated against it. I am not sure whether the entire UK was affected but the south east certainly was.

I remember taking my daughter for her Triple Antigen injection. That was for tetanus, diptheria and whooping cough. I think I remember my Mum saying that I had a diptheria vaccination too, but I can't vouch for the others. I also have a vague memory of being taken to a Municipal Hall to queue up to receive the Salk Polio vaccine on a sugar lump. My daughter had that one as a baby, no sugar, just the drops on her tongue.

Carole, I do not think there was a diphtheria vaccine given when we were babies - the only vaccination available then was the smallpox one, which was all we had. When we had the polio one at age 15 [they gave it to babies and young children first] it was an injection into the upper arm. We went around for a week afterwards with a red ribbon tied round our arm to warn people not to knock it. That was the Salk vaccine, which was introduced in 1955 and was then replaced by the oral Sabin one in 1961.

I had measles, chicken pox, scarlet fever and whooping cough as a kid. Don't let anyone tell you you can't get chicken pox twice as I had it again when my kids came down with it. Also had shingles the other year.

I seem to attract these things so am amazed that so far I've avoided Covid (touch every bit of wood I can find)

Oh dear, faulty memory? So which was the mass-distributed one administered on a sugar lump because it was so bitter? Would I have been 19 when I had that one? Chas remembers going to Manchester Town Hall to get his dose. We definitely don't remember any red ribbons.
The TB vaccination, (not the skin test part), was horrid. It developed into a scabby pustule, which you had to leave until the scab dropped off. I guess that is why my scar had a depression for many years.

Just looked it up. The diptheria vaccine was launched in 1940 and was a spectacular success with parents, reducing cases from 46,000 in 1940 to 962 in 1950, and deaths from 2480 to just 49.
It then appears to have suffered a temporary setback. Because the disease began to be seen as less frightening, the public became more apathetic about the take up.
I haven't read the chapter but this is subbed from,
Vaccinating Britain. Mass Vaccination and the Public since the Second World War. Gareth Millward, 2019. Chapter 1. Diptheria. Introductory paragraphs.

Have now looked up the Poliomyelitis chapter and you are spot on!
The chances are that I was 19 or 20 before having my sugarlump, and Chas must have been about 25. Just shows how youthful we felt in those days!

I remember that someone [?] gave twin and I a coin each - and when Mother put us to bed I said I had lost my thrupp'ny bit and she thought I said I felt sick. We were in a double bed in the back bedroom after growing too big for our end to end cots in the small third bedroom. [Older sister was furious at losing her double bed and big bedroom and having to move into a single bed in the small bedroom.] So how old were we? No idea but the word "diphtheria" was mentioned and we kept asking what it was and the parents would not tell us. I do not think we could even pronounce it properly!

Strange the things I remember when certain words/happenings are mentioned.

I wonder why you did not get the Salk vaccine when you were younger and eligible for it.

The book suggested that supplies from the US were intermittent and were primarily being used in the areas which were experiencing outbreaks. Many local MOH's dismissed vaccination as a great experiment until there was a major outbreak in Coventry which within a few days took the life of star footballer, Jeff Hall. There was real shock that the disease could take such a fit young man, and the public began to demand access to the vaccine. By that time our own live vaccine was reaching production stage, so there may have been an attempt to avoid carrying too much expensive US stock that might have ended up going out of date on the shelf.
This is only a skim through. There is lots of detail and petty politics, but it is interesting. I might read this book all the way through one day.

My daughter was admitted to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore when she was 13 months old, for the start of years of surgeries and then check-ups. It was originally a hospital for children with polio - Infantile Paralysis as it was then called. There is, or was - I do not know if it is still there - a sign above the gate.



On the way out after her final check-up, just before we emigrated to Israel, I turned and looked at that sign for the last time, and said a prayer of gratitude.

I can remember the nods and whispers, that xxxx had been taken away and was in an Iron Lung. At that time I didn't really know what it was, but I knew it sounded bloomin' scary, as did those diseases for which you were fastened to a frame in bed for months.
The NHS is nowhere near perfect, but we are so lucky to live at the time we do.