# US Measles Cases Hit Twenty Year High **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 30, 2014, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-measles-cases-hit-twenty-year-high/689610 "2014-05-30T01:28:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2014, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-measles-cases-hit-twenty-year-high/689610/21 "2014-05-30T18:50:14Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > All the cows I know have problems socializing and conversing normally with people. The immense majority of the cows I’ve met were extremely agressive to people and would do their best to trample or skewer any humans in sight. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Why\_Bother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e19adc/32.png) [@Doctor\_Why\_Bother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Why_Bother)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2014, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-measles-cases-hit-twenty-year-high/689610/22 "2014-05-30T19:28:25Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > That’s all we need. A cow evil genius directing her mignons. > _flees_ Man, you guys really know how to milk a joke. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2014, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-measles-cases-hit-twenty-year-high/689610/23 "2014-05-30T19:57:23Z")
> [@Doctor\_Why\_Bother](#): > > Man, you guys really know how to milk a joke. At least until the cows come home. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2014, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-measles-cases-hit-twenty-year-high/689610/24 "2014-05-30T19:58:41Z")
Quit trying to steer the conversation! ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2014, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-measles-cases-hit-twenty-year-high/689610/25 "2014-05-30T20:01:12Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > Truly, the takedown was a thing of beauty 😃 > > Not all crunchy hippies have no brain. You don’t still have a link to this, or have it archived somewhere. I would love to read this. > [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > I checked out the PETA site, and their evidence is a couple of papers that show that reducing milk consumption seems to help alleviate the symptoms of autism in some cases. Getting from this to a claim that milk causes autism, is like suggesting that healthy people should walk with crutches to prevent sprained ankles. This is true, but most behavior experts I know, who have studied autism, and work with autistic people, suspect that what happens is you simply have a child who is lactose intolerant, gets a lot of stomachaches, and maybe generally doesn’t feel well if the lactose intolerance is enough to cause malabsorption. The autistic child can’t express his discomfort verbally, though, and it comes out in his behavior. Remove the irritant, the child feels better, and behavior improves. So does concentration and learning, eventually. There’s another factor with the complicated casein-free/gluten-free diets some autistic children are on that parents swear help. First, these kids have virtually no junk food, and second, they have parents spending a lot of time on their diets, and as a result, paying extra attention to them. The extra attention helps, but there’s also some observer bias: parents don’t like to think all that work is for nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2014, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-measles-cases-hit-twenty-year-high/689610/26 "2014-05-30T21:58:35Z")
I’m surprised that the number of measles cases was that high twenty years ago. Does anybody know the cause? Where antivaxers around even then? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2014, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-measles-cases-hit-twenty-year-high/689610/27 "2014-05-30T22:04:54Z")
I’ve seen a couple of posts mentioning Elizabeth Hasselbeck. Has she come out as an anti-vaccination nut? ---
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2014, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-measles-cases-hit-twenty-year-high/689610/28 "2014-05-30T22:15:04Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > I’m surprised that the number of measles cases was that high twenty years ago. Does anybody know the cause? Where antivaxers around even then? One strange detail about this recent outbreak is that more than half the cases are in adults aged 20 years or older. So these would be the kids of pre-1994 anti-vaxxers. Maybe they had other kids around the same time that caught the virus as infants 20 years ago, as is usually the case, but since most people were vaccinated, herd immunity allowed the current cases to make it a couple of decades without being exposed. Before widespread vaccination the US had an average of 500,000 cases per year. This 20 year high of 288 cases is miniscule compared to the way things once were, but the numbers are definitely moving the wrong direction. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2014, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-measles-cases-hit-twenty-year-high/689610/29 "2014-05-30T22:59:06Z")
> [@Crazyhorse](#): > > Before widespread vaccination the US had an average of 500,000 cases per year. This 20 year high of 288 cases is miniscule compared to the way things once were, but the numbers are definitely moving the wrong direction. This chart is demonstrates the progress we’ve made since the introduction of the vaccine: [File:Measles US 1944-2007 inset.png - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Measles_US_1944-2007_inset.png) It’s rather awesome actually. Thankfully, this wholly unnecessary 288 cases won’t even register as a blip. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2014, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-measles-cases-hit-twenty-year-high/689610/30 "2014-05-30T23:11:57Z")
> [@Crazyhorse](#): > > One strange detail about this recent outbreak is that more than half the cases are in adults aged 20 years or older. So these would be the kids of pre-1994 anti-vaxxers. Immunity can fade. When the virus was everywhere, people were repeatedly exposed-- it was like getting a booster a couple of times a year, so people who had had measles and recovered maintained immunity. It’s possible someone vaccinated as a child, but not since, could catch it if exposed at age 30 for the first time to the actual virus, especially if it was a slightly mutated version. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2014, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-measles-cases-hit-twenty-year-high/689610/31 "2014-05-31T00:27:44Z")
> [@Doctor\_Why\_Bother](#): > > Don’t blame the anti-vaxxers (well…okay, blame them a bit). Your real anger should be reserved for the stupid, pig-ignorant, thoroughly complicit dumbshit media that (a) has no fucking idea how to report science, (b) lazily frames the issue as a debate between two roughly equal sides when it is actually the exact opposite (to paraphrase John Oliver "The only way to report that, say, 10% of parents don’t believe in vaccination is to say ‘10% of parents are wrong’), and (c) is nowhere near critical enough of bad science, bad logic, and stuck-up, spoilt, over-privileged mommy warriors, food worshippers, crunchy granola nutcases or any other breed of anti-science cunt who thinks that earning a Ph.D and pissing around on Google for a few days are the same fucking thing. > > In a perfect world anti-vaxxers wouldn’t even be allowed on TV unless they literally had supportive peer-reviewed studies actually in their hands when they got to the studio. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world and so media fuckwits will keep giving these cretins the oxygen of publicity. Thanks to them, this problem will likely get worse before it gets better. {Gives this about 5,000 thumbs up.} ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2014, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-measles-cases-hit-twenty-year-high/689610/32 "2014-05-31T00:54:52Z")
I know I’ve posted [THIS](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhk7-5eBCrs) before, and it’s simplex, but it’s correct. Anti-vaxxers are batshit crazy and their goal is insane and deadly!!! ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2014, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-measles-cases-hit-twenty-year-high/689610/33 "2014-05-31T15:03:51Z")
To be fair, the dumbshit media (or at least, large segments of it) has learned a lesson since the Wakefield debacle and has backed off the “tell both sides” nonsense. Nearly every mass media/major newspaper story I’ve seen about the 2014 measles outbreaks has been sane and factual, without demonstrating a compulsion to interview nitwits for “balance”. CBS News has benefited from the resignation of antivax “investigative reporter” Sharyl Attkisson, who has been reduced to blogging her antivaccine idiocy (in addition to fulminating about Fast and Furious and Benghazi), while writing her soon-to-be-classic exposé about the pro-Obama media. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2014, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-measles-cases-hit-twenty-year-high/689610/34 "2014-05-31T15:25:09Z")
In the US, the “fairness doctrine” was in full force from 1969 to 1987, and it required the media to present both sides of a controversial issue. Gloria Steinem once said that when TV interviewers booked her for interviews, they would ask her if she knew of an “anti-” they could book as well, to fulfill the fairness doctrine. Phyllis Schlafly became famous by being the ready and willing “anti-ERA” for the fairness doctrine. Even after 1987, there was still language in FCC regulations that encouraged “both sides,” even when one side might contain dangerous misinformation. The last vestige of the doctrine was remove by the FCC in 2011. If it were still in effect, the anti-vaxxers would probably be getting even more press than they do. While most journalists were happy to see it go, there are lots of older editors who can’t help but feel uncomfortable at the thought of being perceived as unfair if they come across as one-sided, even when the one side is sane and level-headed, while the other is wacko. Supposedly, the public can spot the wacko, but just giving them airspace lends them legitimacy. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2014, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-measles-cases-hit-twenty-year-high/689610/35 "2014-05-31T20:38:22Z")
RivkahChaya: Nice contribution, but the mainstream media is saturated with false equivalences. If the Democrats said the Earth was round and the Republicans said it was flat, the New York Times would report, “Opinions on the shape of the Earth differ”. The modern impulse towards balanced reporting runs a lot deeper than old Federal regulations which only covered television. One aspect is that main networks pursue broad audiences while cable stations can go for narrow audiences. My take is that distinguishing between science and crackpottery runs against reportorial instincts and requires greater care and effort. So there’s less of it in mediocre news outlets. The Financial Times, New York Times and the Economist are better in this regard, relatively speaking. Though the best are probably policy blogs like Vox, the Upshot, Kevin Drum, Brad DeLong, James Fallows, etc. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2014, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-measles-cases-hit-twenty-year-high/689610/36 "2014-05-31T20:57:07Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > The modern impulse towards balanced reporting runs a lot deeper than old Federal regulations which only covered television. One aspect is that main networks pursue broad audiences while cable stations can go for narrow audiences. My take is that distinguishing between science and crackpottery runs against reportorial instincts and requires greater care and effort. So there’s less of it in mediocre news outlets. My point was that this is still the legacy of the fairness doctrine. Back when Salk was developing the polio vaccine, and there were news reports, journalists didn’t feel the need to give space to crackpots, although they existed back then. Managing editors and other higher-ups probably mostly went to journalism school (or, went to college and majored in either journalism, or “communications”-“TV/film/radio,” or whatever their school called it) back when the fairness doctrine was still in place. People who are 50 now went to college in the early 80s. When we get a generation away from it, and people who grew up with The Daily Show, and either laughing at the wackos, or just not giving them a forum, other than the internet, maybe things will improve. We need to work a little harder in teaching high schoolers that not every source is trustworthy, but we’ll probably get there. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2014, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-measles-cases-hit-twenty-year-high/689610/37 "2014-06-01T09:45:03Z")
And of course, you see exactly the same kind of ignorance in antivaxxers everywhere. "You have your facts and figures and peer-reviewed papers and statements from historically reliable government bureaus (which I think are universally corrupt an sold out to big pharma but am unwilling to even accept the fucking burden of proof for that statement), but _I know people who got the flu from the flu shot!_ (Even though even a basic understanding of fundamental immunology would tell you that no, they didn’t, that’s _completely fucking impossible_). It’s a little frustrating when otherwise rational people are completely incapable of understanding just how fucking clueless they are. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2014, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-measles-cases-hit-twenty-year-high/689610/38 "2014-06-01T12:25:33Z")
**Budget Player Cadet** , I so agree with your post. You hit it on the head. I think some people who believe in conspiracy theories feel powerless in their lives. It makes them feel good to “know” the “real” story about something, to be in an inner circle of illuminati, and superior to those who don’t believe. ---
**Author:** ![Nancarrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@Nancarrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nancarrow)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2014, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-measles-cases-hit-twenty-year-high/689610/39 "2014-06-01T13:49:39Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > All the cows I know have problems socializing and conversing normally with people. > [@Nava](#): > > The immense majority of the cows I’ve met were extremely agressive to people and would do their best to trample or skewer any humans in sight. Wow. And when you gaze long into a cow, the cow also gazes into you. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2014, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-measles-cases-hit-twenty-year-high/689610/40 "2014-06-01T14:06:57Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > And of course, you see exactly the same kind of ignorance in antivaxxers everywhere. "You have your facts and figures and peer-reviewed papers and statements from historically reliable government bureaus (which I think are universally corrupt an sold out to big pharma but am unwilling to even accept the fucking burden of proof for that statement), but _I know people who got the flu from the flu shot!_ (Even though even a basic understanding of fundamental immunology would tell you that no, they didn’t, that’s _completely fucking impossible_). It’s a little frustrating when otherwise rational people are completely incapable of understanding just how fucking clueless they are. There’s actually a phenomenon that has been studied, by which the less a person knows about something, the less likely they are to realize they are ignorant, and to actually learn something. People who really know something also know what they don’t know. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-measles-cases-hit-twenty-year-high/689610.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-measles-cases-hit-twenty-year-high/689610.md?page=3)