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 ...
I understand what you mean. Thanks for the explanation!
“Take your Mystery Babylon garbage and stuff it!”
Fools often resort to ad hominem attack when they get exposed for being fools. Thanks for playing.
“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?”
That’s easy- they just consult world class experts like Alex Jones and Jenny McCarthy./sarc
George Washington’s Smallpox Inoculation Orders on Display August 16
Mount Vernon, VA – General Washington faced many challenges during the spring of 1777 while encamped in Morristown. Low in troop numbers, Washington could foresee a potential disaster that did not involve the British army – smallpox was spreading at an alarming rate. The General took quick, decisive action that ultimately saved the Continental Army. On display August 16 through January 8, 2012 in Mount Vernon’s Donald W. Reynolds Museum, is a one-page manuscript ordering the inoculation of troops, written in the hand of a young but trusted aide-de-camp, Alexander Hamilton, and includes Washington’s distinctive signature. This letter serves as a reminder of George Washington’s remarkable foresight and efforts to control a seemingly uncontrollable situation. The letter, a valuable resource in Mount Vernon’s collection, was purchased at auction with funds provided by the Mount Vernon Licensing Fund, which consists of royalty revenue from Mount Vernon licensees.
“Today’s visitors to Mount Vernon are likely to be more aware of General Washington’s military setbacks and triumphs than of his masterful handling of such seemingly mundane details as transportation, providing food and supplies, and avoiding disease,” said Mount Vernon curator Susan Schoelwer. “This letter provides compelling testimony to Washington’s awareness of medical advances, his concern for his men, and his far-sighted leadership.”
The letter is a brief but strongly-worded order from the commander-in-chief demanding that one of his regimental colonels gather all of his men and divide them into two distinct groups: those who had been inoculated for smallpox or had survived the disease were to be sent to join the main army at Morristown and those who were still susceptible were to be sent to Philadelphia to be inoculated without delay. Similar letters were sent to other colonels who commanded regiments.
Washington believed that the army would be weakened by this illness, so he inoculated new recruits to ensure fewer deaths and a quicker rate of recovery. This reduced the rate of deaths caused by smallpox from 17% to 1%. Washington’s careful handling of the smallpox epidemic at the beginning of the war was a significant reason for the disease not decimating his army.
Having contracted smallpox in 1751 while in Barbados with his half-brother, Washington described smallpox as a greater threat “than…the Sword of the Enemy”. It left the young Washington with some slight scarring on his cheeks and nose, but it also gave him immunity.
Washington arranged for his stepson John Parke Custis to be inoculated in 1771, Martha Washington was inoculated in 1776, and many additional family members followed suit. Washington was such a strong believer that he paid for the inoculation of Mount Vernon slaves.
Fantastic to see.
Thanks.
You don’t even know what adhominem means?
Are you Mystery Babylon?
Guess who just exposed himself as a fool.
Yes, I guess you are playing. Do mom and dad know you’re in the den?
I always knew you rejected the word of God.
Calling it garbage seals it.
If you are going to make claims like that, back them up with evidence. Otherwise, you are just repeating the bilge from the anti-vax sites whose authors could not care less if your children die of horrible diseases.
Given that schools require kids to be vaccinated, and that well over 95% of kids have had most or all of the required vaccinations, I'd think that we'd have noticed by now if kids were really dropping like flies from vaccines. Instead, what we see is that for the first time in history, the majority of children survive to adulthood because they are protected from the deadly diseases that used to kill most kids.
Haha, nice graph. I love that correlation, too.
Similar deal with us. One of our kids has very odd health issues and she doesn't react well to vaccines of various types. We got her most of them, but we spread it out over a much longer period. We also extended out the schedule by quite a bit for our other kids when they were babies. No sense in pummeling a little baby's system with so much crap all at once.
I will never understand the conservatives that believe everything they are told about vaccinations from big government, big insurance, and pharma backed doctors.
Yep. If the Health Dept. told us the sky was blue, most people here would look outside to check, but they buy this stuff without question.
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.
If your immune system is incapable of mounting a B-cell (antibody producing cell) response to a challenge with a pathogen (whether the pathogen is alive and virulent, an avirulent strain, or a killed pathogen), then your chance of serious, life-threatening infection if you are ever exposed to one of those pathogens is quite high.
The best protection for people with sub-optimal immune systems is for everyone around them to be vaccinated, and to never encounter an unvaccinated person. Those diseases can kill an immune-deficient person quite quickly.
I’ve had 3 kids all of whom have had the MMR. As you are aware MMR is a live virus vaccine and recipients shed those virii for a while after they are innoculated.
Not dead yet.
Oh yeah. I grew up in a 3rd world country. In a very overcrowded city in a tropical 3rd world country in Africa. I should have run across the rubella virus at least once hypothetically there. That country has only recently begun to vax against that. I went to pre-school, church and socialized with the natives of that particular country.
I did manage to catch malaria while I was there. I remember that. It wasn’t pleasant. Still alive though.
Don’t make yourself into a bigger fool, editor-surveyor. Pretending that you aren’t engaging in ad hominem is no more effective now than when you played let’s pretend in school.
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