Believing Nonsense

Anybody who trolls technology these days, does not totally understand what is true and what is not. I am a “Facebook” user, I watch TV. I try to be careful not to fall down the rabbit hole of believing nonsense. Sometimes I fail and spout rubbish to friends, stuff which I believe but which may have no basis in fact. I am a travelling gullible, Dear Friends.

When I was a young boy, something under the age of 8 years, I remember my father taking me to a house in rural Aberdeenshire. He was a General Practitioner based in the village of Methlick.  I was confused to find myself sitting on the edge of a complete stranger’s bed where this other young boy was obviously sick. I can’t remember what was wrong with him but it was likely German Measles, mumps or chicken pox. Whatever it was we left there and some days later I was laid up in bed with what he had.  My Dad wanted me to get the disease while I was young so that I would have a lifetime immunity. It worked. But advocating for that in this day and age might involve social services and, at the very least, would be frowned upon by mainstream society. In any case it would not have been necessary because there is a vaccination for most of these aforementioned. From a young age I, like everybody else I knew, was vaccinated against smallpox and polio. The vaccines worked. Not simply for me but for millions of others. The days of the iron lung and leg braces for polio victims are behind us.

My maternal grandfather lost two wives, one in late pregnancy and the other through pneumonia, three days after my mother was born.  My other grandfather went up to fix the leaky roof in a storm at the mill he owned , got soaked through, contracted pneumonia and died. He had four children aged 8, 6, 4 and two years. This was in 1929. My gran never remarried, brought those 4 children up on her own and died in 1989 having been a widow for 60 years. Had any of these illnesses happened today antibiotics would have stepped in and they would likely have cheated death.

Whenever I am back in the UK, I take time away from the crowd to visit graveyards. They reveal so much about what life was like in the past. They show names that were common to the area, sentiments commensurate with the period of their death and of course, lifespan dates. But what strikes me most is the prevalence of infant mortality. 4 children dead before the age of five. A litany of lives cut short, mostly in the Victorian era.  A lifetime of grief for the parents,  years of wondering what might have been had their children had full lives.  We know that infant mortality rates are nowhere near as bad as they were 100 years ago and more. Here are some extracts from Michel de Montaigne’s diary as summarised by Sarah Bakewell in her excellent book about his life, titled ‘How to Live”:-

28 June 1570 Thoinette ‘This is the first child of my marriage and died two months later’.

9^th September, 1571 Leonor was born.

5^th July, 1573 Unnamed daughter. ‘She lived only seven weeks’

27^th December, 1574 Unnamed daughter. “Died about three months later, and was hastily baptised under pressure of necessity.”

16^th May, 1577 Unnamed daughter; died after a month.

21 February, 1583: “We had another daughter who was named Marie, baptised by the sieur de Jaurillac , her uncle. She died a few days later.’

Bakewell then writes.

“Montaigne wrote that he had lost most of his children ‘without grief, or at least without repining’, because they were so young. People generally did try not to get too attached to children while in their early infancy, because the likelihood of their dying was great.”

Leonor was Montaigne’s only child to survive to adulthood.

So here, Dear Reader, Davidson could go down the rabbit hole of dangerous industries in the Industrial Revolution, how miners underground were continually at risk and had their lives abbreviated by a disease they called ‘black lung’. But the risks to them were not as challenging as that of their wives who were three times as likely to die in childbirth as they were in a mine accident.

So, Dear Friends, I guess this is not the cheeriest blog from Davidson and nor is it that well researched.  I could read more and rummage around and find statistics to support my arguments.  But then an anti-vaccer could also find numbers to support his argument.  Facts matter greatly when lives are at stake.  So in the United States there is an health department run by somebody it seems to me who has little knowledge of the facts; somebody who is happy to abandon the views of experts and risk child lives by denying the efficacy of vaccinations and women’s lives by denying them an abortion.  Mr. Kennedy is rivaling the Catholic Church in his foolhardiness. This would be the Church which would not allow the use of condoms for their African faithful thus increasing the risk of AIDS and premature death.

I will conclude with a story which I wish was true but is more likely a myth but it could have been possible.

Over 150 years ago a man was out walking on a Scottish moor. He ventured where he should not and found himself floundering in a morass of quicksand.  Exhaustion was setting in and drowning seemed inevitable when his cries for help reached the ears of a passing ghillie.  Through innovation and determination and not a little courage, the ghillie was able to rescue the rich landowner because that was what he was.  So grateful for his life was the wealthy man that he offered rewards and compensation to the man all of which he turned down, embarrassed that his human act should be seen in a mercenary light. Eventually he could hold out no longer.

“OK, my lord, will you educate my son?”

Years later Winston Churchill, before he became the famed wartime leader, contracted the death sentence that was pneumonia.  The administration of penicillin saved his life and the rest is history.  Except that if Lord Randolph Churchill had not nearly drowned in that bog and not been rescued by a ghillie called Fleming, then his boy, Alexander Fleming, may not have invented the antibiotic in time to save Randolph’s son, Winston’ life.

Of course this may be an urban legend but it is not beyond possibility I think you’ll agree, Dear Reader. Had penicillin been around earlier then I might have had a maternal grandmother and a paternal grandfather whom I would have known. Grace Tolmie and Jim Davidson might have bounced me on their knees.

So you know where I have gone with this and know where I am going. Kennedy is an antivaxxer. Most of the people I know had COVID vaccinations. Some of us caught the disease, all of us survived. I don’t know what the long term repercussions of putting something foreign in my body will be. I may become autistic, I may develop heart disease, something may creep up and get me and shorten my life as a result of these vaccinations. Time will tell.  What I have to tell you Mr. Kennedy is that I don’t care. I am here now and I might not have been.  It is fine for parents not to have their child vaccinated but if they don’t then don’t send the child to school, to hockey practice, any other child’s birthday party, anything that involves a gathering. Such acts are inconsiderate and irresponsible.

Just to finish this rather angry rant. My wife’s family have a long history of kidney disease. In the past she lost uncles and aunts way before their time.  Due to medical advances, our son has a kidney transplant, Irene’s disease is closely monitored and managed. Our daughter has MS. She too is closely monitored and managed and has been the beneficiary of medical innovation and research.

In short, Dear Friends, I have no time for people who cut funding for scientists and researchers who have proven their worth over the years in extending and saving lives. The annual Terry Fox Run has just been completed here in Canada. A cure for cancer has not yet been found but hearsay informs that the type of cancer Fox had 45 years ago would have been cured today. Apparently in the present day he would not only have survived but would not even have lost a leg.  That may be hearsay but personally I would rather hearsay than the heresy that is currently putting lives unnecessarily at risk. There are something like 5000 measles victims currently in North America and certainly most of them will recover but not without a sigh of relief from parents and medical staff. Get out of the way RFK and allow research scientists to innovate and experiment and to continue to increase our quantity and quality of life.

I shall try to be more positive in a fortnight.

Thanks for reading.