I don’t think chicken pox is such a bad disease, either. I don’t know that it has any really bad effects, except you can get shingles later, I know that.
And, of course it is imperative to be vaccinated against many diseases. I’m not sure what I think about Gardisil, I do think I object to it being mandatory. We kind of missed that one with my daughter by a few years. She did have the anti-menengitis shot, but I think it was the good one, didn’t they have another one that came out that had some potentially really bad side-effects, like Guillien-Barre syndrome?
Or was that for something else? You don’t want to get G-B syndrome, that is for sure!
Rarely, chicken pox can kill, and the chance of that increases with age. It can cause stroke in children. If a pregnant woman gets chicken pox, it can cause birth defects in the fetus, mostly neurological. Once you get chicken pox, the virus survives in your body for the rest of your life. Shingles is quite painful, and the pain sometimes does not go away when the rash clears. Shingles can cause blindness if it erupts in the optic nerve.
Infectious diseases often cause permanent tissue damage. Personally, I'd rather not take the risk.