the mumps.

not just economically in terms of the concentration of wealth, but in our thinking, the rejection of science.

And that is a damn shame.

...be back to emptying chamber pots out our windows and shouting "Gardy Loo" at passersby.

Epidemic...

I think you're confusing "dramatic increase" with "epidemic." It's an easy mistake to make when one's bias overtakes rational thought.

Perspective and ratio's my friend.

Violent crime is also at historic lows BTW.

"bias overtakes rational thought" far too often.

It is indeed not the end of the world. We lived with measles for centuries. It is just sad that a disease that had been essentially eliminated because of a successful public health program is now back, because ignorance, stupidity and selfishness are now enshrined as virtues.

I'm bummed now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_apocalyptic_songs

The world really sucks.

How old are you?

I'm guessing you grew up in a world without risk from major childhood infectious diseases. Perhaps you should talk to your grand parents about how they felt when the polio vaccine was announced, about how they rushed to get your parents to the doctor's office when he had a supply, about how they lined up to get the new vaccines for mumps and measles and whooping cough for their kids. Talk to your parents about how completely normal it was for everyone to get their kids vaccinated, because it was a shared effort to eliminate the entire set of childhood diseases, to make this world a better safer place to live.

Keep snarking away.

deafness, blindness, and brain damage are a real hoot too.

600 out of 300+ million is statistically meaningless.



Jesus

Proud ignorance, on the other hand, is fucking hilarious.



Sid

But those were brown and black people. And it's only 145,000 out of 7 Billion. Insignificant.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs286/en/

Sid

the US eradicated the disease within its own borders in 2000. There is absolutely zero fucking reason the disease should be making a comeback, but it is, thanks to the goddamn anti-vaxxers.

When there are zero cases of endemic measles for nearly a decade, a jump to 600 cases is statistically significant. But it's okay. Math is hard.

Math is hard.

We're not talking about how measles is affecting the overall population; we're comparing current infection rates to previous infection rates. There is a difference, and the difference is statistically significant.

Solve for x, professor.

Holy cow we had 2-3 cases of ebola in the USA. Thats a 100% increase.



Jesus

If the cases jumped from zero per year to two to three per year, that's actually a 200% to 300% increase.

And that was significant... significant enough that specialized healthcare providers equipped with BSL-4 facilities were tapped to treat some of the affected patients. The threat warranted response; the response neutralized the threat.

But what do I know? You're obviously the expert here. Apparently, we should just sit around on our fucking asses. If measles infects a segment of the population you have arbitrarily defined as "significant", then we should do something about it. Because why would it be any harder to contain a virus within an infected population of hundreds of millions?

"Common usage" doesn't apply in scientific discussions.

You've been digging this hole all morning. Aren't you tired, yet?

actually an infinite percentage increase.

In this instance, although I'd expect some jiggling around in the numbers as the years go on, it should continue to increase if anti-vaccination spreads.

Hopefully this outbreak scared enough helicopter parents that they have their kids vaccinated...but I wouldn't count on it.

...too-young-to-be-immunized infant should happen to die from measles encephalitis, those will not be meaningless numbers.

Of course the right wing lunatics don't care about living children, they are just sinners now and deserve what God slams them with. I guess all you patriotic military supporting types will tell soldiers that it is their choice to be vaccinated or not, see how that works out for ya, cause ya know those vaccines attract bullets and IEDs.

FFS.

High Five!

How many by 1985? How many by 1990?

I think you lack a clear understanding of the word "contagious".

I can't tell how much of this is genuine interest or easy street cred. The flu kills hundreds of thousands every year. I don't remember this kind of debate when people admitted they weren't getting flu shots.

This must bother DUers more because anti-vax sentiment is associated with the political left. Maybe we have something to prove.

Once Hillary announces, I predict the vax issue will return to old levels.

the same way conservatives made global warming a political issue, they're doing the same with vaccinations - it's now becoming a teabagging kind of sentiment to not get kids vaccinated so we are seeing surges in the number of preventable diseases - this is VERY disturbing

Are well to do, new agey/hippy/holistic, liberals. Marin California is a very white, liberal county. This isn't really a left right issue.

WHATEVER IT IS this fucking fad needs to be CURBED

Hpv, flu vaccines for healthy people, hep in many cases unnessasary, MMR, polio, tetanus etc probably necessary.

People forget "healthcare" is big business and there are billions being paid to private companies.

If these were public health programs I think there would be much less skepticism.

Buyer beware, your a consumer and they will shake every last dollar out of you, to the point of bankruptcy

I don't watch TV maybe this is all over the boob tube.

The way this is discussed on DU is a bit bizarre.

they would let parents decide whether or not to vaccinate their children. Which, afaik, is the way the law works now and won't change regardless of who wins the presidency.

So now it's time for the DU kabuki that this is a Tea Party thing and has no adherents on in our spectrum, yada yada

vaccinated to prevent highly contagious and potentially dangerous diseases is not rocket science. I had all the vaccinations, my kids and grandkids did, and no one got sick from them. Thanks for the post, Warren Stupidity!

I do not have kids.
but when I went to school
(back when dinosaurs roamed the earth)
we HAD to have all our shots
in order to go to public school.
polio, mumps, chicken pox, measles,TB, diphtheria,
Whooping cough (also known as pertussis)
what happened, did people lose sight of
just how dangerous this stuff is?

I had all of the four diseases protected against by the MMRV vaccine as a child. I lived through how bad this shit can be.

It infuriates me that some parents are so criminally negligent with their children.

of polio.
very sad

Think on that one.

And now they know, all you have to do is get one infected kid into a venue like Disneyland to cause a huge outbreak in the US. All because anti-vaxxers are morons.

I wonder what it will take to turn this around?

Wow, problem solved.

By October of 2014, there had been 243 cases primarily in three endemic countries. In Nigeria, there were 6 cases. Efforts there are hindered by the political situation. In Afghanistan, there were 12 cases. And in the Taliban controlled region of Pakistan, there were 206 cases. The remaining cases were spread out across non-endemic countries.

Al-Queda and the Taliban have hindered the efforts and refuse to allow children to be vaccinated.

And as I said, they now know that a single infected child in a venue like Disneyland that exists in a cluster where herd immunity has been broken can result in an outbreak of polio in the United States, setting back the eradication effort by decades.

If the efforts continue and there are no cases in non-endemic first world countries, we can hopefully eradicate polio in the wild on schedule by 2018. This depends upon Al-Queda and the Taliban stopping their anti-vaxxer bullshit, though.

been eradicated within the U.S., polio vaccinations are no longer routine. I didn't and don't have the time or expertise to evaluate the veracity of Jeff47's claim (and I'm assuming he had some good reason to make it based upon expertise), but if true, it makes your caution even more worrisome.

Instead, it is one of five components in the pentavalent vaccine named Pediarix. The components of this vaccine are polio, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, and a pediatric form of hepatitis B.

This injection is one of the vaccines the anti-vaxxers refuse to give their children.

Polio vaccinations will continue until there is certainty that the polio virus has been eradicated in the wild.

underlines my conviction!

Thanks for the detail. If I get a chance, I'll respond to Jeff47 with your info.

Much obliged!

It is such an awful disease, the claim that it was no longer administered mentioned above had me spooked. It should be administered no matter how rare it is in the USA.

It has occured again in other areas and people from all over the world are just a step off an airplane from bringing it here without even knowing that they may carry it, I guess, like so many other diseases.

It isn't singled out like it was when I was kid, we were eager to get our polio vax as we grew up with kids who had it and I don't think it should ever be cut out of the regimen.

The eradication plan is close to being on schedule to eradication of polio in the wild by 2018. If we can get past some political issues in Nigeria and Afghanistan and overcome the anti-vaxxer bullshit of the Taliban, it will be eradicated in the wild by that schedule.

Which means global confirmation of eradication in the wild will come at some point in the early 2020s, at which time polio vaccinations will be a thing of the past as was the case with smallpox.

We are no longer separate from their foolishness. I see nothing politically that indicates it will be 'eliminated from the wild' when people are still getting it anywhere.

All things considered by them to be Western, including medicine, are being wiped out by ISIS, Boko Harem, the Taliban and who knows how many other groups.

They don't believe in modern civil society, they want a return to stone age conditions where all of humanity, particularly women, live and die without being interfered with by science. Those under their control now, and under their control in the future, will not be 'in the wild.'

No one can make them work on this effort. I disagree strongly with the idea that this will be eliminated in 2020 with these movements taking over more acreage daily. We can't be complacent from our own success, as they are going to keep it going.

Thanks for the information, but these plagues are not over as long as the human race allows these guys to get away with eliminating healthcare, even the basics. We are one world now and can't protect ourselves from the ignorance. Too many Westerners have travelled to join ISIS and they are going to bring this stuff back with them. All it takes is one person to leave 'the wild' and come back to the 'herd' here and start it going again.

Unless your definition of 'the wild' means something else, or is from a scientific view not yet discussed here, I fear you are too optimistic.

The requirement, though, is for the Taliban to give up on the anti-vaxxer bullshit.

The other requirement is that first world anti-vaxxers give up on their bullshit and submit their children to the vaccination before a case makes it to one of the clusters where herd immunity has been broken by the anti-vaxxer bullshit.

So it is certainly a possibility.

It doesn't have to be a child. Just an infected person.

Sciency stuff confuses them.

Borders would be closed, there would be an alert of military and police apparatus. There would also be those unwilling to get vaccinated, Small Pox vaccine has some risk. The return of Small Pox would be an act of legitimate terror.

Immunization should be mandatory, precautions available for those who for medical reason cannot be vaccinated, those who claim vaccination is a choice given consequences.

Vaccinations are a public health issue. It's hard to get ahead when you have to fight the same battles over and over again. (Sorry about besmirching your handle, Warren Stupidity)

the ignorance, running rampant in america at present, is leading us. And it AIN'T just the RW wallowing in that ignorance.

nt

and they surely have nothing to fear if the vaccine works. Except vaccinated people can still get the disease they were vaccinated for, and even if they didn't get it, they can still be a carrier and give it to others.

Educate yourself, goddamnit!

Learn about herd immunity and the effectiveness of vaccines, goddamnit.

Stop spreading bullshit about vaccines, goddamnit.

Does in mean that i should do as you or they say? I am not too much Anti-anything but having been vaccinated for it all after I all ready mostly had all three didn't and doesn't make much sense to me. Other than the smallpox vaccine, all these vaccines sound like a big waste of time. Oh yea, they also gave me a bunch of vaccinations for the same crap while in the service but telling the military you already had yours is like talking to a wall.

So this year, after my employer supplied health insurance requested that my PCP gave me a annual physical, he was then sure i need to get a flu shot. I never really got a flu shot before but i went along with it. Six days later, surprise, surprise, came down with the flu.

I lived through all their bullshit, i am sure i can live through yours too

Coming down with the flu six days after your vaccination indicates two things:

1) You were exposed to the flu virus prior to your vaccination.

2) Your vaccination did not have time to provide any level of immunity.

Educate yourself and ignore everything anti-vaxxer.

I am not that dumb, i know practices have changed somewhat in the last forty years. I was just trying point out the world not going to end if EVERYBODY doesn't get a vaccination for whatever. So much time in the medical community is spent on things that are not life threatening (mostly because of greed) that things that ultimately kill people are not as well understood as one would think they would be.

Though i would like to state that back in late seventies while in the service, I along with many others have gotten ill after the multiple vaccinations they gave out. They said it was a normal thing that we would get sick and that happened often.

Nothing is foolproof and as soon as you eliminate one problem, another will crop up.

I tell what has actually happened to me so then you consider me as someone who is a so and so.

At any rate, thanks for the reply, at least i know i am not dead

or you may have experienced the side effects that a very few people do after the shot... no bullshit!

I don't have a lot physical exposure to a whole lot of others on a routine basis. This guy at work that i got it from, got it from his toddler, who picked it up at his preschool. Only a few people around the area, as far as i can tell, haven't gotten it so far When i got it was about the same time i had gotten the flu shot (which most medical journals have stated is mostly ineffective this year).

As far as getting the flu shot, most Doctors have a little ceremony(that's why they call it a practice) that you have to play along with and if you don't you will get lousy service from them (at least from what i can tell).

You know, It's like these doctors have suffered through 12 years of college and internship so you have to give them a little respect (I guess its somewhat like going to church)

This is not a "only hurts themselves" situation.

The anti-vaxxers should be ashamed

How many were healthy, just not vaccinated and how many were immune compromised or otherwise unable to be vaxxed?

There could be a correlation there. And 700 cases in the USA in one year is outrageous.

I've learned a lot on these threads and have discussed it with other people offline. I was fortunate to not know many who cannot be vaxxed, and also not to have members of my immediate family have serious complications or die from these 'childhood diseases.' Which are not always confined to our early years in life.

People have gotten complacent, or else are listening to a lot of conspiracy theories about the risks of vaccine and don't even recall the risks of not being vaccinated! They are too far removed from the years when these diseases killed and crippled people.

I didn't even know until I saw the Roosevelt series on the PBS website that FDR didn't just have polio that affected his legs; it extended half way up his chest. The man was paralyzed not just his legs, or from the waist down which is a horror, but from the chest down. Think of that and the resolve that made him keep going day after day. Few people knew just how bad off he truly was, yet look at what he accomplished.

But people did know that their beloved president had polio and that it was killing and crippling people. They took the real life knowledge and science to heart to escape these awful scourges.

Now for those who say this is optional is depressing to me. What a terrible regression the USA has suffered in every regard since Nixon, Reagan, Bush, and their ilk in the states.

Still, are those who got measles last year those that didn't get vaxxed 'just because' or those who could not be vaxxed since they had certain conditions that made them more vulnerable?

Those are the ones we should publicize the most, they are the ones getting hurt, although I also feel bad for kids of parents who denied their kids the protection. A friend I talked to today, though, said she saw a show today where a mother changed her mind and got her kids vaxxed on account of the recent media attention. So it is doing some good.

I can see, too, why those on DU who are doctors or elsewise involved in medicine, are so very vigorous on this subject. This was posted earlier today:



I bet some people who don't vax don't know who they may put at risk for their 'liberty and freedom from authoritarian government oppression.'

Children such as he mentions,premature infants with weak lungs and hearts or complex congenital heart disease; kids on chemo. None who can get vaxxed. Where is the care for those other kids, are anti-vaxxers unaware or just uncaring of those who might die? And not just kids, but adults who might die?

After reading a particularly vicious post today of someone who was served pizza for wishing many dead, I fear the answer is not one that most of us would like to think. Now that has hardened my attitude and I want to know more.