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U.S. Measles Cases Triple In 2013

An anonymous reader writes "The U.S. Centers for Disease Control have announced that measles cases in the U.S. spiked this year, rising to three times their recent average rate. It's partly due to a greater number of people traveling to the U.S. when they're infectious, but also because a frustrating number of people are either failing to have their children vaccinated, or are failing to do so in a timely manner. Dr. Thomas Friedman said, 'Around 90 percent of the people who have had measles in this country were not vaccinated either because they refused, or were not vaccinated on time.' Phil Plait adds, 'In all three of these outbreaks, someone who had not been vaccinated traveled overseas and brought the disease back with them, which then spread due to low vaccination rates in their communities. It's unclear how much religious beliefs themselves were behind the outbreaks in Brooklyn and North Carolina; it may have been due to widespread secular anti-vax beliefs in those tight-knit groups. But either way, a large proportion of the people in those areas were unvaccinated.'"

4 of 462 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Duh by mythosaz · · Score: -1, Troll

    Nobody deserves to suffer.

    Plenty of people deserve to suffer.

    ...or at least deserve to be put out of their suffering at minimal expense to the state.

    The religious idiots (and those who believe morons who link vaccinations to autism), don't deserve to suffer. They deserve a fucking education.

  2. Re:Duh by qbast · · Score: 1, Troll

    Oh poor oppressed dears. Don't mock my invisible friend or I will blow up myself and 100 other people! And it will be all _your_ fault!

  3. Re:Duh by Adeptus_Luminati · · Score: -1, Troll

    *Some* of this vaccination stuff is overrated. Seriously, I've had like 5 diseases (measles, mumps, varicella, rubella and influenzaa) as a child that people get vaccinated for here in North America. I remember having a wonderful childhood, and I'm still alive and quite healthy with ZERO side effects of having had those diseases.

    I find it even more ridiculous people get vaccinated for the flu these days. Pretty soon they'll come out with a vaccine against carbon dioxide.... LOL.

    Big pharma marketing has apparently been successful in creating a nation of hypocondiracs.

    Yes, get your children vaccinated, but for serious stuff only, and only with vaccines that have proven themselves after at least a decade.

    --
    No trees were killed in the making of this post; however, many trillions of electrons were horribly inconvenienced.
  4. Re:Anti-vaxxers by mythosaz · · Score: 1, Troll

    How is this informative?

    3/1000 isn't "a tiny fraction?"

    That 0.3% number is worldwide. Of the 159 cases reported in the US this year, ZERO died -- a rate of (roughly) 0.00%.