Measles returns
On Thursday, ABC News reported a story with the headline, ‘Measles outbreaks are occurring in some pockets of the US. Here's why doctors are concerned.’ A subheading added ‘A recent outbreak in Philadelphia has infected eight people so far.’
The Daily Mail was more sensational (of course). It reported the increase in cases with the headline, “Is America facing its biggest measles outbreak in years? Georgia becomes fifth state to report cases already this year and FDA warns anti-vax movement will kill thousands.” Skeptics of the Daily Mail (a reasonable position) should note that the story relies on information from the Journal of the American Medical Association and the State of Georgia.
Doctors are concerned because measles is highly infectious, and complications are relatively common — some mild, such as diarrhea. Others are serious, for example, pneumonia, croup, ear infections, bronchitis, brain inflammation, and corneal scarring. Worst of all, 1 in about 600 unvaccinated infants will suffer subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, which is progressive and lethal.
Once infected, the victim just has to ride it out — while medicine can ease the symptoms, there is no cure. It does not have to be this way.
Medical dumbassery and shameless politicians
In 2000, the CDC declared that vaccination had eliminated measles in the US. But the medical experts were over-confident. They failed to account for human nature and the craven opportunism of some politicians making political hay with science denial, including vaccine skepticism.
This shameless irresponsibility raises the question: Why do some people rely on politicians for medical advice? I do not know. This self-harming behavior is not entirely due to stupidity. Some higher IQ people deny science. And many with less-than-average smarts have the brains to trust their doctors. This makes you wonder what IQ tests measure — beyond the ability to take IQ tests.
Unfortunately, this willful dumbassery is not just harming medical morons. It is starting to hurt the general population. If you are a fluoride-denier, you do not impact others. If you are a vaccine-denier, you invite the innocent to share the effects of your poor decisions.
TVs good. Vaccine bad.
This uncritical thinking points to the inconsistent relationship some people have with science and scientists.
In 1963, a 21” color TV cost $500 ($4,797 in 2024 dollars) and was as dumb as a rock — with the remote, if available, costing extra. In 2024, you can buy a 24” Smart TV for $70 with the remote thrown in. For $4,797 you can get a 98” screen — all thanks to science.
In the same year, other well-educated and experienced scientists created the first measles vaccine. And, as TVs got cheaper, bigger, and better, fewer Americans were infected, hospitalized, and killed by the previously unavoidable disease.
Sixty years later, Americans still respect the computer scientists, electrical engineers, and code writers who have showered the consumer with electronic devices inconceivable to Americans in 1963. Yet, some of the beneficiaries of these scientific advances believe the big brains working in medicine are out to kill them or chip them with vaccinations.
Vaccine denialism gets a boost
Vaccine resistance has existed since the first use of vaccines. Sadly, even when political consensus backed universal vaccination, there was a small set of bloody-minded contrarians. Their reflexive negativism proved fertile ground for the anti-vax madness engendered by Andrew Wakefield. In 1998, this charlatan, then still a doctor, claimed he had proof that the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine caused autism. The prestigious British medical journal Lancet published his study. It energized the crazies.
Wakefield based his work on lies, bias, and personal profit. In addition, the sample size (12) was too small to be significant. When the facts of Wakefield's fraud surfaced, British medical authorities struck him off the medical register, and Lancet retracted his study.
Those actions were too little, too late. Measles reemerged. By 2019, there were 1,274 reported cases. Ironically, after the government rolled out COVID-19 quarantine restrictions, including school closures, cases declined. Sadly, now all bets are off.
Dying to make a point
It is not just measles. The Brown University School of Public Health studied the 641,305 COVID-19 deaths from the rollout of the vaccine in January 2021 until April 2022. Those experts estimated 318,981 (50%) of the deaths were vaccine-preventable.
It gets worse. Climate change deniers are whistling past the graveyard with the confidence only a deluded cultist can exude.
It is all so fecking senseless.
The stupidity of some people never ceases to amaze me, but I shouldn’t be surprised anymore, thank you Pitt