https://fxtwitter.com/bryan_caplan/status/1820923427693187505
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https://fxtwitter.com/bryan_caplan/status/1821216666392654293
https://fxtwitter.com/bryan_caplan/status/1820923427693187505
https://fxtwitter.com/bryan_caplan/status/1821216666392654293
People think that tetanus is something that you get from stepping or being cut deeply by something rusty, its not.
Its just a thing that lives in dirt. Its all the rusty pointy metal things (farm implements, rusted out vehicles, places where boards full of exposed nail points are all over the place) we used to play with, on, or around that made it more likely that tetanus bacteria would get stuck in ya' often enough and deep enough to take hold. And more often than not, its was poor people who couldn't afford to lose kids or pay for advanced medical treatment being told to be afraid of tetanus from playing around rusty metal.
I don't know if this is me being unbelievably young or privileged but I literally have never had to even consider worrying about something like this? Where the hell are people that this is something that's frequently relevant to their lives?
Were kids in the 80s just like, "oh boy I got a bag of rusty nails for my birthday, can't wait to bring this on my field trip to the no-shoes-allowed junk yard and then take a nap inside the nearest farmer's antique threshing machine?"
Where are you guys finding all this rust to play with and lead paint chips to eat?
As kids we used to break into construction sites to steal planks and nails for our tree houses.
There's also old, rusty playground equipment.
Tagline material.
I grew up in rural Ireland and nearly everything was rusty. Half of the cities were rusty tbh, anywhere outside of the city centres is not that well-maintained.
But I grew up in the 2000s and when I wasn't allowed to play video games I would just start exploring farm equipment and playing with hammers. I guess it just depends on your environment
the u.s. is full to bursting of rotted out houses, farms, equipment, etc
go to any small town and there's a good shot you'll see more shacks than houses
rural america, shit probably urban in some areas. I lived in the sticks for a period and there were a lot of old abandoned farm implements in the woods that were absolutely rusted out
Yes though it did/do be like that in many parts of America. I remember my father telling me about his friend who died playing in silos in Nebraska as kids. Not rust but ya kids be playing on old and new farming equipment alike.
running around without shoes as a kid is how I learned about tetanus!
I was playing football in a field with an old barbed wire fence and the quarterback was a little inaccurate while I was a little overzealous. I waited in the ER for several hours like a good American, mostly because I was at work and they made me.
Playing in subdivisions where the outer areas weren't fully built, playing in alleyways between houses that would become dumping grounds for random things after a decade of occupation, kids building "club houses" with whatever scraps of lumber and nails we could steal from other houses back yards or early stages of construction, having friends who lived in rural areas where we'd play/wander in barns and abandoned houses. We'd break bottles and have rock rights for funsies, too.
But for the most part, the tetanus from rusty metal things is like from the early 1900's that just got passed down, out of context, as a matter of fact.
I grew up in a fairly sterile environment because I had/have a dogshit immune system so my only context for any of this is that one episode of Arthur where he fucking fillets his knee open on a rusty can.
I was never specifically told to be afraid of tetanus either, but that may be because all kids got mandatory tetanus vaccines where I grew up. I still have a faded scar on my arm - I think it was the three vaccines in one shot thing, nowadays it doesn't leave a scar afaik, but back then you got a star-shaped mark and a minor swelling for a few weeks. And when pushing around other kids, somebody would always go "not in the vaccine!" when they caught a stray, painful punch in that part of the arm.
I only renewed it in my mid-20s after stepping straight onto a long rusty nail. I also decided to get some other vaccines filled in back then, like TBE.
edit: I actually looked it up and the scar was from a tubercolosis vaccine, tetanus et al didn't leave any marks
I grew up in the sticks and being around tools and shit was very normal. Often rusty just from age and use. Lots of remains of old sheds or torn down houses etc out in the woods too, or active projects on your own land, barbed wire, etc. To me it doesn’t seem unusual at all to see or be around that sort of stuff and we were always up to date on our tetanus shot because of it. Even just getting poked by a tree branch or something is a tetanus risk, any puncture wound should be treated as one
And you can also get it from say a knife from somewhere with no rust or dirt immediately visible. I cut my finger pretty deep while processing meat in a commercial kitchen, the first thing I was sent to do was to get a tetanus booster since it was over 10 years from my previous one. Also was smart to have it as a gym instructor, you don't want to not have it in that environment, gym equipment is nasty.