"That's not really how it works, mom."

"That's not what my doctor says."

Love visiting with the Parents! yikes-1yikes-2yikes-3

  • Gorb [they/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    5 months ago

    I have a theory that this stance on immune systems and disease is just thinly veiled eugenics. The discourse has been around for a while but covid makes it more noticeable quite a lot of people hold the stance that having a "strong" immune system is a moral good and having a "weak" immune system is a moral failure. That disease should intentionally be spread purely for the purpose of killing those deemed weak.

    In my head I want to eradicate disease, because ain't nobody needing that shit but in their heads they want to eradicate people with weakened immune systems by promoting disease to spread. And it feels like this is actually has been the mainstream way of thinking for a while.

    Anyway thats my ramble

    Oh another thing did anyone have parents who would intentionally spread chickenpox? Like you could eradicate the disease by idk not intentionally spreading it but it seems to be the norm that the disease is inevitable.

    • duderium [he/him]
      ·
      5 months ago

      Yeah this is definitely just the bourgeoisie wanting to cull the weak. I also think that anti-masking is coming from liability concerns. If everyone is masking, that means that people are in danger, capital accumulation cannot proceed, and workers will have grounds for lawsuits (at the very least). Any sort of universal policy or program is also a danger to the bourgeoisie, which maximizes profits by atomizing people into individual consumers.

    • dat_math [they/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      5 months ago

      Oh another thing did anyone have parents who would intentionally spread chickenpox

      Just one year before the chicken pox vaccine was released, my parents deliberately inoculated me by taking me to play with a sick child in the neighborhood. Thanks for the shingles (if I make it that long) mom and dad!

      • Gorb [they/them]
        ·
        5 months ago

        We so like having a permanent pathogen! I got shingles when I was 14 although my experience fortunately wasn't that bad

      • infuziSporg [e/em/eir]
        ·
        5 months ago

        my parents deliberately inoculated me by taking me to play with a sick child in the neighborhood.

        I grew up thinking that was standard practice. And judging by that time frame, I think I'm younger than you.

    • WhatDoYouMeanPodcast [comrade/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      5 months ago

      For what it's worth, there is some basis for children developing allergic

      It's actually complicated. Looks like the original hypothesis came from a RETVRN perspective about the industrial revolution and hay fever[1][3]. However, even experts in 2016 who have access to data suggest there is immune benefit to going outside[2]. My mind jumps to the idea that aspergillosis is really bad and aspergillus is a pernicious, clinically significant type of fungus. However, it's also ubiquitous and symbiotic in soil. That's a disease you wouldn't focus effort to get rid of as looser, more bleached out soil likely has downstream effects. The same way you wouldn't want to bother trying to rid your microbiome of Clostridioides difficile, an opportunistic pathogen that only goes bad when your immune system is weakened or antibiotics wipe out everything suppressing it. Additionally, there are zoonotic diseases whose reservoirs, and their food webs, wouldn't be keen on eradication.

      Before the advent of the varicella vaccine or in its absence, I'm not sure I would be a detractor of the pox party [4]. I think there are fights worth fighting as far as infectious disease go. I'm sure there's a lot of COVID deniers who would watch their tone if their community were overrun by a hemorrhagic fever like the one caused by ebola. But microbiology continues to be funny in the way that it's tricky and complicated. When you came out of this messy world through the womb, you inherited 10 bacterial cells for ever 1 human cell and you wouldn't function properly or feel good without them. I remember when I was working at the adrenachrome factory there was a brief moment where I had to count agar plates. We were talking shop and I stumbled up the work of Dr. Scott Sutton whose website seems to be down [5]. "Ideally you would never see two separate dilutions with counts in the countable range, as the countable ranges cover a ten-fold range of CFU. However, this is microbiology." And I think he sums it up how I feel about it.

      [1] Is Staying Home Harming Your Child’s Immune System? https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/10/parenting/children-immunity-staying-home-coronavirus.html

      An interesting read from 2020 idk I just read until they gave me the studies I was interested in. I'm sure the NYT had a shitty perspective on COVID. This meta-analysis from 2016 they cited has all the data you'd ever want to know and more on the subject[2]

      [2] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1757913916650225

      The meta-analysis: Time to abandon the hygiene hypothesis: new perspectives on allergic disease, the human microbiome, infectious disease prevention and the role of targeted hygiene

      [3] https://www.bmj.com/content/299/6710/1259

      The controversial origin of getting sick for the hell of it

      [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pox_party

      Bonus ragebait

      [5] http://www.microbiologynetwork.com/counting-colonies.asp

      I think this is the right, broken link

      • Hello_Kitty_enjoyer [none/use name]
        ·
        5 months ago

        aspergillus is a pernicious, clinically significant type of fungus. However, it's also ubiquitous and symbiotic in soil. That's a disease you wouldn't focus effort to get rid of as looser, more bleached out soil likely has downstream effects. The same way you wouldn't want to bother trying to rid your microbiome of Clostridioides difficile, an opportunistic pathogen that only goes bad when your immune system is weakened

        90% of medicine is just managing the sicknesses people get from material inequality
        no inequality and people basically don't get sick. Some exceptions but yea

        • WhatDoYouMeanPodcast [comrade/them]
          ·
          edit-2
          5 months ago

          I worked at the adrenochrome factory for a few years doing really important work. I really hated the job so I left. I later got brought on at Langley to monitor leftist forums. It's purportedly why I know a thing or two about science and medicine.