I have a very right wing friend on Facebook. Next time they post any anti vax arguments I am so posting this. Their head will asplode.
Measles danger in the BART system around Berkeley:
This could be bad.
The comments on that article kind of make me wish all of humanity were dead.
The NYC Department of Health just announced that someone with Measles was active at the NYNOW trade show (formerly known as the NY Gift Show).
hooray…
The good news is that the measles vaccine is widely available. It does not wear off during your lifetime. A single shot will protect over 98% of those who get it. Three shots are more than 99% protective. So if you’ve gotten an MMR shot during your life you are more than likely completely protected.
The bad news? Measles is one of the most contagious diseases on the planet. It has a huge risk of side effects. It’s particularly sucky in little kids who cannot get vaccinated yet. Little kids are at particular risk from a shitty side effect called SSPE. This is a fatal disease that develops several years after measles infection. Basically a parent gets to watch their child die painfully because of anti-vax stupidity.
More from a friend of mine:
SSPE basically exists solely because of anti-vax nuts. Those 27 German deaths are on their heads. Fucking pigs.
LavenderBlue I have a question if you don’t mind. My husband got the measles back in the day of measles parties. He’s had his singles shot. Is he at risk of catching measles now?
(I just googled measles parties hoping to find a link for the term, and OMG, its a thing now. I honestly feel like puking.)
A cases of actual measles should confer a huge change of full immunity on him for life. If he’s had the shot as well, he probably has at least a 98% chance of being fully immune. I wouldn’t worry if I were him but if he’s anywhere near any cases, he might want to ask his doctor just to be sure.
Measles parties may have made sense before the shot when you had a near certain chance of catching measles but they are inexcusable in contemporary society. I believe measles is one of the most contagious diseases known to us. If you get it, you are at huge risk of exposing people who do not develop immunity. You can also easily expose small children to it. There is some immunity conferred on little babies who are nursing, but as was pointed out up thread multiple times, this immunity can be very weak and may offer limited protection at best.
Actually, can’t measles in a very young child be a cause of mental retardation – (I believe an actress ended up having a disabled child when she was exposed to a fan with the measles)?
And my father’s suffering from his second bout of shingles – (which you have a 1 in 3 chance of getting if you’ve ever had the chicken pox). I didn’t even know you could get it more than once. (Shingles, that its). He’s absolutely miserable and on perscription pain-killers. I’d like to invite these idiots to see what he’s going through when they talk about “chicken pox parties”. Back when we were kids and there was no vaccine, yeah, maybe you wanted to get it over with as soon as possible, since the older you are when you get it, the more severe it is. But today? Fuck that.
German measles, in utero, Gene Tierney.
Guin,
You want irony? The MMR actually prevents autism.
Rubella is a component of the MMR. Rubella has been identified as one of the few known causes of autism. So the idiots who link the MMR to autism have it exactly backwards.
From the study I link to above:
You’re not alone.
The depth of my rage at anti-vaxxers grows deeper day by day.
“Measles parties?!?” See previous comment about wishing all of humanity were dead. :mad: 
They’re working on it.
So you’re saying you want everyone to die… but you’re against deliberately spreading disease?
Thanks.
If we could just come up with something that targets teh stupid - come to think of it, we kind of have. Maybe I should be pro-anti-vaxxer - if only their kids would die, that would be karma.
If that disturbs you, I probably shouldn’t mention the news stories awhile back about parents who were using Facebook to connect with people who’d send disease-contaminated lollipops and other objects through the mail* so that their children could be deliberately infected, thus gaining “natural immunity” without vaccination.
Most of this activity involved chickenpox-contaminated items, but there were also parents interested in “naturally” infecting their kids with measles and rubella too. Heightening the idiocy factor was the risk of also giving your kids chronic hepatitis and other unintended infections.
*sending disease through the mail is illegal as well as criminally stupid.
Sadly, that is not the way it works. And I don’t like blaming kids for the droolbunny idiocy of their parents.
Retroactive contraception*, on the other hand . . .
*For the droolbunnies, not their unfortunate offspring.
Yeah, that’s part of what makes me hate anti-vaxxers so much. Do what you want when it only affects your child, but when your particular idiocy affects society as a whole, then we got a problem.
And kids suffering and dying for their parents’ idiocy isn’t fair, either.
It is one of the major league reasons why they fucking suck so much. More often than not, the victims of their arrogance and stupidity are not them. Jenny McCarthy is probably not going to get a terrible fever from measles or have her ovaries swell up from a mumps infection. RFK Jr. is not going to have a really shitty few weeks itching like mad from chicken pox or feeling his damned throat close up from hib.
But others will suffer horribly. Nearly all vaccine preventable diseases are highly contagious. Pertussis is awful. You can cough so hard you can break a rib. A baby with pertussis is considered a medical emergency. They face a one in one hundred risk of brain damage and a one in a hundred risk of death. In many cases, the only treatment we can provide is palliative.
I don’t want the children of anti-vax nuts to get sick. My problem is that I think that’s the only thing that will change their minds: personal experience with horrible diseases.