Recently, all of our kids got Chickenpox, one after the other, which made me aware of a rather interesting phenomenon with this disease.
First; I am not a doctor, nor do I have intent of imitating one online, this is based on my understanding of governmental or official sources of information around the disease.
The incubation period is 10-21 days, with 14-16 days as the most common time period. The disease is however the most contagious 1-2 days prior to the blisters showing up.
This means that kids are are infecting each other before they (or their parents) realise they are sick, and because of the long incubation period it is impossible to know for sure where one was infected.
This means that we have a really interesting phenomenon, or paradox I should say, which is almost like Schrödinger’s Cat:
At any one time, someone who has not gone through Chickenpox or has not been vaccinated, may or may not be infectious, a fact that will only be revealed within the next 1-2 days
-Schrödinger’s Chickenpox
Claiming that Chickenpox infection is a quantum mechanic phenomenon, governed by quantum superposition of probability functions is a stretch, but the similarity to Schrödinger’s paradox is clear; You have the state of some system which is unknown until you observe it.
In the cat ’thought-experiment’, you are free to check the state of the cat at any time, whereas with the chickenpox, you cannot check until a certain time period has passed. In the cat version, the state really is non-deterministic in the sense that it relies on a probability of an decaying atom, whereas the Chickenpox case is determinate, and was decided upon when the infection happened.
Returning to the disease; It is an airborn infection, which means that it spreads with micro aerosoles, that can stay suspended in the air for hours after an infected person coughs. With this in mind, it is clear that the disease has a really strong capability for spreading;
- You are infectious prior to knowing you are sick
- You spread like a mad man, just breathing in your surroundings
- It takes ~2 weeks before you realise you are sick
Chickenpox is not part of the normal kids’s vaccination scheme in my part of the world.This means that most families will have a period of chickenpox in the family. If you have more than 2 kids, who are not infected at the same time in the same place, you are going to have at least 2 weeks home from work, possibly 3 due to the long incubation period.
From a socio-economic point of view, maybe we should consider adding Chickenpox to the National vaccination program?