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[–] 88 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (30 children)

Ok, if I tell you all what it is, promise not to call me old.

I promise not to call you oldPolio smallpox or tuberculosis vaccine scar.

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  • [–] 73 points 3 days ago* (15 children)

    Polio vaccine scar

    smallpox or tuberculosis

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  • [–] 21 points 3 days ago (8 children)

    Oh sweet. If I misidentified it, maybe that means I'm not as old as I thought.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

    Polio vaccination was either given orally or later, and is still today, given as an usual injection.
    Today, smallpox vaccination isn't necessary mandatory for everyone anymore, as the virus is officially exterminated.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 days ago (4 children)

    smallpox

    TB doesnt cause the scar like that. the tuberculin test causes a swelling, to determine if you have been infected with TB, or if you are a foreigner who had BCG vaccine.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 days ago* (3 children)

    No. BCG scar, which was developed as a TB vaccine. It is only efficacious in some forms of infant TB, though.

    Smallpox innoculation scars are smaller, among other things.

    Source, tb vaccine research career.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    BCG definitely did leave a scar. We all had to get vaccinated again (the entire school) when my GCSE art teacher got TB and coughed all over everyone instead of staying at home. I had the skin test that showed I already had immunity, when most of the others had to have the BCG. I remember the nurse making me go behind a screen to take off my shirt so she could check for my BCG scar.

    I don't have the scar anymore. But it was there during my younger years.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 days ago*

    I wouldn't say they are smaller, but they look different. I'm not an expert, but I'd say the two upper scars are from the two mandatory smallpox vaccinations and the lower from the (likely also mandatory) bcg injection.

    Three vaccine scars on the arm of a Dutch woman in her 20s. Photo 1970

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  • [–] 21 points 3 days ago (13 children)

    why did the vaccine cause such a huge scar? was it not an injection?

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  • [–] 63 points 2 days ago (4 children)

    Within three to four days, a red, raised and itchy spot develops at the vaccination site. This is a sign of “a take,” which means the vaccine is doing its job. This spot soon turns into a pus-filled blister that gradually gets a little bigger by day 10. Then, it slowly starts to dry out. As the blister heals, a scab develops. This is a normal part of your skin’s healing process. By 14 to 21 days after vaccination, the scab falls off. In its place, a small, pitted scar remains.

    https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/smallpox-vaccine-scar

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  • [–] 41 points 2 days ago* (1 child)

    Imagine if the covid vaccine did that, we'd still be in lockdown today lmao.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 days ago*

    That's the version that killed smallpox too. Earlier vaccines against it were worse, including some that could give you smallpox, even fatally (but you were less likely to get sick from it than from exposure, and you were less likely to get as sick if you got it from the vaccine than naturally catching it). The vaccine was always controversial, but eventually it became safe enough that enough people became comfortable with it being forced on everyone. This is the first disease we developed vaccination for, and for good reason, it was a gross, painful, deadly, and very infectious disease. If it were still around I'd be first in line for a vaccine even with the blister.

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  • [–] 18 points 2 days ago* (2 children)

    It was a live vaccine unlike other injections which use dead cells. Part of the reason it made a blister. They carried some risks you don't have with other vaccines.

    Newer smallpox vaccines given to the military no longer cause scars and are much safer. They can be given to immuno compromised individuals.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 days ago

    I still have the scar from it and I got mine in 2008 or so. Mine was not the injectable version, which is safer for immunocompromised. Mine was the mini fork they stabbed you with a few times to perforate the skin area. It itched so much.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)
  • [–] 3 points 2 days ago

    I remember my dad telling me about that when he joined the army. He said they had to line up like cattle and go down a line, and they were multiple guys with those injector guns on both sides of you and you'd get hit in both arms as you went.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 days ago

    I was reading that article and thinking, wait, isn’t this just the futuristic medicine shown in Star Trek that cures all illnesses? Then at the bottom:

    The term "hypospray", although better known from its usage in the 1960s television show Star Trek, is attested in the medical literature as early as 1956.

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