Posted on 02/02/2015 4:31:20 AM PST by iowamark
AS THOMAS PEEBLES jabbed a needle into the arm of a sick student in 1954, he told him, “Young man, you are standing on the frontiers of science.” Indeed he was. Using blood collected at the boy’s school, Peebles was able to isolate the measles virus, which John Enders then used to craft a vaccine in 1963. That year there were around 400,000 cases of measles in America. In the decade to 2013 the average number of annual cases dropped below 100. The disease is no longer endemic in America (though it still kills thousands abroad).
The measles vaccine, now combined with those for mumps and rubella, is safe and effective. Yet some parents believe the opposite and refuse to vaccinate their kids. Some adults go unprotected, too. They reflect a rise in anti-vaccine sentiment fuelled by misinformation and pseudoscience. This has coincided with an increase in the number of measles cases in America, which hit 644 last year (see chart).
An ongoing outbreak of measles traced back to a tourist at California’s Disneyland in December illustrates the risk posed by those who shun vaccines. Dozens of people have since caught the disease; most were unvaccinated. The sick have now spread measles to seven other states. But it is not just the anti-vaccine crowd who have suffered: six infants in California, too young to be vaccinated, have caught the disease, along with a handful of vaccinated people (in some the vaccine does not produce a strong immune response).
Like those infants, thousands of frail and sick Americans cannot be vaccinated. They are generally protected from measles and other preventable diseases by what scientists call “herd immunity”, whereby a large vaccinated population forms a fence around those who are susceptible, keeping diseases away. People who choose not to get vaccinated also benefit. But in communities where anti-vaccine sentiment is strongest, the fence is falling down.
The measles vaccination rate for young children in America was 92% in 2013. Although that is lower than in most rich countries, it is about the rate needed for herd immunity. But it conceals big differences across states—from 82% in Colorado to nearly 100% in Mississippi—and within them. This variation is in part explained by different laws. Although all 50 states require vaccines for students, 19 allow them to opt out without a doctor’s approval or religious justification.
One such state is California, where many schools have vaccination rates lower than are needed for herd immunity. After rising for 12 years, the number of parents seeking a waiver on philosophical grounds declined in 2014, when a law went into effect requiring them to see a health-care professional first. Even so, a recent study found that sceptics tend to cluster in certain parts of the state where vaccination is far from the norm. These include wealthy and well-educated areas.
Parents who skip vaccines are often portrayed as pampered fools swayed by conspiracy theorists. Some swear by debunked studies—like one linking the measles vaccine to autism—and dodgy alternative medicine. A gaggle of B-list celebrities such as Jenny McCarthy (pictured), a former Playboy model and anti-vaccine megaphone, reinforce this image. But parents rarely opt out of all vaccines. Many are overwhelmed by the large number of vaccines now required for young children, so they choose to limit or delay the jabs.
That is still risky behaviour. Paul Offit, a doctor at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, often hears parents worry about vaccines. He notes that most of them have never seen the 14 diseases for which the government recommends vaccination. “In the end,” says Dr Offit, “people don’t get vaccinated because they don’t fear these diseases.” In other words, vaccines are a victim of their own success.
We’ve got an entire horde on this forum of anti-vaccine freaks.
I’m all for choice. If you want to get sick and have a risk of death, fine. But educate yourselves, morons.
Interesting that this outbreak happened in California and not, say, Kansas.
What does California have that Kansas does not?
“If you want to get sick and have a risk of death, fine. But educate yourselves, morons.”
Yes, agreed.
I had measles as a child. I missed a month of school and had a terrible deep whooping-like cough for six months afterwards.
Yeah, it’s the anti-vaccine people, not the unvaccinated illegal immigrants......
This ahole “doctor” is the genesis for much of this autism claim...I wouldn’t be so quick to blame the playmate as I would vermin like 0prah and others for giving the playmate a forum by which she could spread the falsehoods.
IMO,she’s looking to blame others vs. genetics.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/health/policy/25autism.html?_r=0
http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/01/05/autism.vaccines/index.html
http://www.webmd.com/children/news/20100129/mmr-autism-doctor-acted-dishonestly-irresponsibly
http://phys.org/news193912443.html
Hey - I was one of those cases in 1962. I was only 3 years old, but I remember laying on the couch in our living room, being really sick, and the doctor coming to the house to see me.
Thank goodness my older kids just had to go through the chicken pox. That had a vaccine by the time the youngest came along so he got to miss that.
What about all those unvaccinated, can’t-call-them-illegal immigrants? Are we vaccinating them in these holding centers or or we just going to set up stations at the border?
Proof positive. Autism causes organic food sales.
Stop illegal immigration and the Measles outbreaks as well as other contagious infections will dramatically drop in number.
Mostly due to expansions in the “autism spectrum” which replaced ADD/ADHD as the disability of choice for boys that single moms and teachers want tranquilized.
Its a government conspiracy for sure.
They are injecting GPS trackers that also can read minds and report our thoughts back to NSA.
In fact how do know that measles really exists? It turns us into living smart phones.
If it were only that easy. People don't live in a bubble. Those who deliberately choose not to vaccinate and who then get the disease are a threat to others was well.
How do you know the increase in cases isn't due to improvements in our ability to diagnose it?
Disneyland. That's believed to be ground zero for the outbreak.
A lot of undocumented illegal immigrants go to Disneyland, do they?
More likely from changes in what we call Autism.
For instance, I’m on the Autism spectrum. They didn’t know that until I had kids of my own.
This is a forum about a Free Republic. Parents who choose not to vaccinate their kids may be perfectly well informed. I’ve been engaged in some email debates about the subject these past weeks and no pro vax person has given me stats on the MMR that don’t come from Merck or the CDC. Sorry if they don’t sway me.
In the late 1960s, measles was thought of as a benign childhood disease, funny enough to be joked about on the Brady Bunch when the whole family catches it. YES, there can be serious complications.
There can be serious complications from the vaccine as well.
A lot of us did trust our pediatricians the first time around. Piled shots in multiple groups into our newborns. And our children will now never be neurologically normal. We have studied what the immune system really is, and how it works, and we have studies the ingredients of vaccines. And we have prioritized things differently.
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