Slashdot Mirror
Measles Cases Top Last Year's Total
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Wall Street Journal: So far this year there have been 387 confirmed U.S. measles cases, more than 2018's full-year total and the second-largest number since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000 (Warning: source paywalled; alternative source), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The disease has spread to 15 states in 2019, with six continuing outbreaks of three or more cases each in Washington, New York, New Jersey and California. The development has sparked new policies aimed at boosting inoculation and curbing misinformation about the measles vaccine.
Measles cases have has risen since 2000 as infected travelers bring the disease to the U.S. Those travelers -- unvaccinated foreign nationals or Americans who become infected abroad -- have spread the highly contagious disease to others in the U.S. who aren't vaccinated or hadn't previously had measles. These cases have fueled outbreaks in communities where large numbers of people haven't been inoculated because of personal or religious exemptions to the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The largest growth in infections since measles was eliminated totaled 23 outbreaks and 667 cases in 2014. Last year there were 17 outbreaks and 372 confirmed cases. The number of cases in 2019 could increase in the coming months. Measles is a seasonal disease, with cases rising in late winter and early spring in temperate climates, according to the World Health Organization.
Measles cases have has risen since 2000 as infected travelers bring the disease to the U.S. Those travelers -- unvaccinated foreign nationals or Americans who become infected abroad -- have spread the highly contagious disease to others in the U.S. who aren't vaccinated or hadn't previously had measles. These cases have fueled outbreaks in communities where large numbers of people haven't been inoculated because of personal or religious exemptions to the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The largest growth in infections since measles was eliminated totaled 23 outbreaks and 667 cases in 2014. Last year there were 17 outbreaks and 372 confirmed cases. The number of cases in 2019 could increase in the coming months. Measles is a seasonal disease, with cases rising in late winter and early spring in temperate climates, according to the World Health Organization.
This latest outbreak is going to jump start more laws to stop this stupid crap. If you go to a public school I want no exceptions to MMR and DPT except medical ones. Don't like it? Pay for a private school that doesn't care. If that doesn't work, we need to stop the un-vaccinated from going into public places like grocery stores.
Lets clamp down on these jackasses until they can't live in the society without getting the vaccine, or all go live on their own private island.
This shit just makes me shake my head....all the work and effort and time and money that went into developing vaccines, and these ninnies won't use them.
And it's all because discredited former British doctor (Andrew Wakefield) published a bullshit medical paper claiming that vaccines were unsafe. That's all it took- the morons and dumbshits ate it up and stopped vaccinating their children.
Now we have measles epidemics again, yay.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
So why is the anti-vaxxer movement so heavily tied in many countries to the especially affluent, highly educated? They wouldn't get where they are lacking critical thinking skills and/or logical reasoning ability. Hell there's massive swaths of people teaching in universities(i.e. subject expert professors) here in Canada, and they're the core demographic of the anti-vaxxer movement.
Here's my guess. They've become so specialized in the areas that they teach, that they've become literal retards outside of it. It's why you'll see country kids vaccinated, and city kids not. Kids who grew up in small towns vaccinated, but the kids in major urban areas where government, science, and various specialty sectors live, not. We grew up with various diseases that would threaten animals like turkeys, chickens, pigs, cows, and so on. And know just how much vaccinating can make a difference. The urbanites on the other hand don't, have never seen it, it's especially bad with the "but food comes from the supermarket" lot.
Your point about losing face is right, but it has far more. Listen to an educated anti-vaxxer go on about how they "know" they're right, because of their education.
Om, nomnomnom...
Not just anti-vaxx, but there's a strong resurgence in conspiracy theories in general. It's social media spreading this stuff mostly, with a strong theme of "we're smarter than all the experts, so join us and you'll be one of the smartest people on the planet too!" Anti-vaxx, flat-earth, faked moon landing, and just this week there's a conspiracy forming around why the rapper Nipsey Hussel was killed.
Add to that a strong anti-education movement that seems to be forming, and an anti-science movement, and you can see this here on slashdot even.
The only infectious human disease we have ever eradicated is smallpox, which was eradicated way back in the 1970s. From an eradication point of view, measles and smallpox are very similar: they are viruses, they are highly infectious, they do not mutate super-fast, they infect only humans, it is obvious when someone has the disease, there is a very effective vaccine. From a technical point of view, eradicating measles is a very similar task to eradicating smallpox.
However, there is one significant difference: measles is a fairly worrying disease, whereas smallpox is absolutely terrifying. This means there hasn't been the social and political will to push an eradication program. If the will did exist, we could wrap it up in about 10 years (wild guess on my part), and then nobody would ever need a measles vaccination ever again. Don't like vaccinations? Push for eradication. Your kids will get the jab, but your grandkids, great-grandkids, etc. forever, will not.
The list of diseases considered eradicable (as of 2008) is quite short. For example, influenza is not - it readily jumps species (so eradication from humans would require vaccinating wild ducks, for example) and it mutates rapidly, so new vaccines are constantly needed.
The list:
Smallpox (eradicated)
Polio (on the verge of eradication, probably 5 to 10 years off)
Dracunculiasis/Guinea worm (on the verge of eradication)
Yaws (on the verge of eradication)
Malaria (eradication still decades away)
Hookworm
Lymphatic filariasis
Measles
Mumps
Rubella
Lymphatic filariasis
Cysticercosis
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
I'm still not convinced that any of the flat-earthers are actually serious.
I know one. I have bad news for you. They are really, really serious.
See here for someone explaining it from a supposed "biblical" standpoint:
http://www.jaymc.com/FlatEarth...
and this graphic in particular, with Bible verses:
http://www.jaymc.com/FlatEarth...
They conveniently leave out the verses that say the earth is round (meaning, a sphere) and hung in the heavens. Even the ancients understood this stuff to some extent, they use allegories which people now are taking literally.
Do you have ESP?
In the USA vaccine makers have blanket immunity from lawsuit. You can not sue them due to harm, vaccine makers have no accountability. If you were a profit making corporation with no liability for harm, would you maybe give less of a crap sometimes and maybe use the old familiar trick of adding mercury to boost the vaccine production in some batches? Maybe, who cares if you did? No one can sue you for damages!
This system was created to insure vaccine makers would continue creating vaccines. It is fallout from the incident at Cutter labs where their polio vaccine was produced according to government guidelines but still gave some people polio. The company was sued for negligence even though they hadn't actually been negligent.