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Gobble Gobble!
Happy Turkey Day!
Just wanted to wish everyone a happy and safe Thanksgiving. May this holiday be filled with happiness, family and friends. May your football team score big and your turkey not be dry.
Over at our house, we’ll be hosting a dinner for some Americans, a Canadian, a few Englishmen, a New Zealander, a couple of Germans and of course one Indian. Sorry, kids, that’s Indian. Not Native American. But it’s still going to be a good mix of natives and foreigners, all stuffing their faces and bonding over life in another land, living in another culture.
Which reminds us a lot of the first Thanksgiving, doesn’t it? When the Pilgrims sat down to give thanks to the first Americans for helping them survive a harsh winter. Of course, the difference at my house is that I won’t then be giving my guests deadly cases of smallpox.
Because we got rid of that back in 1979. Before then 80% of infected children died. A the end of the 18th Century, around 400,000 Europeans died every year from the disease. It was responsible for a third of all cases of blindness. All in all we can thank smallpox for between 300 and 500 million deaths during the 20th Century. Oh, sure you can argue that medicine today is so much more advanced that we’d be better off. Until you realize it killed 2 million people the year my parents got married. (And I’m not that old.)
What’s all that say to me? Vaccines are awesome. Oh, but I’ve gone slightly off track here. Back to the point.
Happy Thanksgiving!
The information herein is not intended to replace the services of trained health professionals, or be a substitute for medical advice. You are advised to consult with your health care professional with regard to matters relating to health, and in particular regarding matters that may require diagnosis or medical attention.
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