- Jun 20, 2014
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A not so funny Valentine because it depicts a distressing reality:
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...In America, for example, measles stands as a stunning example of how the "anti-vaxxers" have united to helped bring back a disease we thought we had consigned to the dustbin of history. Three generations ago, uncontrolled annual epidemics of measles infected three million to four million Americans annually. Victims typically suffered a painful itching, sometimes scarring rash, accompanied by fever and diarrhea. Severe cases led to pneumonia or encephalitis. In bad years, as many as 48,000 American children were hospitalized, 4,000 contracted encephalitis, and 450 died.
Beginning in the mid-1960s, an effective measles vaccination was mandated for American schoolchildren, and the disease was brought to heel. By 2000 the U.S. Public Health Service proudly declared that measles had been eliminated in the United States.
But this year, a scant two decades after we declared final victory, sustained "anti-vax" pressure on young parents has brought measles back with a vengeance, with 372 cases confirmed in 2018. So far through Feb. 10, 2019, already over 250 cases have been reported, almost all in children who have not been vaccinated. The problem is not confined to the U.S., as measles cases have also seen a 30% annual increase globally.
As the outbreak has flared, vaccination rates have soared in a state where the percentage of residents who decline vaccines for nonmedical reasons — 7.5 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — is the highest in the country. Parents of unvaccinated or undervaccinated children like Lux have come forward, raising health officials’ hopes that perhaps a corner has been turned. In Oregon and southwest Washington, where measles cases have clustered, about triple the number of children have been vaccinated this year, compared with the same period in 2018.
The one silver lining (if it can be called that) of these measles outbreaks is it does appear to reinforce the necessity of vaccines. Vaccination rates are apparently on the rise as a consequence:
As Measles Outbreak Flares, Vaccination Rates Soar and Some Come Off the Fence
Not necessarily. If you have only a vague sense of the risks and the benefits are small (since there's no measles around), it's easy to hesitate. When headlines are telling you that there's an outbreak, however, the calculation may change.Lacking the courage of their convictions? It is easy to be an Internet Expert, but when the rubber meets the road, they still run to science and doctors.
This is true, but at much lower numbers than populations that are vaccinated. When the majority of the population is vaccinated, incidents of measles are rare. I will use a recent article on the current measles outbreak here in the Philippines to show this.People get sick in vaccinated populations too.
People get sick in vaccinated populations too.
Your point?Yep.
Like here...not measles but yep, vaccinated people get sick too.
Harvard-Westlake students were vaccinated. Dozens caught whooping cough anyway
People get sick in vaccinated populations too.
How about that you'd prefer 0% protection without vaccines if you can't have 100% with vaccines.Not sure how else to say it.
Sure, vaccines are not 100% reliable any more than antibiotics, not only because individuals vary in their responses, but the disease microorganisms are also hugely variable - and they evolve. Nevertheless, vaccines are estimated to have saved more lives than even antibiotics.Yep.
Like here...not measles but yep, vaccinated people get sick too.
Harvard-Westlake students were vaccinated. Dozens caught whooping cough anyway
and this...
US warship quarantined at sea due to virus outbreak - CNNPolitics
Yep.
Like here...not measles but yep, vaccinated people get sick too.
Harvard-Westlake students were vaccinated. Dozens caught whooping cough anyway
and this...
US warship quarantined at sea due to virus outbreak - CNNPolitics
IIRC none of the three diseases targeted by the MMR vaccine - measles, mumps, and rubella - have animal hosts, and thus are targets for complete eradication. Measles, in spite of being much more contagious than polio for instance, is no longer endemic in the USA due to the vaccine. All the recent outbreaks have been imported - mostly by unvaccinated Americans returning from abroad. Will the stupidity of the antivaxxers thwart the attempt to eliminate these diseases?Extinct viruses don't evolve new vaccine resistant strains.
Every tiny reservoir of anti Vax enabled viruses is another potential problem for the next generation.