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[flagged] Italian ‘anti-vax’ advocate Massimiliano Fedriga catches chickenpox (thetimes.co.uk)
35 points by YeGoblynQueenne on March 24, 2019 | hide | past | favorite | 24 comments



While I don't especially like the guy (he's the governor of my very state), the title is clickbait and the news is NOT ACCURATE.

Fedriga is 38 years old, just like me; and, when he was a child, just like me, chickenpox vaccination WAS NOT MANDATORY IN ITALY, nor it was recommended. I was not vaccinated against chickenpox, either, while I did all recommended shots.

It is mandatory TODAY, and he has already stated that his children ARE vaccinated.

The only reason because this was news is because he has stated that he's against the Lorenzin law which makes vaccination required in order to go to school.

EDIT: In the 80s there was no chickenpox vaccine available at all.

EDIT 2: Fedriga's answer to his haters:

https://www.facebook.com/massimilianofedriga/posts/101620342...

(can't seem to make google translate work on fb, you'll need to copypaste the text yourself)


Wikipedia claims the vaccine only appeared in 1995 [1] or 1984 [2] (and probably later in some countries). Either way a lot of the population could not possibly have been vaccinated as a child.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chickenpox [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varicella_vaccine


Thanks for the clarification. So, that's the reason why he got chickenpox in the first place. How many grown up adults get voluntary vaccinated?


>chickenpox vaccination WAS NOT MANDATORY IN ITALY

When he was a child there was no vaccine developed.


Thanks for the clarification. So, that's the reason why he got chickenpox in the first place. How many grown up adults get voluntary vaccinated?


I didn’t see what is inaccurate, he is an anti-Vaxer and he has caught chicken pox. Low rates of vaccination, for whatever reason, carry significant risks of increased infection rates. He’s lucky it’s just chicken pox, but the reason this should be news and is important is that people are dying needlessly from measles.

Infections and deaths from measles are on the rise in countries with significant anti-vacination movements. This nonsense is killing people.


Why is he an anti-vaxxer? He's got all his recommended shots, and his kids got those as well.

He's against the mandatory vaccination law... but you should remember his party is an opponent of the party who introduced such law. It's more about politics than being an antivaxxer.

And many countries in the world don't mandate vaccination - is it full of antivaxxers out there?


He’s not an anti-vaxxer.

Also note that the NHS in the UK recommends against chickenpox vaccine except where there are indications that it would be helpful (ie: you spend a lot of time around immune-compromised people).

Chickenpox is complicated: it is the NHS view that catching chicken pox as a child is better than getting it as an adult. It’s not like measles where catching it at all is a really bad idea.


Having had chicken pox as an adult I hope he enjoys it as much as I did.

Took me two years to get over it completely.


Dangerous for pregnant women IIRC. And can cause complications later in life, afaik.

Either he shakes it off, feeling confirmed in his pov. Or he suffers miserably. Both are no outcomes I wish.


Apparently - like other herpes viruses - the virus remains inactive after recovery and can resurface at older age. I had chickenplox as a child, ouch.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shingles


I am not an anti-vaccer, but that doesn't mean I should attack them disingenuously. I don't think that they claim that they do not need those vaccines because they cannot catch the underlying disease. I understand that they claim that some vaccines are causing more harm than the disease they are attempting to prevent.

Now I don't think they are right, I believe the harm caused by those vaccines is orders of magnitude less than the absence of vaccine, and I believe parents should be comfortable taking the small risk than their kid may have a bad reaction to the vaccine over the much greater risk of complications from the underlying disease.

But I think claiming that an anti-vax caught a disease proves that he is wrong is disingenous. In fact according to wikipedia [1] the vaccine is 70% to 90% effective, so he may himsef have been vaccinated for all I know.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varicella_vaccine


He’s not an anti-vaxxer. He’s protesting the policy of not allowing children into school if they haven’t had a chickenpox vaccination.

There are different medical opinions on this: IMHO since a private chicken pox vaccination costs upwards of £100 in the UK, I can understand the public health system bias towards not supporting mandatory vaccinations. One could view a policy of mandatory chickenpox vaccination as a corruption of government by the drug companies.


So what is the news? Nearly every child had that some decades ago.

It isn't like measles, which was vaccinated against back then.


He probably had a higher contact rate with non-vaccinated population.

I don’t see a reason to mock him and wish a fast recovery.


I do wish him a fast recovery, but I don't mind him being mocked.

He knowingly preys on people's ignorance and fears and the damage he causes is not even confined to himself or the people who listen to him, but people who can't vaccinate their children for legitimate reason are put in danger because of his actions. Even people who do vaccinate their children are put at risk because herd immunity is compromised.


I do mind him being mocked when mocking him means you have totally failed to understand the situation.


That's also the point in vaccinations. It protects us in both a personal and poluation level by decreasing the risk of contracting the virus.


The vaccination is not perfect, this is varicella.


At least he sticks to his word and doesn't take vaccinations himself?


Chickenpox vaccinations are not mandatory in all of Europe. E.g. our daughter was vaccinated against chickenpox because we lived in Germany at the time (where they have been vaccinating against chickenpox since 2004), but kids in The Netherlands (where we live now) are not vaccinated against chickenpox.


The NHS also do not vaccinate for chickenpox in the U.K, arguing that vaccinating children (where chickenpox is mild) makes the the health risks for adults more severe

https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/childrens-health/...


Varicella (Chicken pox) vaccine was available in mid 80 (widely available in 90s) I didn't have it either.

That being said: while the news is mostly sensualist, the anti-vax movement is beyond sick and dangerous.


Please read the story before commenting on the click-bait headline. This is HN not Reddit or 4chan.




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