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Medicine United States

Propelled By Spread of Misinformation About Vaccines, Measles Outbreak Hits 'Completely Avoidable' 25-Year-High in the US (reuters.com) 498

The number of measles cases in the United States has reached a 25-year peak, propelled by the spread of misinformation about the vaccine that can prevent the disease, federal health officials said on Monday. From a report: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 704 cases as of April 26, a 1.3 percent increase since the most recent tally of 695 reported on Wednesday. The vast majority of cases have occurred in children who have not received the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine, which confers immunity to the disease, officials said. "The suffering we are seeing today is completely avoidable," U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said on Monday. "We know vaccines are safe because they're among some of the most studied medical products we have." A vocal fringe of U.S. parents refuse to vaccinate their children believing, contrary to scientific evidence, that ingredients in them can cause autism or other disorders.
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Propelled By Spread of Misinformation About Vaccines, Measles Outbreak Hits 'Completely Avoidable' 25-Year-High in the US

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  • by nwaack ( 3482871 ) on Monday April 29, 2019 @01:03PM (#58510988)
    Look what a wonderful thing you've done.
    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Yes but think how many men she has given the best night of their lives to.
    • I donâ(TM)t take really think you can place the blame on her though. Itâ(TM)s not like sheâ(TM)s the only celeb pushing this, and she also has a receptive audience in all of the people that believe crystals and essential oils will heal you (just look at where the outbreaks are).

      And itâ(TM)s not just the US, I just got an MMR shot because I travel internationally and measles is spreading abroad also!

      • by Chris Mattern ( 191822 ) on Monday April 29, 2019 @02:35PM (#58511842)

        Does she have sole responsibility? No. Does she have more than her fair share of responsibility? Hell, yes.

        • by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 29, 2019 @03:31PM (#58512244)

          https://www.newsweek.com/trump-rand-paul-vaccines-anti-vax-measles-outbreak-1351684

          AMID MEASLES OUTBREAK, DONALD TRUMP, RAND PAUL AMONG THOSE IN WASHINGTON WITH HISTORY OF ANTI-VAX COMMENTS

          Healthy young child goes to doctor, gets pumped with massive shot of many vaccines, doesn't feel good and changes - AUTISM. Many such cases!” - Trump tweeted in 2014

          "Trump's dumb comments around vaccines hurt, but his secretary of [Health and Human Services], his [Food and Drug Administration] commissioner don’t share those views," Senator Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, who also sits on the Health Committee, told Newsweek. "Hopefully, he’s so distracted on the Mueller investigation and he’s just forgotten about the idiotic things he’s said about vaccines."

      • Oh you can place blame on her. Maybe not "the" blame, as there's plenty to go around, but she definitely deserves some.
      • Perhaps one of the most damaging lines came from a CIA spokesperson, regarding the re-emergence of polio in Africa, and the large number of clergy (both Christian and Muslim) there preaching against vaccination ... because it was a tool for the EVIL (tm) USA to gather information (and/or poison them). The quote was to the effect 'We stopped covertly gathering genetic information during vaccinations nearly two years ago!'

        And you wonder why *some* people don't trust the government?

        • That "quote" is rather half-assed, but anyway it had nothing to do with "why some people don't trust the government". It had to do with why the Taliban was attacking vaccine providers. The average person doesn't much care about intelligence gathering; they just want their kids vaccinated. The militants are the ones who are willing to let children go unvaccinated in order to try and hide their activities from us.

          It's also a bit of a red herring. Conspiracy theories about vaccines being a western ploy to

    • by Humbubba ( 2443838 ) on Monday April 29, 2019 @02:48PM (#58511948)
      I've heard some Jews think vaccinations are contrary to Torah principles. Something about how their production involves treif/non-kosher/forbidden ingredients (pork, monkey, rat, etc.). Apparently, there are rabbis telling their communities 'no'.

      I thought this Torah taboo only applied to things taken orally. What do I know?

      • by smooth wombat ( 796938 ) on Monday April 29, 2019 @04:03PM (#58512406) Journal

        I like the part where the one sentence talks about a "vocal fringe" when in reality the largest concentration of all the measles outbreak is in two Jewish communities in New York.

        It is so bad the mayor banned anyone not vaccinated from being among other people though eventually relented under pressure.

        Apparently there are some at the yeshivas who are still telling people not to get vaccinated because it's against Jewish "law".

  • by TomR teh Pirate ( 1554037 ) on Monday April 29, 2019 @01:05PM (#58511010)
    I'm generally opposed to any sort of censorship, but the outright lies being told by the anti-vaxxers and the collateral damage of those lies has me rethinking that position.
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward


      I'm generally opposed to any sort of censorship, but the outright lies being told by the anti-vaxxers and the collateral damage of those lies has me rethinking that position.

      I'm sort of in agreement. One thought I had after reading various entries in isitbadforyou.com, (a purveyor of total bullshit like Nutrasweet causes cancer and Multiple Sclerosis, including anti-vaxxer BS) was that these purveyors of bullshit should be held liable for harm done. Making anti-vaxxer claims is actually harmful, and these

      • Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)

        by e3m4n ( 947977 )

        Hadnt heard that it causes cancer but it is an excitotoxin like msg. It triggers an insulin response which can cause you to 1) unnecessarily trigger storing into fat 2) wear the shit out of your pancreas accelerating one form of type-2 diabetes. If your at risk of diabetes or metabolic syndrome, I would steer clear of any glutamate (look for words like hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated) as well as aspertame (nutrasweet).
        There is also the risk of it turning into wood alcohol, but if you

        • While that might be true you have to consider the amounts we are talking about, since the artificial sweeteners always are thousand times sweeter than real sugar the amount used in products are infinitesimal. Yes i.e Aspartame breaks down to methanol (wood alcohol) but to amounts that are orders of magnitude smaller than what you body already creates on a daily basis, and also smaller than what you get from drinking normal orange juice (which is a natural source of methanol).

          And protein gives a way stronger

    • by aardvarkjoe ( 156801 ) on Monday April 29, 2019 @01:18PM (#58511134)

      Measles is far less dangerous than censorship.

      Not to mention the fact that censoring conspiracy nuts has the exact opposite effect of what is intended.

    • I'm generally opposed to any sort of censorship, but the outright lies being told by the anti-vaxxers and the collateral damage of those lies has me rethinking that position.

      I suggest that we now convince them that any medical treatment is a tool of big Pharma, designed to weaken them.

      For your entertainment or perhaps horror, some women are now eschewing medical treatment of yeast infections by inserting garlic cloves up their...... ummmm lady parts. https://midwiferytoday.com/mt-... [midwiferytoday.com]

      And no, it doesn't work. https://www.the-star.co.ke/new... [the-star.co.ke]

      And lest we ignore the next door neighbor of the vajayjay, Let's all have an organic yogurt enema: http://www.health-information-.. [health-inf...itness.com]

      • by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

        I'm generally opposed to any sort of censorship, but the outright lies being told by the anti-vaxxers and the collateral damage of those lies has me rethinking that position.

        I suggest that we now convince them that any medical treatment is a tool of big Pharma, designed to weaken them.

        For your entertainment or perhaps horror, some women are now eschewing medical treatment of yeast infections by inserting garlic cloves up their...... ummmm lady parts. https://midwiferytoday.com/mt-... [midwiferytoday.com]

        And no, it doesn't work. https://www.the-star.co.ke/new... [the-star.co.ke]

        And lest we ignore the next door neighbor of the vajayjay, Let's all have an organic yogurt enema: http://www.health-information-... [health-inf...itness.com]

        We should give these sort of health tips to all our Anti-Vaxxers, show them the links, and chuckle as Darwin awards are handed out left and right.

        Don't forget the classic jade egg [wikipedia.org], as espoused by Gwyneth Paltrow. There seems to be a pattern here about getting "medical advice" from celebrities. Plus, now whenever I see a walrus all I can think of is diabetes.

    • I'm generally opposed to any sort of censorship, but the outright lies being told by the anti-vaxxers and the collateral damage of those lies has me rethinking that position.

      Hey, let natural selection work.

      Almost all of the measles cases are showing up IN the very children of the Anti-Vaxers.

      Not that measles is very deadly, but just them seeing their kids in pain and disease will possibly change their minds, or at least take them off the AV pulpit.

      True freedom also means that you have the RIGHT to be ST

      • by es330td ( 964170 )

        Hey, let natural selection work.

        This never works because of lawyers.

        The Blitz company used to make plastic gas cans. They were put out of business by lawyers who sued because people who self selected out of the gene pool died when they poured gasoline directly on a fire and the flame traveled up the stream and blew up the gas can. Lawyers claimed that the company didn't make warnings prominent enough or should have installed filters that get clogged to prevent this. Never mind that the real responsibility lies with parents who failed to

      • by Jahta ( 1141213 )

        I'm generally opposed to any sort of censorship, but the outright lies being told by the anti-vaxxers and the collateral damage of those lies has me rethinking that position.

        Not that measles is very deadly, but just them seeing their kids in pain and disease will possibly change their minds, or at least take them off the AV pulpit.

        Not very deadly? Really? You need to read up on Measles [wikipedia.org]:

        "Complications of measles are relatively common, ranging from mild ones such as diarrhea to serious ones such as pneumonia (either direct viral pneumonia or secondary bacterial pneumonia), bronchitis (either direct viral bronchitis or secondary bacterial bronchitis), otitis media, acute brain inflammation (and very rarely subacute sclerosing panencephalitis), and corneal ulceration (leading to corneal scarring). In addition, measles can suppress the im

        • The fatality rate from measles is about 1-2 per thousand [cdc.gov]. But for the really fun stuff, about .01% of those infected suddenly develop SSPE 7-10 years later which is nasty and 100% fatal.
          • There's some recent work that's come out that says that measles damages your immune system, making your immune system "forget" previously learned immunities.

            So, for example, you get chickenpox, and now you're immune. Then you get measles. Now you're susceptible again, and since you're older, much more likely to have a BAD case of chickenpox.

            The death rate from OTHER CAUSES then spikes after a measles case. Citation:
            https://www.princeton.edu/news... [princeton.edu]

            I not only don't want measles, I want herd immunity to p

      • The problem isn't their children.. I mean it is, from a social compassion perspective- but the real problem is that some unvaccinated 8 year old getting measles can cause the subsequent infection and death of countless infants who cannot be vaccinated, yet.
    • by PostPhil ( 739179 ) on Monday April 29, 2019 @03:11PM (#58512112)

      You shouldn't have to rethink that position.
      There's a difference between speech/belief and BEHAVIOR.
      Laws and courts already make that distinction.

      In order to have an open, free, and just society, we need to protect the right to speak openly, even if those ideas are considered stupid by other people. The point is not to protect stupid positions of individuals, the point is to preserve openness of society. Ideas being "dangerous" is not sufficient justification to pay the heavy cost of being a closed society, especially when better education is an alternative.

      But in terms of behavior, this is a good case for law being a solution. True libertarians (i.e. not anarchists in disguise using the "libertarian" label to avoid being dismissed immediately) believe in Occam's Razor of government intervention: that laws do have a purpose, but government should get involved only when there is genuine need, and in the degree and proportion necessary to solve the problem, where there is the problem, and only if government is actually capable of doing so rather than finding excuses to soak up tax payer money and infringe on liberties despite knowing they can't solve the problem.

      In the case of diseases and epidemics, it is no longer an issue of personal choice and responsibility of an individual, because literally a single irresponsible choice can lead to the deaths of millions who were not given the opportunity to make a choice for themselves, and the damage can continue INDIRECTLY. This is quite unlike any other risk-factor people are usually afraid of (even guns, where attackers must be in the direct vicinity of the victims, and there are ways to increase security and defense).

      So the solution is that in terms of beliefs and speech, yes you are free to openly, strongly disagree with vaccinations. But in terms of behavior, you and your kids are getting vaccinated anyway. You can disagree all you want while you are getting your mandated vaccination.

  • by e3m4n ( 947977 ) on Monday April 29, 2019 @01:09PM (#58511042)

    Theyre now saying previously vaccinated adults are at risk. There have been cases of vaccinated adults still getting it. If you were born between 1957 and 1984 (approx span) then you only received the one shot, not the second booster. Better to get it again to be sure.

      One thing is for certain, getting vaccinated as an adult would put it into the whole autism concern. If somebody was normal for 30 years of their life, and suddenly became autistic after a vaccine, I’m fairly certain nobody would be claiming genetics. Other than GBS from flu shot, i’ve not really heard of any other complications, though GBS is pretty fucking bad. The point is it may not be a bad idea to go ahead and get a booster if it’s been more than 10 years.

    • You would have a better chance dying on your way to get the booster in a car wreck than contracting measles as an adult.

      • by e3m4n ( 947977 )

        The same is true about being a victim of a mass shooting. It hasn’t stop the press making it sound like you’re at risk of getting shot from a rifle while taking a shower. 100people per year out of 700 million.. you might have a higher chance of being struck by lightning.

        • The same is true about being a victim of a mass shooting.

          I think you are about ten times more likely to be the victim of a single bullet shooting than a mass shooting. Like when some mass shooter killed 55 people in an hour, the same day about 28 or so people where killed (statistically) by individual murderers, and the same the next day, and the previous day, and the day after.

          And you are twice as likely again to be killed by a gun through suicide.

          • by e3m4n ( 947977 )

            If im going to a measles hotspot i’ll get the vaccine again as a booster. Though they issue MMR twice during bootcamp regardless of previous records. Im not worried about likelihood of being a shooting victim. Just like the measles vaccine, if I decide to hang out in heavily gang related territory my odds increase significantly. Thats just looking for trouble. For the other slim chance, i just carry. Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. It inconveniences no one, and if I e

    • by crow ( 16139 )

      My doctor didn't have records of my measles vaccination, and she said she could order a test to check for the antibodies. I countered with, "wouldn't it be cheaper just to give me another shot?" So that's what we did. I'm *not* going to get measles.

  • by duke_cheetah2003 ( 862933 ) on Monday April 29, 2019 @01:13PM (#58511084) Homepage

    Morons and their offspring are killed and/or permanently disabled by their own moronic behavior and belief in junk science.

    Sounds good to me, we need less morons on this planet. Ignore them; let them spread their disinformation. More planet for the rest of us.

    • Doesn't work since the deceases is not 100% effective so these people will still spread their genes. Normal human behaviour when this happens (look at how it e.g is in poor third world countries with high infant mortality) is to simply breed more children, so if anything it will only increase the suffering.
  • One would think that this measles menace would never take root in a country as [developed as] the USA! But alas, the picture is very different!

    The situation of drug related issues & homelessness in Seattle and Los Angeles among other cities, also paints a picture one could perhaps never associate with the USA!

    In the meantime, the country is saddled with debt, a good chunk that is through meaningless wars. I feel sorry for a country that has so much potential.

  • by GrumpySteen ( 1250194 ) on Monday April 29, 2019 @01:19PM (#58511146)

    The peak from 25 years ago was for the entire year.

    We've exceeded that in just 4 months and there are still 8 more months for the total to keep increasing.

  • Laws exist among other things to help prevent stupid people from causing harm to everyone else. So it should be in this case: there needs to be a federal law mandating vaccinations, plain and simple. The benefits far outweigh any actual risks, and the stupid anti-vaxxers need to be told to shut the fuck up, plain and simple.
    • As much as I don't generally like the government forcing people to do things, I've got to agree. This is a public safety issue. They're not only hurting their kids, but other people who aren't vaccinated due to age (too young) or medical conditions (e.g. immune system disorders). The only valid reason for not getting vaccinated is a medical condition that precludes vaccinations. We'll protect those people with herd immunity. Everyone else should be vaccinated.

      This is along the lines of "people serving food

  • just do it the old fashioned way, lock the kids into an infectious disease ward until they are past the timeline for infecting others.

    What could possibly go wrong with all natural organic vaccine free solutions? /s

  • Too much hysteria? (Score:4, Informative)

    by Straumli Perversion ( 1601929 ) on Monday April 29, 2019 @02:03PM (#58511582)
    Here is a chart of reported measles cases from 1954 through 2008: https://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/graph-us-measles-cases [historyofvaccines.org]

    We are talking about a small increase that doesn't even register on that chart. When I was in school, it was after the vaccines came out but we still had somewhere around 50 to 100 times the number of reported measles cases. If you look back a few years before that, it was up to 1000 times as many. And that's making the assumption that the number of reported cases is anywhere near the actual number of cases. If you believe the blurb about an estimated 4 million number of cases per year in the years before the vaccine came out, then we're talking on the order of 5000 times as many cases as we're seeing here.

    I'm pro vaccines, and I'm glad we've done so well at reducing this disease (I went through it myself), but the amount of what I see as hysteria about this seems unwarranted. Yes, it's a disease that can be deadly and can have other terrible outcomes later in life, but people act as if it's ebola or something. The schools treated measles like they did the flu when I was in school, it's wasn't a time of chaos and unrelenting death that we're just now coming out of. It was just normal life. With more kids staying home because they had the measles during school.

    If we want to actually make headway with anti-vaxxers, maybe we should stop accusing them of trying to kill our kids and wipeout humanity or whatever and look for ways we can address their concerns in a way that would satisfy them. It's at least worth the effort, anyway.
    • by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 29, 2019 @04:16PM (#58512474)

      How about checking out this CDC graph [cdc.gov] of reported measles cases from 2010 to 2019 (only the first quarter of 2019). There's nothing quite like referencing a graph with statistics from back before MMR vaccines where there were literally hundreds of thousands of cases every year -- 'doesn't even register on that chart' indeed.

      Try to imagine what the reaction would be like if any of today's diseases in the US had hundreds of thousand of cases every year. Even at the estimated 1-2 deaths per thousand, that's several hundred deaths per year prior to vaccinations.

      For a better understanding of the problem beyond pure numbers, how about posting this CDC presentation [cdc.gov] instead of a single graph biased because it shows cases from before vaccinations.

  • Is the antivax idiocy.
    Measles is just a side effect.

  • by Locke2005 ( 849178 ) on Monday April 29, 2019 @04:06PM (#58512420)
    "Healthy young child goes to doctor, gets pumped with massive shot of many vaccines, doesn't feel good and changes - AUTISM. Many such cases!" -- Trump tweet, 2014

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