Had a doc appt (just my yearly checkup) a couple days ago and I asked her about checking to see if my measles vaccine from when I was a kid was still good, since I’d heard it could lose effectiveness over time. She nodded and had a lab done and turned out I was NOT still immune to measles, so got my booster today.
Get your vaccines, folks!
“I have a question about a vaccine,” I say, and the look of ‘god fuckin dammnit not again’ that flashed across this poor doctor’s face, followed by abject relief when I said “I’ve heard that the measles vaccine can lose effectiveness over time and I’d like to make sure mine is still good.” says everything really.
“Oh thank god,” she literally said. “Yes of course. That’s true, and we can do a blood test and see. If you don’t still have antibodies we can get you a booster scheduled.”
“That question goes poorly a lot, doesn’t it,” I say.
“You have no idea.”
Note: In some cases, you may not even need to do the blood test in order to get the measles booster. I walked into my local CVS pharmacy and said, “I was born in [YEAR] and I have no idea whether I got the single-shot or two-shot series. My coworkers keep having babies, tho. Can I have the measles booster?”
And the pharmacist said, “YES YOU MAY, THAT WILL BE ZERO DOLLARS AND THANK YOU”
More info here: https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/faqs.html
“If you’re unsure whether you’re immune to measles, you should first try to find your vaccination records or documentation of measles immunity. If you do not have written documentation of measles immunity, you should get vaccinated with measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine. There is no harm in getting another dose of MMR vaccine if you may already be immune to measles (or mumps or rubella).“
(p.s. Please also get your tetanus booster every 10 years, it also contains the whooping cough vaccine so if you are ever in the vicinity of babies, please make sure your Tdap is up to date)
(p.s.s. I’m sorry, I’m a public health professional, I can’t help it)
When my doctor sister was pregnant, she was like “Ya’ll have to get your MMR and Tdap boosters before hanging out with my baby, non-negotiable” and I couldn’t agree more. Get a tiny needle stick, and prevent some babies from getting seriously ill or dead, ffs.
Even if you’ve been getting your booster shots, take a moment to make sure it was the TDAP and not just tetanus! For a while there, people were getting tetanus boosters with no pertussis (whooping cough). My hometown’s had several outbreaks of whooping cough in the past six months.
