Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Is There a Vaccine Against Fear Mongering?


This "article" is being passed around Facebook. This is not journalism. This is name-calling and fear-mongering. 
The measles vaccine has been in use for 50 years. I found this in the Journal of Infectious Diseases : 
"In the United States, mortality from measles decreased from 25 per 1000 reported cases in 1912 to 1 per 1000 reported cases in 1962. In New York State, measles mortality decreased by >15-fold long before the introduction of measles vaccination."
..."During the past 13 years in the United States, the case-fatality rate has averaged 3 per 1000 reported measles cases. This increase is most likely due to more complete reporting of measles as a cause of death, HIV infections, and a *higher proportion of cases among adults*. [emphasis mine]  Annual US measles deaths have declined from 408 in 1962 to 0 from 1993-present."
The fact is, even with the boosters, the vaccines wear off in adulthood. I am living proof of this. This leaves adults at risk for a very serious illness that would have been mild, if contracted as a child. Re-vaccinating these adults does not work- they often will not "cross-over". 
By vaccinating children against what are usually mild diseases when contracted as children, we are setting the adult population up for a world of hurt 25 years down the road. The kids that were intentionally not vaccinated in this "outbreak" will have lifelong immunity.

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