Cases hit a 33-year record amid falling vaccination rates. This is what happens when the public loses confidence in health officials.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday reported that measles cases hit a 33-year record amid declining children’s vaccination rates. This is a warning about how quickly public-health progress can backslide, especially when people in authority fan public fear about the risks of vaccination.
Most measles cases this year have occurred in a Texas Mennonite community with low vaccination rates, though there have also been notable outbreaks in New Mexico, Kansas and Kentucky, among other states. The measles virus ranks among the most contagious. The fact that there haven’t been more cases this year owes to herd immunity acquired over decades from high vaccination rates among children and adults.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. nonetheless insists that the decision to get vaccinated is personal while he makes spurious claims that discourage people from vaccination. “There are adverse events from the vaccine. It does cause deaths every year. It causes all the illnesses that measles itself cause, encephalitis and blindness, etc., and so people ought to be able to make that choice for themselves,” he said on Fox News this spring.
RFK! RFK!
ReplyDeleteSeriously. Most cases occured amongst Mennonites who dont' follow government rules no matter who's in power. RFK could demand 100% vaccination rates and it wouldn't change.
And Canada also having rising measles rates. You going to blame RFK for that too?
The real cause is social media and people thinking that "they did their research", not RFK