Back in 91, in preparation for a months long trip to SE Asia, we had various booster vaccinations including one dose of the MMR. I read on CDC website that 2 doses provide 97% effectiveness while 1 dose is 93% effective.
For those who recently got the MMR, did you get 1 or 2?
I got the MMR (doc) and the shingles (Walgreens) vaccine last month. Got a tetanus booster last year. I’m last of the boomers and remember getting some vaccine in the school hall and have the signature scar from, I think, the polio vaccine. I remember my baby sister having mumps and older sister having chicken pox but don’t remember being sick with anything myself, so who knows.
I’m will be doing what is necessary to protect my health. I don’t have time to be sick.
My mom was a nurse in a polio ward in the 50’s, so she was a huge fan of immunizations. She worked as a nurse for our pediatrician the whole time we were growing up, and I can guarantee you we had all the immunizations we were supposed to have … yet I still need an MMR in my early 30’s. I was told the early vaccines were less effective, as @ucbalumnus pointed out upstream.
I asked my primary care practitioner for the MMR vaccine because I know when I first got it as a child, it was in an era when there was that sketchy vaccine. She did a titer, and to my surprise, I am still immune to all 3 of those diseases.
I am about 400th on a waiting list for Shingrix.
I remember standing in that line to get the shot. I thought it was a small pox vaccine, was it polio? I can’t imagine that scenario today where kids and parents would willingly stand in line for a shot without a parent.
In the old days, polio vaccine was given in a sugar cube, right?
That was likely the smallpox vaccine, which was given by causing a minor skin infection with the vaccinia virus that is similar in terms of immune recognition to the variola virus that causes smallpox.
Polio vaccine was commonly given orally until relatively recently.
I got measles (sick for weeks), mumps, chickenpox as a kid. Then my dr gave me MMR anyway in my 20s because planning to get preg and wasn’t sure if I’d ever had rubella.
Pretty sure I don’t need any boosters at this point.
@eyemamom I stood in line at school for the smallpox shot. Still have the tell-tale scar.
Do you think it might have been an early MMR in the hallways? They use the gun thing on our arms and it went pretty quickly. I got the small pox vaccine as a baby.
Perhaps there were enough people who knew people who died of smallpox or were paralyzed due to polio (remember iron lungs?) that everyone rushed to get whatever vaccines were available.
The “gun thing” was used for the small pox vaccine for a while.
I had more than a handful of small pox vaccines…and none ever left the telltale scar. Doctor thought it was weird. Did a titer and I’m immune.
We had to have MMR and polio shots for a trip to Africa in 2011. Plus yellow fever, and a couple of others.
My husband and I both got an MMR a few weeks ago. Doc said those born between early sixties and 1989 would be wise to get a booster.
Is 2 shots of MMR enough or do you need a booster in addition?
@Iglooo , have your provider do a titer. If you have antibodies for those diseases, you don’t need a booster.
Polio was on the sugar cubes. Thus the song “A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down.”
I wanted to get the Hepatitis A vaccine because I’ve been seeing stories about small outbreaks in the area. I went to the county health department website and was shocked at how much it costs. $160 for the two necessary shots. Yikes!
I guess I’ll talk to my doctor about all of them. Insurance is funny about vaccines in adults, though.
Anyone know of Medicare covers tirer or shot? Yes, born before ‘57, but never had measles.
I was wondering about my old measles vax (1964-5) so I was tested for immunity when I had routine bloodwork done and found that I was still immune.
I had measles (all the standard ones of the 60s, mumps, rubella. chickenpox etc) disease as a kid but had every vax under the sun in one visit for my US citizenship process. I am thinking that was good enough.