Posted on 03/17/2014 7:41:27 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Of all the things to be nostalgic for, infectious diseases probably don’t make it onto many lists.
However, if you happen to pine for the good old days when measles was an active public health threat, I have good news for you. The anti-vaccine crowd is bringing it back.
There is currently an outbreak of measles in New York City. Considered eliminated in the United States in 2000, last year saw a record number of outbreaks around the country. It’s only three months into 2014, and not only is the nation’s largest city seeing cases in several boroughs, but other major metropolitan areas are warning of new cases as well.
This is not some inconvenience to be laughed off. Measles is a highly-contagious illness caused by a virus. It usually presents with a combination of rash, fevers, cough and runny nose, as well as characteristic spots in the mouth. Most patients recover after an unpleasant but relatively uneventful period of sickness. Unfortunately, about one patient in every 1,000 develops inflammation of the brain, and one to three cases per 1000 in the United States result in death.
Reports from New York note that several people have been hospitalized, and infected patients include infants too young to be vaccinated themselves. Because the American public hasn’t needed to worry much about this once-contained threat in quite some time, most people probably don’t know that measles can kill, or leave children permanently disabled.
We vaccinate people for a reason.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
Your immune system cannot tell the difference between "natural" immunity caused by exposure to the live disease, and "unnatural" immunity caused by exposure to the dead disease. I made sure my son built up his immunity by exposing him to inactivated viruses and parts of bacteria. Not only is he immune, but he never had to suffer a horrible, potentially life-threatening, brain-damage inducing disease to become immune.
I don’t know anyone that didn't have german measles.
Measles and German measles are two different diseases, both preventable by vaccination. Each of them cause serious complications. Measles can be fatal up to a decade after the disease. German measles is especially bad for unborn babies, since it causes fetal death or severe fetal abnormalities.
I never had either disease. When I was in Navy boot camp in 1980, I was tested for immunity to German measles. I was not immune, so I got a vaccine. A few years later, I wanted to go to college, and was required to get measles vaccine before I could attend classes.
Back when I was a kid, I got infected with some exotic disease that caused me to have such a high fever I hallucinated. The doctors never figured out what it was, but for two weeks, I couldn't eat and I had the weirdest visions. I'll take getting a tiny needle prick over that experience any day.
Big pharma does not profit from vaccines. Companies barely even recoup their costs of research for vaccines. They would rather invest research funding into drugs that are likely to give a decent return on the investment.
Okay, I have no choice but to be blunt here.
How can anyone whose science education ended in high school possibly become more knowledgeable than experts who have spent years studying various aspects of immunology and constantly read the latest research on it?
I spend time every single day reading the medical literature about vaccine research and new findings in the world of immunology. You do NOT know more than I or any other expert does about this subject.
I had chicken pox when I was 6. I spent several miserable days getting over the disease, and have a few permanent scars as a result. A couple of years ago, the chicken pox paid another visit in the form of shingles. The pain from that lasted over a year.
Some kids become so ill they die.
The majority of people build a long-lasting immunity after the recommended vaccinations. A small number of people have a quirky immune system that will not respond to vaccinations. Those people are also likely to get very serious, possibly fatal, disease if they are ever exposed to the live virus or bacteria, because the same quirk that prevents them from becoming immune after vaccination also prevents them from fighting off the disease effectively. It is not just for babies, but also for people whose immune systems fail to respond to vaccines that we really push for a herd immunity level of vaccination.
The year between 6 and 7 I had measles, chicken pox and whooping cough..
for each one I had to stay home from school for 3 weeks ...that was the required norm...
I dont remember being very sick with chicken pox but I was with the measles...
when I was 9 I had yellow jaundice and again 3 weeks at home...
where we lived the doctor came to the house..
He decided whether we went back to school when the 3 weeks was up...
I don’t remember any epidemics because the outbreaks were so controlled in those days..
every couple of years a few kids would be sick but no schools closed...
You are welcome.
No one said theyndont know. What arme they allows to sdy
No one said theyndont know. What arme they allows to sdy
I dont remember being very sick with chicken pox .....My baby daughter died of chicken pox in 1985.
This article is nothing but opinion. It cites no study no data
The global warming people and tge militant gays do this too. Act angry with people who don’t agree
Science is the opposite of that
Why should anyone listen to folks who have no medical understanding giving medical opinions?
This isn’t a complex fairly recent science that relies upon modeling and conjecture. This is immunology. We’re where we are today because immunologists are right.
Advocating against vaccines is archaic and dangerous because we see here precisely what happens when people don’t get immunized or do any adult follow ups.
Most people only get chicken pox once. I read a statistic once that about 3 - 5% get it more than once. Somehow that information has never made it into the medical school books. LOL
The last two times I got it my doc told me I could only get it once and the previous diagnoses were probably wrong. Then I pointed out he had made the previous diagnosis.
Shingles is miserable. The husband of a friend of mine came down with it. It took a year for it to finally calm down.
I didnt advocate
Where in the article is there any scientific data?
Need I remind you that the MMR is LIVE virus vaccine.
I was exposed to the live virus FIVE different times.
I’m sure the new NHS will was THOUSANDS of taxpayer dollars ensuring I’m up to date on every vaccine regardless of whether or not I actually get immune to anything.
After all, it’s not THEIR money they’re spending, it’s ours.
“Big pharma does not profit from vaccines.”
LOL.
New flu vaccines offer extra protection - and more profits ( http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/19/us-flu-vaccines-idUSBRE98I0M720130919 )
Vaccines: A smarter jab( http://www.economist.com/node/17258858 )
Vaccines become drugmakers’ profit boosters ( http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/business/2009/11/30/vaccine_revolution.ART_ART_11-30-09_A10_7NFQQE7.html )
Drugmakers, Doctors Rake in Billions Battling H1N1 Flu ( http://abcnews.go.com/Business/big-business-swine-flu/story?id=8820642 )
Merck’s Prescription for Profit: HPV Vaccine for Young Boys ( http://www.newsmax.com/TammyBruce/merck-hpv-gardasil-obama/2011/10/26/id/415784/ )
Merck & Co, Inc.: Big Pharma Checkup for 2014 ( http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/01/15/merck-co-inc-big-pharma-checkup-for-2014.aspx ). An excerpt from this one: During Merck’s presentation at the recent JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in January, a lot of attention focused on growing areas of Merck’s business, including vaccines, immunology, emerging markets, and diabetes. The fastest growing of those four has been vaccines, with sales growing 15% year-to-date through September from 2012. That lift has come in large part thanks to higher sales of Gardasil, which produced revenue of $1.4 billion in the first three quarters of 2013, up from $1.2 billion a year ago.
This list could go on and on and on and on.
I am wondering if you actually believe what you posted or have some other motive for posting it.
I believe they were talking about traditional vaccines and not the newer or constantly updated(flu) ones. Vaccines such as MMR, polio, and pertussis aren’t cash grabs.
This is what happens when a society deals with prosperity at a level unprecedented in human history: we start to forget.
George Santayana comes to mind right now.
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