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Measles Outbreak In NYC
sandbagger writes "New York City may have to deal with a measles problem. New Yorkers are being urged to make sure all household members, including young children, are vaccinated. To date, there have been 16 confirmed cases and four hospitalizations. This follows news from the CDC in December that 2013 saw triple the average number of yearly measles cases. 2014 is off to an even worse start; there have been cases recently in the Boston metropolitan area and more than a dozen in the Bay Area as well. Vaccinations seem to be a victim of their own success — people look around and see no polio or measles and wonder why they should bother. Others repeat bogus claim about vaccines causing autism. How do you think we can get through to the anti-vaxxers?"
Herd immunity
The trouble is they're putting others at risk who, for varying reasons, are unable to be vaccinated. That is irresponsible, to say the least.
soupy twist
It was *not* a fake polio vaccination campaign. Every one of the subjects got a *real* polio vaccine. The catch was that the vaccination wasn't the only thing they did.
People have died, but not because they got fake polio vaccines, but because Pakistanis are now refusing to get vaccines at all because they're afraid they're all CIA fronts.
Herd immunity isn't rubbish. The reason we're worried is because of three things:
1) People who can't be vaccinated due to medical conditions. If you have an immune system disorder or are allergic to the vaccine, you won't be able to be vaccinated. In this case, you need to rely on herd immunity.
2) People who are too young to be vaccinated. Suppose you have an 8 month old baby and plan on vaccinating her. However, the MMR is given at 12 months. So your baby is still susceptible until then.
3) Vaccines aren't 100% effective. Nothing is. However, they are around 99.9% effective. Of course, with millions being vaccinated, this still means that thousands will still be susceptible.
If everyone was vaccinated who could be, herd immunity would protect these other people. When anti-vaxxers first started out, they relied on herd immunity also. Skip the measles vaccine and nothing happens! Because of herd immunity. As the numbers of anti-vaxxers grow, though, herd immunity breaks down and the diseases spread.
If anti-vaxxers were only affecting themselves/their children, I'd take a "it's a personal choice, albeit one I disagree with" stance. Since their choice affects (and kills) other people, though, I don't see this as a right of theirs. You don't have the right to kill someone else's baby because you want to listen to Andrew Wakefield and Jenny McCarthy.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
4) Viruses mutate, and mutations can bring rise to resistance against the existing vaccine. The more people who get the virus, the higher the chance it has to mutate into a new strain.
But she's never retracted her position, even though the Dr has been stripped of his license, the study has been retracted and she still continues to preach her message and to gain new followers. For example from Fox News today http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2014/03/14/kristin-cavallari-defends-decision-not-to-vaccinate-her-son/?intcmp=features
Do we blame her by being misled by the study? No. But once the study was refuted and the findings retracted she refused to change her tune. And so we blame her for using her celebrity status to push a dangerously misguided position that is leading to increased deaths and illnesses that would never have happened had she not pushed her cause and refused to change her position when the study was proven false.
I'm too lazy to compose a creative sig.