this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2026
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Science Memes

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[–] W98BSoD@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 1 day ago
[–] janus2@lemmy.zip 42 points 1 day ago

my mom has the vaccine mark! I remember asking her about it as a young kid and that being the first time I ever learned about vaccines. the idea that we "use germs to train our immune systems to fight them" was so cool to me. no wonder I went into biochem when i grew up (courtesy of having parents who didn't let me die to preventable diseases lol)

[–] observes_depths@aussie.zone 32 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The good news is they only had a mild case of death

[–] seatwiggy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 1 day ago (3 children)

There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead.

[–] nexguy@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Ohhh look who knows so much!

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[–] ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That is a small pox vaccine scar!

[–] Amberskin@europe.pub 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yup, I’ve got one! Now guess my age!

[–] justme@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago

Apparently so many digits don't fit in the text field here ;)

[–] bellly@sopuli.xyz 191 points 2 days ago (3 children)

At least its only a mild case of death

[–] artifex@piefed.social 47 points 2 days ago (3 children)
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[–] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that this is likely sarcasm and not someone who seriously feels this way.

[–] saimen@feddit.org 10 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

JFC, LoL! I completely missed that! 😂

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[–] BillyClark@piefed.social 90 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

You know, looking at that little scarring in the context of the vaccine, I'm reminded that I heard that there's this famous idea that milk maids are historically seen as the very definition of pretty, and that the idea stems from the fact that they tended to get cowpox, which protected them from smallpox.

So, basically, before smallpox vaccines, the typical woman was so badly scarred somewhere visible like her face by smallpox that a woman who simply didn't have those scars would be considered extremely pretty.

[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 30 points 2 days ago

The Latin word for cow is "vacca," which is where the word "vaccine" comes from.

[–] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 19 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Eight maids a-milking

Seven swans a-swimming

Six geese a-laying

Five golden rings

Four calling birds

Three french hens

Two turtle doves

and a partridge in a pear tree

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[–] TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com 4 points 1 day ago

Look what they did to my boy!

[–] webkitten@piefed.social 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The only thing I got from my recent COVID booster was chills, aches, and soreness for two days and I do it again in a heartbeat.

[–] CatAssTrophy@safest.space 1 points 57 minutes ago

I got an arm infection near the injection site of one vaccine that was so bad that there was briefly discussion of possibly needing to amputate it if the third round of antibiotics didn't clear it up. When the primary abscess at the injection site ruptured, I collected over a pint of bloodypusieyuck in the first couple of hours. Fortunately, it began resolving shortly thereafter, but it definitely made me more wary of vaccinations.

That being said, I still got vaccinated for COVID and some other things after that. Because I am capable of taking a deep breath, rationalizing the actual proven risk odds and then deal with my very real anxiety and do the thing I know has the highest chance of being the best course of action (at least sometimes).

Though, I do always ask they do it in my non-dominate arm now, just in case.

[–] drbluefall@toast.ooo 101 points 2 days ago (4 children)

"mild cases of death"

God I hate that I laughed at that.

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[–] 01011@monero.town 14 points 2 days ago (10 children)

Serious question - what happened where so many people decided that disease and premature death is superior to vaccination?

[–] Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 day ago

Vaccines worked too well and stupid idiots that should be dead are alive.

In Pakistan and Afghanistan CIA used vaccine drives as a cover up to collect information like DNA to look for bin laden. This is why these 2 countries are the only places where polio still exists. This also created mistrusts worldwide as well.

And the most outragious part is, some people raised the concerns in the admin that this would happen, but this was CIA and national security trumps everything sso they went with it anyways.

[–] NottaLottaOcelot@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I wonder if it’s that most of us alive today have very little memory of people who suffered the diseases themselves. Our parents and grandparents knew people who died or had long-term negative effects from measles, polio, smalllpox, etc.

We are insulated from that to the point where some flirt with the idea that maybe the disease isn’t that bad. Combine that with mistrust in the medical system and nobody enjoying getting a needle, and you have some people that WANT vaccines to be a bust to justify avoiding something they don’t want to do.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

During the 50s, it was common to return to school in the fall, to find out 1 or 2 classmates had died of polio over the summer.

My wife's family still talks about little Buzz, a 5 year old cousin who died of polio in the backseat of his car, as his Dad raced to the hospital. It was in the 50s, and the old folks in the family would talk of it like it was yesterday.

Nobody has had that experience in decades, so people have forgotten about it, and our educational system has been deliberately downgraded so nobody is taught anything important any more.

[–] fishy@lemmy.today 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I honestly believe the education system is more to blame than anything besides the anti vax people themselves. There's so much nonsense pseudoscience posted online by uninformed and grifters, then their cult of stupidity fills the holes with comments that reinforce the legitimacy of their quackery. Even reasonable people get sucked down the rabbit hole.

When my son was born my wife had been fed this bullshit and suggested delaying vaccination. I sat her down and was able to address her concerns and get her to understand the science and statistics so he stayed in the doctor's recommended schedule but not everybody is going to have a spouse who cash reel then back in.

[–] NottaLottaOcelot@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 day ago

Facebook mom groups perpetuate this pseudoscience. You are a young mom and want to commisserate with people, but half of them will scold you for things totally not scientifically sound.

I recall posts suggesting cow’s milk would poison your baby if used before 1 year old, yet cheese or yogurt was no problem. I went down the rabbit hole and it was essentially a bastardization of recommendations that breast milk or formula should be the bulk of your baby’s diet rather than cow’s milk, not that cow’s milk was poison.

Another time they scolded a mother for making a fruit smoothie, because they felt she could have overdosed on vitamin A. I’ll point out that dietary vitamin A mostly has to be converted from beta carotene to its active form, so it is incredibly hard to overdose unless you are using vitamin supplements. And yet fruit smoothie mom was in trouble, but eating 10 Big Macs was no big deal, as the magic guidelines never said no.

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They will live.

[–] degen@midwest.social 24 points 2 days ago (1 children)

This is such obvious Fake News. It's clearly a scar from the mandible of a tiny human, or possibly a faerie

[–] Rcklsabndn@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago

Everyone knows that hope, prayers, and fairy bites are all you need to stay healthy.

[–] TheImpressiveX@lemmy.today 37 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Please put a nsfw tag on this. I was on the bus and when I saw this I started screaming in pure fear. Everyone else was giving me concerned looks and were saying things like “what’s going on?” and “are you okay sir?”. The fear I felt seeing this horrible image gave me heart palpitations, forcing me drop my phone. Now there’s an entire bus of terrified people screaming in terror from this one image. Even the bus driver saw a single pixel of the image from the mirror causing so much terror that he swerved the bus straight into an orphanage. So many poor children were injured in the crash, but was worse: many of them saw the image. This is all your fault. Dozens of poor orphan children have been forever and irrecoverably traumatized because of your ignorance to put a nsfw tag on this.

[–] QuinnyCoded@sh.itjust.works 22 points 2 days ago

Stop dropping your phone on the fucking train

Every morning I clock into work, and 12 hours later I clock out covered in jizz because someone dropped their phone while looking at porn and turned the whole trip into a goddamn gangbang. I can’t take it anymore. I’m literally knee deep in spunk by the end of the day, because all you motherfuckers are apparently lubing up your hands and can’t get a grip. We’ve all had to start wearing blindfolds when we exit the front so we don’t accidentally get a peak and start furiously cranking our cocks to “thugposts” or “femboys” or whatever the newest horny fad is.

For the love of god, stop dropping your phone on the fucking train.

[–] RebekahWSD@lemmy.world 19 points 2 days ago (1 children)

My mother has this scar, when she was vaccinated on a reservation.

She also remembers they'd give you a sugar cube with a different vaccine on it at the time. She tried to get it multiple times.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 7 points 2 days ago (2 children)

i think sugar cube was the polio vaccine, i believe they use that for polio virus.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 days ago (6 children)

Used. They don't do oral polio vaccines anymore AFAIK.

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[–] stoly@lemmy.world 22 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Mild case of death lol lol lol

[–] BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

The good news is that once you catch it naturally, you can never catch it again! Can a vaccine do that?

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[–] IndustryStandard@lemmy.world 22 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

For all the circlejerk, smallpox vaccines used to leave very large scar. As if someone put out a sigarette on your shoulder. Newer versions of it no longer do this, but the older versions scar could get very ugly.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 17 points 2 days ago (8 children)

My mother has one; a little spot on her arm where her skin just, kind of wrinkles inward a little. It doesn't stand proud like a wound that scabbed over, it's sunken in.

I'm a millennial, I'm not vaccinated against smallpox, it was certified eradicated 5 years before I was born.

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[–] abbadon420@sh.itjust.works 30 points 2 days ago

Jezus! Can you tag the nsfw box, please? This is horrifying. Glad I didn't put my kids through that.

[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 20 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

Reminder to older millenials and genx: vaccinations age out and measels can reset your immune system so talk to your gp and get yourself an mmr booster. If you're in Australia it's free at a vaccinating chemist if you don't have the third shot on your record.

(You don't even need a gp visit for that last, or online records. I literally took in a pink 1970's infant vaxx record with the 90's additions handwritten in. staff were incredibly fascinated)

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[–] Grainne@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 days ago

Thank you for adding the content warning, I almost opened this at work.

[–] Bluegrass_Addict@lemmy.ca 23 points 2 days ago (5 children)

that just make some think of chicken pox scars tbh..

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[–] digitalFatteh@lemmy.ca 21 points 2 days ago (2 children)
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