Reply to Chance

Not to argue against your point, Health, but a link to the original thread would be helpful.

Thanks.

The Wolf

Baloney. From the CDC:

From 2001-2013, 28% of children younger than 5 years old who had measles had to be treated in the hospital.

For some children, measles can lead to:

Pneumonia (a serious lung infection)

Lifelong brain damage

Deafness

Death

(Mods, I know the rule is no links… but I believe this to be a serious enough issue [potential pikuach nefesh] that I am going to ask you to bend the rules and allow a link to the CDC website. Thank you.)

Sorry, they’ll have to Google it.

Based on that reasoning, let’s reintroduce smallpox as well. And why not let cholera, polio and rubella run rampant too? Who are we to think we can outwit Him who created these diseases?

The Wolf

It’s not the first time you made such a point to me!

Next time be Dan people L’caf Zecus!

My apologies. I should not have been so blunt.

For future reference, all you have to do is copy/paste the URL.

The Wolf

Hashem created the body and made disease. He also created man with a mind and wisdom and gave him permission to practice medicine (Ve’rapo yerapeh, ???? ???? Mishpatim, 21:19). Hashem created medicinal plants and antibiotics. Hashem made smallpox and cowpox, which essentially was the first (unintentional) vaccine. We are not outsmarting G-d, but fulfilling His Will.

Re the original quote, I don’t know what study shows that getting measles gives some sort of immunity to cancer, but I think it is more logical to conclude that these diseases protected against cancer, because once-upon-a-time people died young of bacterial infections and viral diseases before they could develop cancer!