From the CDC:
From January 1 to April 26, 2019, 704** individual cases of measles have been confirmed in 22 states. This is an increase of 78 cases from the previous week. This is the greatest number of cases reported in the U.S. since 1994 and since measles was declared eliminated in 2000.
The states that have reported cases to CDC are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas, Tennessee, and Washington.
*Cases as of December 29, 2018. Case count is preliminary and subject to change.
**Cases as of April 26, 2019. Case count is preliminary and subject to change.
MAGA
Remember the cable news freak out over Ebola? On Fox they actually conflated it with Isis “Ebola-Isis!” The federal governments response was excellent both here and overseas. Yet few Americans were impacted but the fear persisted and amplified to a point where an antivaxx narrative leads to this measles outbreak.
This is just in
I am old enough to have actually had measles. It was horrible. There are also family stories of cousins from previous generations suffering hearing loss and brain damage from the disease. It’s difficult, decades after the event, to say that this was the disease that caused the complication—it could have been any number of things, but measles is the family story.
I can only assume that people who have decided to take chances with their children’s lives are too young to have had the disease. I hope that the children don’t have to pay too high a price for it.
This is really distressing, for multiple reasons. First, it’s the height of privilege to think that you can forgo vaccines and depend on others around you not to, or that the medical system will be able to save your kid from the illness. Second, it’s a sign of selfishness, and I guess not a surprise due to the way our society has moved away from the idea of helping others to only helping yourself and the ones you care about. And, it’s another rejection of science, one that will kill kids if it continues. As a scientist, the third really troubles me…you can ignore climate change pretty easily since it’s changing so slowly on human timescales, but ignoring all the kids getting sick is a lot harder, especially if it happens to you on ones you know.
This also is not just a Republican thing…remember that the anti-vax movement started in liberal circles, and with the publication of a fraudulent scientific paper by a guy looking for a profit who preyed on the fears of parents. Some people are still profiting over this, both by spreading the word and also doctors accepting money to write excuses for kids not to be vaccinated. All of that needs to stop…there really are kids who cannot take a vaccine, a proper medical examination by a specialist should be required to get them out of the shots. Beyond that, everyone should get a vaccine, period…the graveyards of 100 years ago are filled with children’s graves for a reason, and we don’t want to go back to that again.