Dr. Sandra Steingraber 🏳️‍🌈
@ssteingraber1.bsky.social
23K followers 2.6K following 3.6K posts
PhD biologist, author, climate activist, adoptee rights activist. Senior Scientist and Writer in Residence, Science and Environmental Health Network, Rachel Carson scholar with Library of America. Reminder: Nobody’s coming.
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ssteingraber1.bsky.social
A little thread: Science is defiantly anti-fascist because it pursues truth, is necessarily collaborative, and relies on open communication. And because its falsifiability is incompatible with the cultism, faith-based belief systems, disinformation, and propaganda of Christian nationalism.
ssteingraber1.bsky.social
Re: the ongoing measles outbreak. If you’re old enough to have experienced the longterm, devastating consequences of infectious diseases prior to widespread vaccination campaigns in the 1950s-60s, please TELL YOUR STORIES. On social media, in letters to the editor, on the radio., etc. #NotForgotten
grannyblue4.bsky.social
I can attest for the loss of sight. I got measles prior to vaccines. After spending a month isolated in a darken room, I came out with vision so bad I couldn't see more than a foot in front of me. That is a lifelong consequence. People need with wake up and get their kids vaccinated.
ssteingraber1.bsky.social
Hey, please consider submitting an op-ed or letter to the editor of your local newspaper—or compose a post on your socials—if you are an older person with firsthand memories or experiences w the longterm harm of measles, mumps, rubella, polio, whooping cough etc. These stories can’t be forgotten
ssteingraber1.bsky.social
Except they’ll also give it to newborns too young for the MMR vaccination and immune-suppressed people, like cancer patients.
ssteingraber1.bsky.social
OMG I’m so sorry. Please consider writing an op-ed commentary and submitting it to a newspaper. I will help promote it on socials. We need to hear your story!
Reposted by Dr. Sandra Steingraber 🏳️‍🌈
grannyblue4.bsky.social
I can attest for the loss of sight. I got measles prior to vaccines. After spending a month isolated in a darken room, I came out with vision so bad I couldn't see more than a foot in front of me. That is a lifelong consequence. People need with wake up and get their kids vaccinated.
ssteingraber1.bsky.social
If so, we should stop casting broken bones, end caesarean sections and prenatal care, and take airbags out of cars.

Also as a biologist I can tell you that natural selection runs as much on cooperative, mutualistic behaviors as mass death. See also pollination systems.
ssteingraber1.bsky.social
Let’s work these stories into everyday conversation.
ssteingraber1.bsky.social
Yes, many two year olds died from “milk sickness” soon after they were weaned and put on cow’s milk—especially in the summer months.
ssteingraber1.bsky.social
Measles and rubella (=German measles) are two different diseases but YES.

MMR vaccine protects against measles, mumps, and rubella.
ssteingraber1.bsky.social
Horrible. I’m so sorry that happened to you!
ssteingraber1.bsky.social
Yes! Thanks for this. I just got mine last spring at age 65.

Turns out I had ZERO immunity to mumps.

I had the titers done just bc I like data, but as you say, you can just walk into a pharmacy and get a booster.
Reposted by Dr. Sandra Steingraber 🏳️‍🌈
thebarbarienne.bsky.social
If you haven't gotten two MMR shots in your life, definitely go get another one.

If it's been more than 3 decades, go get another one. You're probably okay, but this isn't something you want to risk. (You can just get a titer to check your immunity. But a vax is easier and faster.)
ssteingraber1.bsky.social
Your reminder—or maybe no one ever told you—that complications from a measles infection include immune amnesia (where you lose immunity to everything), vision and hearing loss, brain damage, and a fatal brain disease called Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis that can show up years later.
doomscroling.bsky.social
Hundreds of children in multiple states are in quarantine and on remote learning due to measles outbreaks.

The decline in MMR vaccinations has resulted in the US experiencing an increase of measles cases with 1563 total cases & 3 deaths since January.

#Pinks
ssteingraber1.bsky.social
It’s so important that we tell these stories. My English professor was completely deaf from measles encephalitis that he contracted at age 3 and never got to hear music. He read lips to answer questions in class.
ssteingraber1.bsky.social
Some of these 1,500+ kids will go on to suffer from these long-term, disabling effects. Which are entirely preventable.

Also, what parent has time for a quarantine?
ssteingraber1.bsky.social
Your reminder—or maybe no one ever told you—that complications from a measles infection include immune amnesia (where you lose immunity to everything), vision and hearing loss, brain damage, and a fatal brain disease called Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis that can show up years later.
doomscroling.bsky.social
Hundreds of children in multiple states are in quarantine and on remote learning due to measles outbreaks.

The decline in MMR vaccinations has resulted in the US experiencing an increase of measles cases with 1563 total cases & 3 deaths since January.

#Pinks
ssteingraber1.bsky.social
If so, that’s a revisionist story.

Everyone at the time knew that what didn’t kill you made you blind, deaf, feeble-minded, unable to walk, or prone to heart problems. See also Beth in Little Women.
ssteingraber1.bsky.social
It’s important that we tell these stories! My mom had scarlet fever as a child and the house was quarantined so her brother and father had to sleep out in the barn in order to feed the cows and sell the milk.