State of Emergency Declared in Washington State Over Measles Outbreak (cbsnews.com)

An anonymous reader quotes CBS News: The governor of Washington state declared a state of emergency Friday over a measles outbreak that has sickened dozens of people in a county with one of the state's lowest vaccination rates. Gov. Jay Inslee said in a statement that the outbreak in Clark County "creates an extreme public health risk" that could spread throughout the state...

Clark County Public Health has confirmed 30 measles cases since January 1 and identified another nine suspected cases. Twenty-six of the confirmed cases were people who were not immunized for measles, the agency said... Only 77.4 percent of all public students there complete their vaccinations, according to state records cited by the Oregonian...Most of the confirmed cases -- 21 -- were with children between 1 and 10 years old. Eight cases involved people 11 to 18 years old, and one case was someone 19 to 29.
Time magazines also reports that authorities in the neighboring states of Oregon and Idaho "have issued warnings to residents."

In November the World Health Organization warned that measles cases worldwide had jumped more than 30% from 2016 to 2017, according to AFP, "in part because of children not being vaccinated."

Comments

Re:Mix the anti vax idiots with

[quantaman]

the 10's of thousands of medical unknowns flowing across our open southern border and it is no wonder measles, tb and such are making a real come back

Measles vaccination rate in America: 92%
Measles vaccination rate in Mexico: 96%

Measles vaccination rates by country

Also, you may want to look at a map. Clark County, Washington is a long way from the southern border.

Clark County is a prosperous suburb of Portland, and not many poor Mexicans can afford to live there. It is only 4% Hispanic, and they are not causing this problem.

LOL, Mexicans literally have to worry about sick Americans bringing diseases into their country!

Re:Put Jenny McCarthy in jail

[nmb3000]

Put Jenny McCarthy in jail
It would be a good beginning.

Perhaps, but an even better beginning would be to start introducing legislation making certain vaccinations mandatory. Failure to comply should be a heavy fine or tax to help pay for bullshit like this. Continued failure to comply is direct child endangerment and society takes children away from parents for things like that. Oh, and manslaughter charges for any parents whose unvaccinated children are involved in the deaths of someone else, just to make sure the asshats know we're serious.

We need to stop tolerating irrational stupidity in this country under the guise of "freedom" or "religion". This is a public safety matter.

Make it a criminal offense

[stevent1965]

The best I can say about so-called anti-vaxxers is that they are ignorant and uneducated. But I'll give them the benefit of doubt. Perhaps some do hold religious or moral objections to vaccinations. Well and good. But there should be consequences associated with behavior that affects society in general. Think of drunk driving laws. If a child who has not been vaccinated contracts a disease the vaccine could prevent, the parent(s) should be prosecuted for criminal endangerment. In fact, it should be as automatic as failing a sobriety test. If your kid gets measles and has not been vaccinated, you should face fines and possible jail time, increasing with successive occurrences. Please don't toss out the red herring of health care access. Lack of it does not apply to early childhood vaccines.

Re: Lets be antivax!

[Dayze!Confused]

You're describing Clark County, the conservative sinkhole across the river from liberal Portland.