In the video posted earlier, the late barrister said he was glad he got COVID because of his immune system.
That reminded me of something I hear the anti-vaxxers say. They harken back to the days when parents would host “measles parties”. Where one kid in the neighborhood would get it so they’d send their kid over and infect everyone at once and everyone would be immune after that.
I’m not in the medical field, but that sounds really stupid. Was that actually recommended by medical experts in the days before we had vaccines for things like measles, mumps, etc?
I can only say that I'm certain my measles and chickenpox infections (both of them) were by random chance and that parents definitely did have such parties. It was probably recommended by at least some physicians at the time since infections in adults were more likely to have more serious complications. "get it over with now" was the mantra, since infection was accepted as inevitable anyway.
It's important to note that this was previous to vaccines, though some do not trust vaccines and still advertise parties today for other anti-vax parents.
With chickenpox prior to vaccines about 12,000 kids a year were hospitalized and over 100 a year died from the disease.
Europeans and others from the "Old World" had some natural genetic resistance to the poxes (chickenpox, smallpox, etc;...) and measles through natural selection and exposures. When those diseases reached the "New World", where these diseases were not endemic, they were decimated by the infections. We can actually see the impact on genetics today in native Americans (
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/11/european-diseases-left-genetic-mark-native-americans ). Many natives died because they lost in the natural selection process those from the Old World had already endured many centuries prior.
So now we come to a novel CoV that is forcing a process of natural selection because as a whole we have not already endured it as a species. Vaccines help us overcome this without the massive death and misery indigenous Americans suffered centuries ago from Old World diseases newly introduced into these populations.
I don't picture indigenous Americans of the time holding parties to get infected because for them and due to their genetics (though they had no way of knowing this) it was a deadly disease at any age as opposed to a usually mild childhood illness the Europeans experiences.
With regards to SARS-CoV-2 we are in the same boat as native Americans and not Europeans of that time. It would be foolish to assume any COVID-19 infection would necessarily be mild because we have not had centuries of prior exposure naturally selecting who lives or dies and leaving us with mainly those who are better equipped to handle such infections, genetically speaking.
Childhood vaccines are recommended now over exposure because the vaccines are far safer with much less risk of serious complications or death. That is definitely also true for COVID.
People who think their immune system will save them because they are strong and do the "right things" are very foolish. There have been many novel (at the time) plagues throughout human history that only abated after much human misery and death. Smallpox kept on killing until vaccination efforts eradicated it. It never moderated to a mild disease. If you win the genetic lottery then you are lucky indeed, just as there are a few who are genetically immune to HIV (
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/03/050325234239.htm ). If not, you and your family are in for a world of hurt if you are foolish enough to favor your immune system sans vaccine and you don't win the genetic lottery.
