Day 46: World Domination GPS Implantation Scars

I took my tests today, had my usual chocolate croissant with pineapple juice, relaxed outside near the fountain on campus watching the golden koi fish swim around while listening to Telepopmusique's "Breathe." On Ernesto's exam I took the liberty to answer a few questions in multi-colored drawings and by giving my snotty but educated remarks in place of a run-of-the-mill regurgitated response. After reading the man's complains on Facebook about the tediousness of grading exams, I thought I'd give him a chuckle if nothing else. After classes I came home and bonded with the fam for a good three hours. We sat on the couch watching TV and giggling and chatting and eating. It was great. Totally fabulous. ^_^

So... just to throw a complete non-sequitor into things, I decided not to dwell on my happy little Thursday, but instead to embark on a serious research project that I've been meaning to undertake for sometime. And so, without further adieu, I present to you one of the most random things you've read in awhile:

The Case of Mysterious Upper Arm Scars on Non-Americans - Proof of world domination GPS implantation or proof of vaccination?


For those of you who have traveled outside of the USA / know many people who are not from the USA, have you ever noticed that an alarming number of people have a funny scar on their upper arm that looks as if they were bitten by a baby vampire decades ago and the bit fizzled and remained on them Fight Club style to this day? Me, being overly fascinated by the strange scars on people I adore (God, I'm weird), have been pondering the reason for the existence of these scars on non-Americans for at least a year.

At first, when I'd only seen Brazilian's, I believed that perhaps he'd been probed by an alien race and just didn't remember the UFO or any of it... and I wondered if the scar gave him special, supernatural alien powers. I tried to test for these, but though Brazilian can be very different from the norm, none of his behaviors approached "alien" level. And so I dismissed it all as an unsolved mystery; perhaps it was a chip that the Brazilian government put in its particularly tall citizens and that was that.


But then! I met L and realized she, too, had such a mark. Now I was beyond curious. She insisted it was some type of vaccine and that I just wasn't as prepared for world disease as she was, but I was wary of her explanation. I quickly forgot about it and it wasn't until today that I remembered that the Mystery of the Bite Mark Scar still had yet to be solved!

So I began to research. And research. For hours.

At first I believed the culprit to be the smallpox vaccine, commonly known for causing scarring. Unlike "normal" vaccines, the smallpox vaccine is given with a two-pronged needle that pokes your skin 15-20 times extremely quickly to introduce the living virus. This explains the circular form of the scar/that it looks like two sets of teeth made it. The area then bubbles into a sore, fills with pus and then falls up and scabs before permanently scabbing. The only problem with this theory was that smallpox was erradicated in the early 1970's and the vaccines stopped being given out by the early 1980's...



Back to square one. Let's see... could it have been a polio vaccine? These seemed doubtful, as many sites explained that people believed the polio vaccine was what caused their scar, but it was really the smallpox vaccine. Also, other sites described the scar as looking like a cigarette burn, and not a baby vampire bite mark... so this was out, too. So that left...


THE BCG Vaccine!!!


Yep, that's right. Tuberculosis. The scaring is what means that the vaccine has properly taken to the immune system (at least, this is what I read on some sites). While such a vaccine was never made mandatory (nor, for that matter, even encouraged) in the USA, Brazil and Romania were some of the countries particularly serious about administering the BCG vaccine to children. To this day, both countries still support the vaccine, but are possibly beginning to waiver a bit on their stance, despite the vaccine being called one of the "safest" vaccines to receive.



Aha! Finally. An answer to the mystery.


XOXO
Jet-set Cupcake