#pro-vax

I love this analogy (I've seen it used before, but not in this format)

Feeling a little sore already, but doing good otherwise. Nothing serious yet.

If you live within the range of the Brown Recluse, chances are you know it's not a spider you want to mess with. Chances are, you also know that bites often result in necrosis - two tiny pricks turn into a giant, rotting, gaping hole in your arm, leg, or whatever, and if you're especially unlucky, you may lose whatever part of your body was bitten. It's common knowledge, and in parts of the South, it's drummed into kids' skulls as early as grade school that spiders with fiddles on their backs are to be avoided, and that being bitten will make your bitten spot rot clean off.

Some years ago - maybe as many as ten, maybe as few as five - I was perusing a forum where one could get medical advice. After finding the information I was looking for - I wasn't bitten by a spider but my cats were in need of a flea dip - I kept scrolling and the site kept offering me new threads to scroll through. Eventually, I wound up on a thread about treating Brown Recluse bites prior to visiting the doctor.

The comment with the most votes detailed one person's method of dealing with Brown Recluse bites, the fact that they still had all their limbs, and were not dead. If this person was to be believed, they were bitten routinely - a few times monthly, if I recall - and always treated the bite with the same method and success. Steps one and two involved scraping the skin off - not clean, off - around the bite and scouring it with lye soap. Step three made me throw up a little in my mouth: "pour bleach on the bite - undiluted, not laundry bleach."

I have to admit, after that horrible mental image, I skimmed to the last "step" and moved on; for all we know, this person might have also set their skin on fire in hopes of treating the deadly condition before it could gain hold. Whatever the remaining details, that person never suffered necrosis as a result of a bite and was darned proud of their system. Some people who read that post might believe the person was onto something - they discovered a miracle treatment that the world needed to know about - but other people will have a few more facts to work with.

The truth is...Brown Recluse bites do not always result in necrosis. They can result in necrosis if they aren't kept clean, if you try to squeeze out the venom like it's a pointy wasp butt, and if you don't seek immediate treatment if the situation starts to look off.

When schools teach their kids about the spiders most exaggerate the risk of necrosis. They're working with kids, and kids aren't the best judges of risk. Kids will often hear the "it won't always happen but it can happen and tell themselves "well, it won't happen to me." What happens then? They try to play with the spider because they're kids; when that happens they get bitten, and many of those kids end up with huge scars or even missing appendages, and the parents blame the schools for letting their babies be complete idiots. So, solution: Schools tell kids "you get bit, you get dead;" when those kids grow up and have kids, they tell them the same, even if they've learned the truth.

Now. Imagine you don't know that bites won't always go bad. You get bitten, get terrified, and do everything you can think of to clean out the venom before it can start melting the flesh right off your bones. Necrosis never happens. "Huh," you say to yourself, "maybe this is a solution!" You get bitten again, follow the same steps, and get the same results - no necrosis. You decide that your actions have prevented necrosis when, in reality, just taking care of the bite can prevent necrosis. On the subject of the person who shared this 'foolproof bite routine,' they begrudgingly admitted in later comments that not everything was roses and kittens. They developed terrible scarring each time they were bitten and shared some horrifying side effects...but it was worth it because they weren't dead.

Now, reverse the logic - imagine you think doing something will harm you when it's actually going to help you. You avoid that something, don't come to immediate harm, and decide that whatever it was really was harmful because you're safe after avoiding it. Sound familiar? It should. You're also liable to end up dealing with the consequences later on just like the Spider Bite Bleacher.

Your turn to get that fancy-schmancy new vaccine may come soon, and when it does, remember what I've told you. People say Brown Recluse bites will kill you, but they usually won't, and you'll be hurt more by tearing up your skin and pouring bleach on it. People also say vaccines will hurt you but they usually won't, and not vaccinating leaves you and others at risk for deadly diseases.