South Carolina measles outbreak ‘accelerating’ with hundreds of unvaccinated students now in second 21-day quarantine

Hans Blaster said:

Odd how the OP quoted article gives the MMR coverage at only 90% for all of K-12. If your "close to 100% during the first year" were correct the overall total for K-12. Also, vaccinations required for attendance are required *before* enrollment.


Why are you talking about smallpox? Small pox was eliminated and smallpox vaccinations in the US ended in the late 60s/early 70s. I never got that vaccine.

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Attempted to do partial quotes from a different device but failed, so I quoted the entire post.

To the first, yes, it is odd, so odd that it padded my skeptic meter. To be blunt, I suspect the idea behind it is to overcome vaccination hesitancy. As I said in my first post, don’t take my word for it; check out the link and note the MMR vaccination requirement.

As to smallpox, I brought that up because, in warm weather at least, you could tell who had been recently vaccinated by the scab on the arm. So when we saw a classmate with the scab in school, we knew they were vaccinated after the start of the school year. Given that smallpox was so deadly, I don’t recall anyone hesitant about it. And yet some of my classmates weren’t vaccinated for it prior to the start of school. Polio is another feared disease, and when you knew survivors of it, you didn’t hesitate to vaccinate your children, but unlike the smallpox vaccine, you can’t just look at someone and tell if they’d taken it. The point is not everyone took their children to get the smallpox vaccination prior to the start of school, but the requirements were that they be vaccinated.

Taken together. I suspect some officials are spinning the truth, implying that 10% would not be vaccinated even though both South Carolina requirements and experience show this is not likely the case.

Here’s something else to consider: Some who have contracted measles are too young for the vaccine. Being that they have it, will they one day be counted among the unvaccinated?

essentialsaltes said:

South Carolina measles outbreak is largest in US since measles was declared eliminated​

With 789 cases reported as of Tuesday, the South Carolina outbreak surpassed a massive outbreak in Texas, which reached 762 cases before it ended in August last year. Two children died during the outbreak in Texas.

South Carolina, which first reported cases in October, has added more than 600 cases in 2026 alone. At least 18 people – adults and children – have been hospitalized for complications of measles, the state health department said Tuesday, and no deaths have been reported.

But the federal government’s posture toward measles has changed under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic. The department says vaccination is the most effective way to prevent measles, but Kennedy has also focused on unconventional treatments, including vitamin A, a steroid and an antibiotic.

The MMR vaccine is widely available at doctors’ offices, pharmacies and health departments, and is free for many families through the Vaccines for Children program or health insurance, State Epidemiologist Dr. Linda Bell said last week.

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I had my MMR as a kid, but with the rate it's growing in the US makes me wonder if I need a booster of some kind, this is just nuts.

loveofourlord said:

I had my MMR as a kid, but with the rate it's growing in the US makes me wonder if I need a booster of some kind, this is just nuts.

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If you had two doses as a kid or if you are old, pre-1957, medical consensus is no, you should still be good, according to Dr. Google.

DaisyDay said:

If you had two doses as a kid or if you are old, pre-1957, medical consensus is no, you should still be good, according to Dr. Google.

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May sayscypu may need it if you were vaccinated before 1976. https://mcpress.mayoclinic.org/living-well/do-you-need-a-measles-booster/

NPR says 1968. https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-.../nx-s1-5304458/measles-vaccine-booster-health

hedrick said:

May sayscypu may need it if you were vaccinated before 1976. https://mcpress.mayoclinic.org/living-well/do-you-need-a-measles-booster/

NPR says 1968. https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-.../nx-s1-5304458/measles-vaccine-booster-health

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So those born between 1957 and 1976 may need a booster - presumably '77 was when the booster was added to the schedule?

DaisyDay said:

So those born between 1957 and 1976 may need a booster - presumably '77 was when the booster was added to the schedule?

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No. It was given widely before 76. However some formulations before 76 were not as effective as current ones, so it might be wise to get it again. At least if you live in an area without herd immunity.

I totally believed the folks who told me not to “pop” the chicken pox pustules “it’ll leave a scar!”, so I only did one on my left calf, when the light hits it obliquely I can still see it there, 60-something years later.

Pommer said:

I totally believed the folks who told me not to “pop” the chicken pox pustules “it’ll leave a scar!”, so I only did one on my left calf, when the light hits it obliquely I can still see it there, 60-something years later.

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I've got a bunch of scars on my forehead - I had chicken pox as a baby, and I've been told I resorted to scooting around the crib on my face to scratch after they wrapped my hands up.