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 had a colleague (we’re teachers) who contracted chicken pox at age 40 from a student and almost died. He was in the hospital for six weeks and then off for another six week recovering.
He told me later that he wanted to die during that time because he was so sick and miserable.
We worked (at that time) in a school with a lot of immigrant students from Central America.
No it’s not. I don’t vaccinate my child and autism was not the reason behind it, other health issues were. I will never understand the conservatives that believe everything they are told about vaccinations from big government, big insurance, and pharma backed doctors.
Measles are not 100%, and even with herd immunity there are still break outs at nearly 100% immunity (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16322148)
We are in Orange County, California, where there is also currently a “measles outbreak” I don’t remember 10-14 cases...guess what, every one of them has been in contact with someone who has flown in from the Philippines.
Research confirms antidepressant-autism link
‘Virtually every study shows increased rates of developmental delay in children’
http://www.wnd.com/2014/03/research-confirms-antidepressant-autism-link/
I’ve had the chicken pox four times. The first time was miserable. Each time it gets milder.
Had the measles as an adult too. The worst headache I’ve ever ever had. The mumps were worse.
Never got sick as a kid. My mother must have quarantined me.
Their houses must have already had chicken pox, because they all have shingles! /rimshot
Yes, wouldn’t surprise me if the immune response wears off after a while. Guess I’ll find out if some kid coughs on me.
Yeah, she’s hot, but I won’t hit it until she renounces her anti-vaccine dogma. Even I have standards, you know . . .
I took care of my nephew for a week when he had chicken pox as a toddler because I had more patience than his idiot father.
I just kept him occupied during the day and at night I had a tub full of warm water and Aveno to put him in for a bit when he started fussing in the middle of the night.
Yes, but with good herd immunity, kid no. 2 is less likely to get it from kid no. 1, since those who have it will be sparsely scattered about the community.
I’ve heard that CP are horrible as an adult. Had them as a kid....and two bouts of shingles as an adult during my 20’s and 30’s due to stress. Wouldn’t wish that on anyone.
Why do we keep seeing this idiotic fallacy crop up in the news? It’s not anti-vaccine crusaders responsible for outbreaks of diseases that WERE effectively eradicated from this nation, it’s third world immigrants.
But the cognitive dissonance on the left and in the media is so intense that they can’t possibly blame a public health catastrophe on the people that are actually carrying, spreading, and subject to the diseases in question.
Poor, uneducated, unvaccinated (to coin a word) illegal immigrants are both a vector and a reservoir of communicable diseases formerly eradicated in the United States - blaming unrelated parties, no matter how moonbattish you may believe their philosophies, does absolutely nothing to address the public health consequences involved, does nothing to educate the public about the issues. The only purpose of such misinformation is to vilify what the media deem ideological miscreants.
We COULD advocate rational border protections (especially at major ports of entry), disease screenings of prospective immigrants, require vaccination records or medical evaluation for foreign travelers, and educate the public about the disease risks posed by international immigration.
Any and all of those policies would have more beneficial influences on public health than letting depraved leftists blame innocent parties for the resurgence of vanished diseases.
He came back with permanent, very noticeable scars on his face and around his torso.
He had no idea he hadn’t had chicken pox as a child, like most of us.
Had a couple of elderly relatives who had shingles...both said it was sheer hell...
Thymerisol has a well proven statistical link to autism.
It also has links to many other maladies.
More than likely.
“Yes, but with good herd immunity, kid no. 2 is less likely to get it from kid no. 1, since those who have it will be sparsely scattered about the community.”
What’s fascinating about news stories like these, is they conveniently ignore the fact that it’s immigrants that are more likely to compromise “herd immunity” that extremely rare examples of people that are actively against vaccination.
Of the millions of illegal immigrants here in this nation, how many do you think had the full battery of childhood vaccinations? Don’t you think that’s a bigger threat to herd immunity than the vanishingly rare anti-vaccine type?
ba da bing.... nicely played
I am sure the illegals who never got shots are not a problem
whoever believes this is a moron. how are any of the vacinated going to get sick? they-re vaccinated! they are protected, they have the glorious shot that always works and has no adverse side effects, ever.
this is like blaming people who don’t carry guns for you getting robbed.
Because some of the in mmunized can’t. Too young, or immunocompromised.
When the total number of unimmunized drops below a critical number you lose the herd immunity effect, and you can get person to person spread and epidemics.
Surely oil soaked rags aren’t a fire hazard as long as we never put a flame to them.
People believe vaccines work because there’s literally over a century of practical experience proving they work. We didn’t eliminate these diseases by shear happenstance.
If folks don’t vaccinate their kids then when they get sick and die it’s their fault their kid died. The occasional toddler who was too young to get vaccinated that dies because of their foolishness is too high a price to pay though for it.
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