New York City Orders Mandatory Measles Vaccinations in Brooklyn (providencejournal.com)

"New York City officials on Tuesday declared a public health emergency and ordered mandatory measles vaccinations" in an area where most of the state's 285 measles cases have occurred. The Washington Post reports: New York's mandatory vaccination order in four Brooklyn zip codes is by far the toughest action to date by state or local officials, as the disease's tally grows to 465 cases in 19 states. Officials there and elsewhere have sought to bar unvaccinated children from schools and other public places but have had limited success... The mandate orders all unvaccinated people in four zip codes to receive inoculations, including children as young as 6 months. Anyone who resists faces a misdemeanor charge and could be fined up to $1,000.
Long-time Slashdot reader Major Blud shares a BBC report that under the order, "any person living in the affected areas who has not been vaccinated must be immunised within 48 hours."

Comments

end the nonsense

[sdinfoserv]

Good. Their "rights" to liberty absolutely terminate when they endanger the lives of others.

Re: end the nonsense

[Dunbal]

Spoken like someone who has never seen anyone die from either one. Spend a few months in a children's hospital. Oh I will grant you death is rarer than having to live on with some permanent defect. But when either case is entirely preventable, your argument is like saying "yeah but drunk driver's don't kill all THAT many people a year what's the big deal"...

Re: end the nonsense

[ClickOnThis]

Calm down. From the article:

There are no strictures against vaccines in the Jewish religion and the overwhelming majority of American Jews are vaccinated. The reasons for the explosion of cases among members of insular, ultra-orthodox communities has more to do with their frequent contacts with Israel, which is undergoing its own measles crisis, combined with their insularity and general mistrust of government, say health officials.

In addition, a misinformation campaign, including phone calls, voice mails and pamphlets has targeted the community, say health officials and immunization advocates. One widely distributed booklet not only cites various rabbis questioning the obligation to vaccinate children, but also advances anecdotes and statistics in an attempt to connect vaccinations to physical harm and death.

[bold emphasis mine]

Re:end the nonsense

[Chris Mattern]

....aaand if the vaccines work so well, then all those who aren't the anti-vaxxers will be perfectly safe, right?

Wrong.

1. There are about 5% or less of those vaccinated for whom it doesn't "take". There's no easy way to test for this.

2. There are those who legitimately can't be vaccinated. Those who have compromised immune systems. For some vaccines, those who are too young.

3. Vaccines hold out the promise of completely eradicating a disease, like we did smallpox. Anti-vaxxer are working to ensure reservoirs of diseases remain in existence.

I think herd immunity is bullshit...

No, it's not. It's amazing how many people think herd immunity is some sort of mystical concept, when it's really very simple and straightforward If almost everyone in a community is immune, then there is no one the few who are not can catch the disease from. It's just that simple.

Re:end the nonsense

[AK Marc]

I think herd immunity is bullshit.

Do you believe in Smallpox?

Do you believe that there was ever a point in time where 100% of the planet was vaccinated? If you aren't sure, the answer is "no".

Smallpox is proof of herd immunity. Enough people were vaccinated that there were no vulnerable people to be infected, so the disease died off. That's the goal for all disease, but some people work extraordinarily to see that disease persist.

The only way to not believe in reality is to simply be delusional. That invalidates your opinion as well as most of your (incorrect) facts.

Fake news vs fake news

[Z80a]

I think that a way to fight this would be to "leak" a document to wikileaks pointing out that the autism vaccine rumor was spread by alquaeda as part of a plan to attack the population with measles.

Re:I am willing to be vaccinated against Ebola, bu

[GrumpySteen]

Before the vaccine, measles caused an average of about 2.6 million deaths per year.

You have a very funny idea of what constitutes a dangerous disease"

Re:why does it matter?

[blahbooboo]

If you are vaccinated, shouldn't you not have to worry about getting measles? Only the un-vaccinated will be affected? Where is the problem?

As I said above, these people dont just die in their homes. They then go to some of the most expensive healthcare facilities in the world to be treated, wasting resources which could be better used elsewhere.

Then there is the exposure risk to infants too young to receive the vaccine. Should infants be exposed because some idiots think a measles vaccine is dangerous? Herd immunity only works if the herd all gets vaccinated...

Re:why does it matter?

[rednip]

A common misconception about vaccination is that it prevents infection. Vaccination only trains your own body's immune system to attack a disease after your system has been exposed to it. For some their vaccination wasn't good enough to build an immunity and others might have temporary or lasting immunity system problems. Even vaccinated people can get a disease, but it's generally less frequent and more mild overall.

Babies have to grow some before and other people have actual real problems taking a vaccine ever, those people rely on 'herd immunity'. I'm fairly certain that you too were at least once a baby.

Re:Do you know what Vaccination is?

[Smidge204]

No vaccination is 100% effective. There will always be a small percentage of people who get vaccinated but do not become fully immune. With measles I believe it's 2-3 percent, which is still tens of thousands of people.

Even if you are immune, you can still potentially carry the virus with you. Measles virus can survive outside the body for several hours and still be infectious.

And you contradict yourself within three sentences:

1) "You do not endanger others if you are not vaccinated"
2) "You could spread it to other people who are not vaccinated"

So which is it? Are you not endangering others, or can you spread it?

=Smidge=

Re:why does it matter?

[westlake]

If you are vaccinated, shouldn't you not have to worry about getting measles? Only the un-vaccinated will be affected? Where is the problem?

1> No vaccine is 100% effective. But vaccination can reduce the risk or the severity of the disease.

2. The population of Brooklyn is 2.65 million. You do not want a dangerously infectious disease to gain a foothold in a population that size.

3. There are legitimate medical reasons why everyone cannot be vaccinated. But you can protect the most vulnerable by immunizing those around them. Consider it a firewall..

4. We came within a hair of eliminating measles as we did smallpox. We could all-but-eliminate cervical cancer in the next generation. If we fail, the reason will there for veryone to see,

Re:Alcohol-related deaths down

[SlaveToTheGrind]

I think you may be mixing up percentage driving under the influence with percentage involved in fatal crashes. From the study in the first link in your Google search:

The proportion of persons driving under the influence of alcohol is estimated at 2.1% (95% CI: 1.4–2.8) and under the influence of cannabis at 3.4% (2.9%-3.9%). Drivers under the influence of alcohol are 17.8 times (12.1–26.1) more likely to be responsible for a fatal accident , and the proportion of fatal accidents which would be prevented if no drivers ever exceeded the legal limit for alcohol is estimated at 27.7% (26.0%-29.4%). Drivers under the influence of cannabis multiply their risk of being responsible for causing a fatal accident by 1.65 (1.16–2.34) , and the proportion of fatal accidents which would be prevented if no drivers ever drove under the influence of cannabis is estimated at 4.2% (3.7%-4.8%).