as small as a world and as large as alone

12:30pm July 23, 2013

clatterbane:

ilyagerner:

youneedacat:

soilrockslove:

jayparkinsonmd:

All doctors in NYC receive alerts from the NYC Department of Health about important health issues in the city. I just received this:

The outbreak of measles among Orthodox Jewish communities in Borough Park and Williamsburg, Brooklyn has ended. This was the largest outbreak of measles in the United States since measles elimination in 2000. A total of 58 cases were confirmed; the last case had rash onset on June 9. The outbreak began in a few extended families of vaccine refusers, and it was propagated by children whose vaccinations were delayed. No confirmed measles cases had documentation of vaccination at the time they were exposed to measles.

This is great news. However, as you can see, vaccinating your children saves lives. Again, it’s not about your kid, it’s about you and the kids around you. Vaccines are a social good.

Seriously, vaccines have helped prevent a lot of really harsh and potentially deadly diseases.

Plus they save the lives of adults who are sick or immunocompromised.

Btw some anti vax people? Actually say it’s a good thing these diseases kill people, because it weeds out those too weak to survive. In case you weren’t aware that deadly ableism and anti vax sentiments often go hand in hand.

Insular religious communities are not the only places anti-vaxers are gaining strength.

Boulder, Colorado — wealthy, well-educated, liberal — has a vaccine exemption rate of 11%, which is a healthy reminder that conservatives don’t come close to owning a monopoly on irrationality and scientific illiteracy.

There’s probably a role for state law to place in fixing this. Colorado, along with 20 other states IIRC, permit parents to excuse their kids from vaccination with merely a “philosophical objection.“ That needs to end. But most of the work is going to have to come from other parents applying pressure on their friends and acquaintance to not be idiots.  

Yes. 

Also, from a few months ago, when there was a measles outbreak in Swansea: ‘Very large outbreak’ of measles could hit London (more related stories in the sidebar)

The rates of MMR uptake in London, particularly among 10-12-year-olds are far lower than the rest of the country, according to figures from Public Health England.

Parents were scared off the vaccine in the 1990s after now discredited research by Andrew Wakefield claimed a link between the jab and autism. Wakefield has since been struck off the medical register.

In Brent, northwest London, only 46.1% of children aged 10 have had the required two doses of MMR, only 48.7% of 11-year-olds in Kensington and Chelsea have had two doses and just 49.5% of 12-year-olds in Camden, north London.

I would also add that this is all ideological; the vaccinations are free. Kensington and Chelsea are also extremely wealthy areas.

Living in East London, I caught the mumps during an outbreak from lack of vaccination, in late 2004 or early 2005, and was lucky that I was in fairly good health and could fight it off without complications. Unlike a good number of elderly and disabled adults, besides little kids. The same kids spreading mumps then are mostly still not vaccinated. (I was thoroughly vaccinated: more info from the CDC on how that can work.)

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