Brent Simmons recounts having chicken pox as a child, and laments the lack of a vaccine:

I was in third grade when I got a severe case of chicken pox. This was in the days before there was a vaccine for it. When I returned to school, I found I couldn’t read the blackboard anymore, and I had to get glasses.

…

But was this all better than getting a vaccine would have been? I could have died, and I’m still living with the effects. In a heartbeat I’d swap that experience for having had the vaccine.

His story is one of my talking points when I mount the soapbox after people suggest that COVID-19 isn’t so bad, or that the vaccine might be worse than the disease. It’s not an either/or proposition: yes, some people fully recover from illnesses, and some tragically die–but others live with debilitating after-effects. And if you you happen to feel cavalier about your chances of either contraction or transmission, consider the impact of spreading it around like a goddam lawn sprinkler.

For me, chicken pox was a week of from school and watching a lot of “My Favorite Martian” in syndication. But I sure as shit got my kids vaccinated.

I’m Still Living with the Longterm Effects of a Disease that Now Has a Vaccine