Once again, unvaccinated people experience a measles outbreak - Seriously, just vaccinate your children

[Luis Gonzalez]

Once again, unvaccinated people experience a measles outbreak - Seriously, just vaccinate your children

The Disneyland measles outbreak is directly attributable to vaccine-denier movements, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said today in a conference call with reporters.

From January 1 to 28, 84 people in 14 states have been reported as having measles, said Anne Schuchat, the head of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. Most of these cases — 56 people — are linked to the outbreak at Disneyland resort in Anaheim, where five employees are sick as well. The remainder were infected abroad and brought the disease back.

Measles was declared eliminated in the US in 2000, but they've been creeping back. From 2000 to 2010, there were usually about 60 cases a year. Last year, the CDC reported 644 cases — the highest number of measles infections since 2000. More adults are getting sick than in typical outbreaks, Schuchat said. The majority of people who got sick were unvaccinated.

"This is not a problem of the measles vaccine not working. This is a problem of the measles vaccine not being used," said Schuchat, the head of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, in the call. "It is frustrating that people have opted out of vaccination."

Some parents have avoided vaccinating their children after a now-discredited study by Andrew Wakefield suggested a link between vaccination and autism. The British Medical Journal has called Wakefield a "fraud," and the studies where he claimed to have found the link were retracted by the journal that published them, The Lancet. In multiple studies since Wakefield's original report, no link has been found between vaccines and autism.

That message hasn't made it to some people, though. Celebrities like Jenny McCarthy spread conspiracy theories — nicely detailed in Seth Mnookin's book, The Panic Virus — about "toxins" in vaccines that could cause autism in children. Our best evidence suggests that this is not what's happening. But parents don't seem to want to listen. Communities, especially in California, are springing up where significant parts of the population are unvaccinated.

And now, The New York Times is publicly wondering if measles are going to spell trouble for the Super Bowl (over 1,000 people in Arizona have been exposed; health authorities are engaged in contact tracing now). Anna Edney, of Bloomberg News, asked the CDC if they were worried about such a large crowd gathering, on the press call. Because — in case it's not obvious by now —measles is highly contagious. A person with measles doesn't show symptoms for four days before the rash appears, but is capable of infecting others. The virus is airborne, and can live for up to two hours on surfaces after being ejected from the body, according to the CDC. "Measles is so contagious that if one person has it, 90 percent of the people close to that person who are not immune will also become infected," the CDC writes.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/29/7947859/once-again-unvaccinated-people-experience-a-measles-outbreak

[GourmetDan]

 
I suppose it is only a coincidence that the outbreak coincides with a major influx of 'undocumented' people from 'southern' countries?

Otherwise it would be a good argument for setting up vaccination stations all along the southern border to immunize everyone coming into the country.

Do we even have enough vaccine doses?

[truth_seeker]

Vaccination rates in Latin America generally equal or exceed the USA.

So  I think it is dimwitted tinfoil hat Americanos, selfishly putting the entire public at risk for their ignorant fears.

[GourmetDan]

Vaccination rates in Latin America generally equal or exceed the USA.

So  I think it is dimwitted tinfoil hat Americanos, selfishly putting the entire public at risk for their ignorant fears.

Seems like the undocumented immigrant tide should be running the other way then.

At least for those concerned about 'dimwitted tinfoil hat Americanos'...

[sinkspur]

Vaccination rates in Latin America generally equal or exceed the USA.

So  I think it is dimwitted tinfoil hat Americanos, selfishly putting the entire public at risk for their ignorant fears.

That and dimwitted states like California that do not require vaccinations prior to entering the school system. The land of fruits and nuts allows parents to "opt out" of vaccines for personal reasons. How delicious that this started in Moonbeam's state.

[GourmetDan]

That and dimwitted states like California that do not require vaccinations prior to entering the school system. The land of fruits and nuts allows parents to "opt out" of vaccines for personal reasons. How delicious that this started in Moonbeam's state.

92% vaccination rates aren't effective?

Perhaps it is vaccines that aren't effective...

[truth_seeker]

That and dimwitted states like California that do not require vaccinations prior to entering the school system. The land of fruits and nuts allows parents to "opt out" of vaccines for personal reasons. How delicious that this started in Moonbeam's state.

Don't expect it to stay that way. So long as nothing went wrong, they could continue on that naïve path.

But now that it has  gone wrong, expect changes.

[GourmetDan]

So  I think it is dimwitted tinfoil hat Americanos, selfishly putting the entire public at risk for their ignorant fears.

It's actually the wealthier, better-educated parents who are opting out...

"No one group should demand that another group take a risk to benefit them, that's where it crosses the line," Richardson said.

Of course, this quote could apply to either pro or anti-vaccine group but I'll let you guess which one they are talking about...

[xfreeper]

But now that it has  gone wrong, expect changes.

That would call for a level of rationality that may not exist

[ABX]

92% vaccination rates aren't effective?

Perhaps it is vaccines that aren't effective...

Nothing is 100%. In the vaccine world, 92% is quite effective. I believe the pneumonia vaccine is something in the neighborhood of 88% effective and is considered one of the best.

One of the keys to vaccines is that it not only protects the vaccinated person, but the fewer people who get the virus, the less it can mutate in a population keeping the vaccine effective and in essence, wiping it out of a population because the few who can't or don't get vaccinated don't come in contact with it in the first place. As you have more and more groups not getting vaccinated, the virus mutates more and it has more of a chance from jumping from group to group. The larger the groups of vaccinated, the more mutations, and thus the greater threat to even those who are vaccinated (think about the flu vaccine and how we are having to constantly keep up with the mutations).

[GourmetDan]

Nothing is 100%. In the vaccine world, 92% is quite effective. I believe the pneumonia vaccine is something in the neighborhood of 88% effective and is considered one of the best.

One of the keys to vaccines is that it not only protects the vaccinated person, but the fewer people who get the virus, the less it can mutate in a population keeping the vaccine effective and in essence, wiping it out of a population because the few who can't or don't get vaccinated don't come in contact with it in the first place. As you have more and more groups not getting vaccinated, the virus mutates more and it has more of a chance from jumping from group to group. The larger the groups of vaccinated, the more mutations, and thus the greater threat to even those who are vaccinated (think about the flu vaccine and how we are having to constantly keep up with the mutations).

Actually, the article was complaining that 92% was too low.  You say it's quite effective.  Which is it?

The flu is a different virus than measles and other vaccinations.  That's why once you have had the measles, you are immune but you can get the flu over and over.  You know, like a cold.  Same thing.

If vaccines work so well and are so safe, just get yourself vaccinated as many times as you want and leave those who don't want to take them alone.

Don't force other to engage in behaviors they find risky just so you feel safer.  That's tyranny...

[ABX]

Actually, the article was complaining that 92% was too low.  You say it's quite effective.  Which is it?

Two different things, I misread the article. They are talking about vaccination rates of 92% versus effectiveness of the vaccine which I referenced. One is how many people are vaccinated, two is how effective the vaccine is in those who are vaccinated.

There has to be common sense in people. I see a people scream and shout against vaccines, not for any scientific reason but because, as you said, it is the perception that it is 'forcing behavior'.  It is like a teenager throwing a temper tantrum against authority for the sake of it being authority, not because it is common sense right. Just like people who refuse to wear seat belts simply for the fact they are told they have to.

Hey, if someone wants to be an idiot and not get vaccinated, that's fine, but society should be free to shun them from public jobs and locations, just like someone with TB can't work in the restaurant industry or a nurse can be fired if she isn't vaccinated. Let them go and live in their own community of unvaccinated or stick to themselves as free as they want to be and let evolution take its course.

[Luis Gonzalez]

Nothing is 100%. In the vaccine world, 92% is quite effective. I believe the pneumonia vaccine is something in the neighborhood of 88% effective and is considered one of the best.

One of the keys to vaccines is that it not only protects the vaccinated person, but the fewer people who get the virus, the less it can mutate in a population keeping the vaccine effective and in essence, wiping it out of a population because the few who can't or don't get vaccinated don't come in contact with it in the first place. As you have more and more groups not getting vaccinated, the virus mutates more and it has more of a chance from jumping from group to group. The larger the groups of vaccinated, the more mutations, and thus the greater threat to even those who are vaccinated (think about the flu vaccine and how we are having to constantly keep up with the mutations).

 

We wwant from 3-4 million infected per year in the 60's to about 60 per year between 2000 and 2010. There were an average of 500 deaths per year during the 60's and we have no known deaths from the disease. 

The drops in those stats coincide with the vaccination program 

I'd say that the effectiveness of the vaccine is unquestionable.

[GourmetDan]

Hey, if someone wants to be an idiot and not get vaccinated, that's fine, but society should be free to shun them from public jobs and locations, just like someone with TB can't work in the restaurant industry or a nurse can be fired if she isn't vaccinated. Let them go and live in their own community of unvaccinated or stick to themselves as free as they want to be and let evolution take its course.

Just can't resist characterizing those who disagree with you as 'idiots', eh?  Nice...

[GourmetDan]

I'd say that the effectiveness of the vaccine is unquestionable.

Then you're certainly free to get vaccinated as many times as you think are necessary to protect yourself from the unvaccinated...

[Luis Gonzalez]

Newton's Third Law says that to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

The decrease in the percentage of the population being vaccinated against measles in the nearly two decades since Wakefield and his discredited report were published, has resulted in a steady increase in the number of reported cases of measles.

In other words, this year both the number of people not being vaccinated for measles and the number of reported cases of measles have reached a twenty-year high in the US.

That's not a coincidence.

That's Newton

[GourmetDan]

 
You are certainly welcome to vaccinate yourself and your family as many times as you want until you feel safe from measles.

Forcing other people to do things they don't want to do so that you feel better is the essence of tyranny...

[truth_seeker]

Expect public and private schools and employers to require vaccination proof, now that we've discovered an ignorant misinformed segment of society is endangering others.

[Oceander]

You are certainly welcome to vaccinate yourself and your family as many times as you want until you feel safe from measles.

Forcing other people to do things they don't want to do so that you feel better is the essence of tyranny...

Yeah.  Locking people up because they're stone cold killers is something that only tyrants do.  Locking people up because they're kidnappers and rapists is something that only tyrants do.

[GourmetDan]

Yeah.  Locking people up because they're stone cold killers is something that only tyrants do.  Locking people up because they're kidnappers and rapists is something that only tyrants do.

Yep, tyrants can always justify whatever they want to do.

Equating stone cold killers, kidnappers and rapists with people who don't want to be vaccinated is an excellent non sequitur used only by the best...

[mountaineer]

David Burge ‏@iowahawkblog  · 2m2 minutes ago 
Not having a kid ravaged by measles is so conformist, man.

[GourmetDan]

David Burge ‏@iowahawkblog  · 2m2 minutes ago 
Not having a kid ravaged by measles is so conformist, man.

Again, it was the wealthier, better-educated parents who were taking the objection exemption.

If it's so safe, feel free to get vaccinated annually until you are no longer afraid and blaming other people...

Can't have people making their own choices... not in healthcare and not in vaccination.

This is 'Merica, we only do what the government tells us to do...

[Lando Lincoln]

I'm not sure why I mention this, but I had a bad case of measles as a child.  I was also vaccinated.  And, I had a bad case while in college.  That ain't supposed to happen.  The joint pain was awful - felt like each joint of my body was being pulled apart.