Mennonite Measles in Texas

[JohnH]

Ok, got it. So, no, I don't buy into RFK's mantra. When he speaks, he sounds very unhealthy.

Mennonites are overall pretty healthy but we deal with obesity, childhood diabetes and mental illness also like the rest of society. The difference is we are not into hard drugs.

Mennonites and Amish do tend to have bad teeth. They don't spend on dental work.

We're also an inbred mess. So there are diseases unique to marrying closely.

You will on occasion meet Mennonites who appear to be at death's door and they're the ones who are experimenting w tinctures or diets. A very good friend of mine goes to the local liquor store to get vodka to make his tinctures.

Along the rabbit holes I've been down I"ve become an RFK Jr super fan. The guy was trying to get mercury out water and was succeeding as far as the Hudson went when a group of Moms kept showing up at his events. One of them showed up on his porch insisting he simply read the studies of concern they had collected. That if he was concerned about mercury in rivers then what about in our blood. He read the studies. Asked his friend, vaccinologist extraordinaire, Dr. Paul Offit about this study and he told him dont' worry about it, it goes away. When he asked about a follow up study that found it went away by showing up in the brain tissue of the test subjects Offit stopped talking to him. That day on he became an advocate for better vaccines and that has made him a target for the vaccine industry. He managed to get thimersol removed from some vaccines. It helped that the EPA agreed with him bout the levels of mercury involved.

He also is a recovering addict and it took dedicating himself to God for him to break the addiction. He speaks of this journey of faith with Lex Friendman that I found genuine. So I think he'll try his best to do what he can. Which I think most people are. Our systems get us crossed up.

I didn't realize he dedicated himself to God.

He says he tries to pray (Catholic rosary etc) every day for 30 minutes that something will change with childhood illnesses and autism for the last 19 years. It was a commitment he made when he was desperate to overcome addiction and prayed for a miracle.

[Ken]

No, I don't have dental insurance. Dentist offers a cash discount. I just had an annual exam and one cavity filled to the tune of $450. Might need to find a more affordable dentist.

Yeah, I dunno what our dental insurance is actually costing as it comes out of my wife's paycheck and is subsidized by her employer. But ordinary checkups have a $5 co-pay and fillings cost about $20. If you get expensive work done like crowns or implants it is more of course. But still nothing close to paying cash.

Could you please find out what your dental insurance is costing you a year? I am curious. Thanks.

I'll have to wait until I get home then look at one of my wife's pay stubs. She works for a big HMO that has in-house dental clinics so that may make the insurance cheaper than it would otherwise be for a different employer.

[Southerner]

Along the rabbit holes I've been down I"ve become an RFK Jr super fan. The guy was trying to get mercury out water and was succeeding as far as the Hudson went when a group of Moms kept showing up at his events. One of them showed up on his porch insisting he simply read the studies of concern they had collected. That if he was concerned about mercury in rivers then what about in our blood. He read the studies. Asked his friend, vaccinologist extraordinaire, Dr. Paul Offit about this study and he told him dont' worry about it, it goes away. When he asked about a follow up study that found it went away by showing up in the brain tissue of the test subjects Offit stopped talking to him. That day on he became an advocate for better vaccines and that has made him a target for the vaccine industry. He managed to get thimersol removed from some vaccines. It helped that the EPA agreed with him bout the levels of mercury involved.

He also is a recovering addict and it took dedicating himself to God for him to break the addiction. He speaks of this journey of faith with Lex Friendman that I found genuine. So I think he'll try his best to do what he can. Which I think most people are. Our systems get us crossed up.

I didn't realize he dedicated himself to God.

He says he tries to pray (Catholic rosary etc) every day for 30 minutes that something will change with childhood illnesses and autism for the last 19 years. It was a commitment he made when he was desperate to overcome addiction and prayed for a miracle.

Does he have children?

[mike]

Me too!

In all seriousness, the issue is associated with specific groups of plain Mennonites who have intermarried for generations at this point, maybe centuries. It is a real and very challenging problem.

Easily remedied, however. I just learned about the Byler disease...children born with defective livers and the children have to get a liver transplant at very young ages.

Some are, some not. For example, we have acquaintances whose children have a rare genetic disease that shows up around a certain age, and the child slowly loses the ability to walk. However, some sort of stem cell treatment has been discovered that reverses the problem, so their younger children are able to function normally, while the older ones are disabled.

[Ken]

There's this Make America Healthy Again slogan and the general sense that Americans aren't the healthiest bunch. Now here is a distinguishable community being put under the microscope for their position on vaccines, or low vaccination rates, but as a group, are they doing better than the general American public in the matters of health? I suspect they are. And if that's the case, there is this awkward moment where the top-down public health advice is being given to a group that is doing better on its own.

Ok, got it. So, no, I don't buy into RFK's mantra. When he speaks, he sounds very unhealthy.

Mennonites are overall pretty healthy but we deal with obesity, childhood diabetes and mental illness also like the rest of society. The difference is we are not into hard drugs.

Mennonites and Amish do tend to have bad teeth. They don't spend on dental work.

We're also an inbred mess. So there are diseases unique to marrying closely.

You will on occasion meet Mennonites who appear to be at death's door and they're the ones who are experimenting w tinctures or diets. A very good friend of mine goes to the local liquor store to get vodka to make his tinctures.

Along the rabbit holes I've been down I"ve become an RFK Jr super fan. The guy was trying to get mercury out water and was succeeding as far as the Hudson went when a group of Moms kept showing up at his events. One of them showed up on his porch insisting he simply read the studies of concern they had collected. That if he was concerned about mercury in rivers then what about in our blood. He read the studies. Asked his friend, vaccinologist extraordinaire, Dr. Paul Offit about this study and he told him dont' worry about it, it goes away. When he asked about a follow up study that found it went away by showing up in the brain tissue of the test subjects Offit stopped talking to him. That day on he became an advocate for better vaccines and that has made him a target for the vaccine industry. He managed to get thimersol removed from some vaccines. It helped that the EPA agreed with him bout the levels of mercury involved.

He also is a recovering addict and it took dedicating himself to God for him to break the addiction. He speaks of this journey of faith with Lex Friendman that I found genuine. So I think he'll try his best to do what he can. Which I think most people are. Our systems get us crossed up.

I would have been more or less OK with RFJ Jr. as EPA director. That is really more where his training and skills lie. but he probably would have gotten crosswise with too many GOP vested interests at EPA.

I think he is out of his depth at HHS

[Southerner]

In all seriousness, the issue is associated with specific groups of plain Mennonites who have intermarried for generations at this point, maybe centuries. It is a real and very challenging problem.

Easily remedied, however. I just learned about the Byler disease...children born with defective livers and the children have to get a liver transplant at very young ages.

Some are, some not. For example, we have acquaintances whose children have a rare genetic disease that shows up around a certain age, and the child slowly loses the ability to walk. However, some sort of stem cell treatment has been discovered that reverses the problem, so their younger children are able to function normally, while the older ones are disabled.

Sorry, just to clarify, easily remedied in that you don't need to marry your relative.

And the children are wheel chair bound for the rest of their lives?

[mike]

Easily remedied, however. I just learned about the Byler disease...children born with defective livers and the children have to get a liver transplant at very young ages.

Some are, some not. For example, we have acquaintances whose children have a rare genetic disease that shows up around a certain age, and the child slowly loses the ability to walk. However, some sort of stem cell treatment has been discovered that reverses the problem, so their younger children are able to function normally, while the older ones are disabled.

Sorry, just to clarify, easily remedied in that you don't need to marry your relative.

Oh. Yes, for sure.

[Soloist]

I tend to find more in the older generation who took a stance on fetal cells and the younger generally are ignorant.

For me, it's reversed. The younger are more "enlightened" and distrustful of health professionals whereas the older generation was on the side of vaccines eliminated serious diseases, go and get them. My children are vaccinated but I am in the minority as a millennial.

I suspect it has to do with the type of Mennonites. You strike me from opinions and posts to be BMA or something in that area, am I reasonably close? I was speaking of Western Fellowship and Nationwide with that. Granted, there still is diversity.

My teeth have cavities just like anyone, anecdotally, I drink distilled water and have less cavities then my wife. Genetics play a large role in dental health.

Measles home remedies are quite robust with zero scientific research to support any of them.
Really its about fever management and hydration for 99% of any sicknesses someone will get. They end in the hospital when A: the fever isn't manageable or managed by home methods, B: the same for hydration or C: they have one of the fairly rare super nasty problems of the disease. In the latter case, you take them to the hospital like any normal human.

I actually had measles as a child so my stance isn't out of ignorance of this disease. My actual objection though has to do with Rubella...

M-M-R II vaccine is a sterile lyophilized preparation of (1) Measles Virus Vaccine Live, an attenuated
line of measles virus, derived from Enders' attenuated Edmonston strain and propagated in chick embryo
cell culture; (2) Mumps Virus Vaccine Live, the Jeryl Lynn™ (B level) strain of mumps virus propagated in
chick embryo cell culture; and (3) Rubella Virus Vaccine Live, the Wistar RA 27/3 strain of live attenuated
rubella virus propagated in WI-38 human diploid lung fibroblasts. {21,22} The cells, virus pools, recombinant
human serum albumin and fetal bovine serum used in manufacturing are tested and determined to be free
of adventitious agents.
After reconstitution, ea

[Soloist]

And the children are wheel chair bound for the rest of their lives?

With MD it often ends in respiratory or cardiac failure. Depending on severity, they might be wheelchair bound from 10 and up with generally a lower life expectancy in the under 30.

[JohnH]

And the children are wheel chair bound for the rest of their lives?

With MD it often ends in respiratory or cardiac failure. Depending on severity, they might be wheelchair bound from 10 and up with generally a lower life expectancy in the under 30.

It would seem that finding a wife at the family reunion might be a very easy thing to avoid to stop these problems.