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When I was a little kid, a couple of years ago, we all had to get a polio vaccine shot when we started school. That shot left a distinctive scar on the upper arm that lasts a lifetime. Why?
We got lots of shots; why don't we all have huge, puckered scars all over our butts from the penicillin, and tetanus, and assorted other things they stabbed us with? What made that one shot so different?
Will Rogers never met me.
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Apparently, because it isn't the polio shot: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=622394[^] -
Other sites agree: it was the Smallpox vaccine and it left a scar because it was a live virus (Cowpox) rather than a deactivated virus.
Be glad you have it: smallpox was right b*st*rd!
The only instant messaging I do involves my middle finger.
English doesn't borrow from other languages.
English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.
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I believe the proper term is attenuated virus.............if you want to be a jerk about it! 
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Not particularly!
I'm no doctor, but the Smallpox story is just incredible. One of the nastiest diseases we knew of (30% mortality, horrible disfigurement and blindness likely if you survived - very infectious as well.) It's the only disease we have managed to remove completely from the wild via vaccination. It's estimated that over 300 million people died of smallpox in the 20th century, and Edward Jenner probably saved more lives than any other single individual in history!
The only instant messaging I do involves my middle finger.
English doesn't borrow from other languages.
English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.
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Indeed, that is quite a feat for humanity. I know my mother has the scar Roger speaks of.
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I have it as well. It itched like a small bag of fleas had been emptied into your underwear, and you had been fitted with boxing gloves...
The only instant messaging I do involves my middle finger.
English doesn't borrow from other languages.
English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.
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Well, I can't imagine anything more miserable than that.
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I have it too, but it was so long ago I don't recall anything about the event...
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Ah, that would explain it.
Will Rogers never met me.
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We had a TB jab aged 11 that left a scar. It also weeped foul smelling puss for weeks afterwards.
Punching people on the TB jab was quite a game, kids going home and peeling their shirt off their arm.
“I believe that there is an equality to all humanity. We all suck.” Bill Hicks
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We had a multi-jab thing, with a ring of needles.
On me, it blew up like a red balloon, then disappeared altogether -- no scar. The kids that had no reaction all ended up with scars.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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That was the "BCG" (Bacillus Calmette–Guérin) jab - which was the TB vaccine.
The only instant messaging I do involves my middle finger.
English doesn't borrow from other languages.
English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.
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Well, it must have worked, because, so far as I'm aware, I haven't died of TB.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Actually the ring of needles was the test for TB. If it came up then they sent you for a chest x-ray to determine if you were either naturally immune or if you actually had TB. Those that didn't come up needed the jab.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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Dunno about the polio one (I was born 1960 and we all got multiple vaccinations - including polio - as infants). But we had a mass immunisation program for TB when I was 13 and I have a scar from that.
So maybe it's more related to age/body size and how your body reacts to the vaccination....
If your neighbours don't listen to The Ramones, turn it up real loud so they can.
“We didn't have a positive song until we wrote 'Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue!'” ― Dee Dee Ramone
"The Democrats want my guns and the Republicans want my porno mags and I ain't giving up either" - Joey Ramone
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It is deadly to your flesh and damaging to your immune system.
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I think the polio one is now given as a liquid on a sugar cube?? I think you are referring to the scar left by TB jab?
The one that left my arm scared was the (BCG)TB. Not only that but it was agony for about a month. it also got really swollen and filled with puss to the size of about a golf ball. It burst one day when someone hit my arm at school.....what a mess!
You can read about it -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCG_vaccine[^]
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I remember the sugar cubes, but Griff is right; the jab was for smallpox. The US never did a routine TB vaccine, though in the '70s a TB test was required to be issued a health card for working in a restaurant.
Will Rogers never met me.
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DaveAuld wrote: I think the polio one is now given as a liquid on a sugar cube??
Not only now (no idea if it is still, actually), but in the 60s it was the sugar cube deal.
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Just went to buy a domain name.
£1250!
I decided that I didn't need it after all.
---------------------------------
Obscurum per obscurius.
Ad astra per alas porci.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur .
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Yeah, Microsoft.com is likely to remain pricey for a little while longer. But be patient... 
Will Rogers never met me.
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You could probably get Bing.com for a lot less... 
The only instant messaging I do involves my middle finger.
English doesn't borrow from other languages.
English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.
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If you could find it... 
Will Rogers never met me.
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LOL!
The only instant messaging I do involves my middle finger.
English doesn't borrow from other languages.
English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.
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Just google!
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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