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.

Comments

Something missing in the head

[phantomfive]

There is something really wrong with people who don't vaccinate. I don't know what it is exactly, but they are not seeing the world clearly.

Re:Something missing in the head

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

It's a lack of critical thinking skills and/or logical reasoning ability.

These people are like large children, unable to think things through or weigh them with any sense of proportion. They're prone to magical thinking and jumping to conclusions.

Reasoning with them usually just makes them dig in their heels because a) they don't want to feel dumb, and b) they don't want to lose face.

At some point eventually even they'll know they're wrong, but they'll go down with the ship rather than admit that they bought into a load of bullshit.

Re:Something missing in the head

[Darinbob]

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.

Re:Something missing in the head

[ShanghaiBill]

Not true, stop repeating this. It's not a partisan issue.

Indeed. Anti-vaccination beliefs don't follow the usual political polarization.

Right-wing kooks see vaccinations as a government conspiracy. Left-wing kooks see vaccinations as a corporate conspiracy. Moderates vaccinate their kids.

Re: Something missing in the head

[c6gunner]

First of all new borns basically have no immune system. Vaccination before about 6 weeks is completely pointless

Nonsense. Newborns have a poorly developed immune system, but that's a far cry from "no immune system".

If you'd bothered looking at the list, the only vaccination given prior to 6 weeks is the Hep-B vaccine, and that's due to the high risk of developing chronic Hep-B. And despite your protestations, plenty of European countries also give the Hep-B vaccine at birth:

https://vaccine-schedule.ecdc....

Re:Something missing in the head

[Trailer Trash]

Speaking of a sense of proportion.... in the United States you're three times as likely to die from a shark attack (1 death per year on average) as you are from from the measles (1 death every 3 years on average from 387 reported measles cases per year).

To put that into further perspective, the U.S. averages 11 deaths from fireworks and 24 from train crashes per year. Death from a literal lightning strike is 141 times as common than dying from the measles in the United States.

So let's not overreact quite yet.

Yes, there are things that kill you other than measles. The difference is that measles is pretty easily preventable - people just have to get vaccinated.

The other issue with measles - and most of the "childhood diseases" - is that they have other complications besides death.

https://www.cdc.gov/measles/ab...

"About one child out of every 1,000 who get measles will develop encephalitis (swelling of the brain) that can lead to convulsions and can leave the child deaf or with intellectual disability."

"Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) is a very rare, but fatal disease of the central nervous system that results from a measles virus infection acquired earlier in life. SSPE generally develops 7 to 10 years after a person has measles, even though the person seems to have fully recovered from the illness. Since measles was eliminated in 2000, SSPE is rarely reported in the United States."

That last line is ironic.

Re:Something missing in the head

[jeff4747]

In the USA vaccine makers have blanket immunity from lawsuit.

You misunderstand the law. It's not that they are immune to lawsuits. The government has assumed the liability.

So you can indeed sue due to vaccine injury. You'll just be suing the government instead of a corporation.

And you don't actually have to sue. The government set up a vaccine injury program where you can file a claim and get paid without a lawsuit. You are still free to sue if you'd like.

Also, the FDA stops a whole lot more vaccines than lawsuits ever could. It's not like there's nothing between the corporation coming up with something and the free market, as you imply. And if you want to claim regulatory capture, you'd have to show some vaccines that would not pass trials yet got released.

use the old familiar trick of adding mercury to boost the vaccine production in some batches?

:faceplam:

Thiomersal is a preservative. It has nothing do do with boosting production rates. It was introduced into vaccines in order to let doctors use one vial to treat multiple patients. Pull out a new, empty syringe, fill it with a dose of vaccine from a vial, give the patient the shot, toss the syringe. The alternative is syringes pre-loaded with vaccine, which cost you a lot more money.

Thiomersal is also ethyl-mercury, which you pee out. Not methyl-mercury that stays in your system. If you want to say something stupid like "it's got mercury so it's all the same!!!" consider ethanol vs methanol. One will get you drunk. One will kill you very quickly. They're almost identical. Ethyl-mercury vs methyl-mercury is similar.

So, congrats on making vaccines cost more. Also at a higher profit to "big pharma". Also, Thiomersal was removed from childhood vaccines in 2000, with no reduction in autism rates, so you did all this for nothing.

Before you go off half cocked, don't forget, migrants carry disease

Only if the vaccination rate in their country is lower than the vaccination rate in the US.

And since you're making a very obvious dogwhistle, the vaccination rate in Central and South American countries is higher than the US.

migrants expose themselves and their new host community to new strains of pathogens

This doesn't matter for the MMR vaccine. The different strains on the planet are still covered by the vaccine. You need a high-mutation-rate disease like influenza for strains to be relevant.

Say goodbye to the anti-vaxers.

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Conspiratorial thinking, in largest part.

[Truth_Quark]

Some Aussies looked into the reasons last year.

In order of magnitude, antivaccination attitudes were highest among those who

(a) were high in conspiratorial thinking
(b) were high in reactance
(c) reported high levels of disgust toward blood and needles
(d) had strong individualistic/hierarchical worldviews.

In contrast, demographic variables (including education) accounted for nonsignificant or trivial levels of variance.

The Psychological Roots of Anti-Vaccination Attitudes: A 24-Nation Investigation, Hornsey, M. J., Harris, E. A., & Fielding, K. S. Health Psychology (2018)

I don't know what you can do with that, but that's what's wrong with them: Conspriacy theorists who are bolshie, but not from any particular education level or demographic group.

Re:Interesting question is

[gaiageek]

Measles was eliminated in the United States in 2000. Unless you're going to quarantine the US completely (close all borders, no one gets in or out) you're going to have people getting exposed. Vaccines are the only practical way to prevent it from spreading.