Measles Outbreak in Arizona Likely Fueled by Vaccine Refusals

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Measles Outbreak in Arizona Likely Fueled by Vaccine Refusals
By Phil Plait



Shutterstock/northallertonman

The largest outbreak of measles this year is occurring right now in Arizona. There have been 22 confirmed cases so far since late May. Up to that point, there were only 19 cases in the entire country in 2016.

The outbreak is attributed to the Eloy Detention Center, a privately run federal immigration detention center. This doesn’t surprise me; measles was eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, but people traveling to the U.S. (including Americans returning from foreign countries) are the biggest source of outbreaks. Disneyland was the epicenter of a measles outbreak in 2015 for just this reason.

The likely carrier in the Arizona situation was a migrant, but the problem was amplified by unvaccinated employees at the facility. The detainees have been cooperative and received vaccinations, but apparently many of the employees have been refusing or haven’t shown proof of vaccination.

PHIL PLAIT
Phil Plait writes Slate’s Bad Astronomy blog and is an astronomer, public speaker, science evangelizer, and author of Death From the Skies!

It’s not clear why. Perhaps they’re simply anti-vaxxers, unable or unwilling to accept the reality that vaccines are one of the safest medical modalities available; their huge benefits far, far outweigh their very small risk. The vast majority of claims by anti-vaxxers are false. They don’t cause autism. They aren’t loaded with toxins. And on and on.

Remember too that the modern anti-vax movement started due to a discredited doctor who fraudulently connected vaccines with autism, performed unethical tests on children (!!), and had a tremendous conflict of interest. Still, it’s taken hold in various communities, and anti-vaccination tendencies have caused many outbreaks around the world, including in the U.S.

I hope this Arizona outbreak doesn’t get any worse, but measles is highly contagious and the workers who aren’t vaccinated could very easily spread it to the public at large. An infection from measles can result in high fever, but in children it can produce much more devastating complications, including permanent hearing loss, pneumonia, encephalitis, and even death. If you live in Arizona read up on the symptoms and be cautious.

Please talk to your doctor and check to see if you need your vaccination (usually given as an MMR combination with mumps and rubella). The people most at risk are infants too young to be vaccinated, and people with compromised immune systems; for example, those undergoing chemotherapy, or who have auto-immune diseases. A family member of mine has the latter, so for me this is personal. I’m up-to-date with all my shots, and so is everyone in my immediate family. We walk the walk.

Vaccines work. They wiped out smallpox globally, and polio is on its way out as well. Rubella has been eliminated in the Americas, too. Measles was stopped dead in its tracks once in this country. Let’s make it happen again.




If Donald Trump Tweeted About Triumph of the Will

 

[David_TheMan]

So we have a article blaming anti-vaxxers when the author later admits that they don't know why the outbreak is taking place and that the majority carriers are immigrants at a detention center. SMH
Come on man, you have to do better.

CDC Scientist Reportedly Claims Vaccine Linked to Autism in Black Babies - Atlanta Black Star

The Examiner reported that Thompson, who has been with the CDC for more than a decade, admitted to Hooker that he and several other authors behind the study manipulated and hid data that proved Black babies were more than three times more likely to develop regressive autism if they were given the vaccine before the age of 3.

For more than 10 years, parents of Black children may have been uninformed and unaware that giving their baby the vaccine could drastically increase the likelihood that they could develop autism.
The Examiner reported that Thompson, who has been with the CDC for more than a decade, admitted to Hooker that he and several other authors behind the study manipulated and hid data that proved Black babies were more than three times more likely to develop regressive autism if they were given the vaccine before the age of 3.

For more than 10 years, parents of Black children may have been uninformed and unaware that giving their baby the vaccine could drastically increase the likelihood that they could develop autism.

 

[EndDomination]

So we have a article blaming anti-vaxxers when the author later admits that they don't know why the outbreak is taking place and that the majority carriers are immigrants at a detention center. SMH
Come on man, you have to do better.

CDC Scientist Reportedly Claims Vaccine Linked to Autism in Black Babies - Atlanta Black Star

At least read a few sentences from the article: "The likely carrier in the Arizona situation was a migrant, but the problem was amplified by unvaccinated employees at the facility. The detainees have been cooperative and received vaccinations, but apparently many of the employees have been refusing or haven’t shown proof of vaccination."

 

[David_TheMan]

At least read a few sentences from the article: "The likely carrier in the Arizona situation was a migrant, but the problem was amplified by unvaccinated employees at the facility. The detainees have been cooperative and received vaccinations, but apparently many of the employees have been refusing or haven’t shown proof of vaccination."

Yet they don't even detail how many employees were infected. They say 22 people but don't breakdown the infection rate.
On top of that to claim all the workers are anti-vaxxers, when they say refuse or haven't shown proof of vacination is misleading.
This is nothing but a joke article meant to vilify anti-vaxxers instead of point the blame where it needs to be at the ICE facility for lax employment standards.
I worked at a medical establishment as a contractor, federal facility, the first thing we had to do after getting the contract was to ensure vacination were updated before we got to the facility and could work.

That is the true problem here, not the anti-vaxxers around the corner.
I'll also add measles when i was coming up and even when my parents were coming up was never viewed as a deadly scary disease, more than a inconvenience.

 

[EndDomination]

Yet they don't even detail how many employees were infected. They say 22 people but don't breakdown the infection rate.
On top of that to claim all the workers are anti-vaxxers, when they say refuse or haven't shown proof of vacination is misleading.
This is nothing but a joke article meant to vilify anti-vaxxers instead of point the blame where it needs to be at the ICE facility for lax employment standards.
I worked at a medical establishment as a contractor, federal facility, the first thing we had to do after getting the contract was to ensure vacination were updated before we got to the facility and could work.

That is the true problem here, not the anti-vaxxers around the corner.
I'll also add measles when i was coming up and even when my parents were coming up was never viewed as a deadly scary disease, more than a inconvenience.

Measles can have severe complications, and leads to permanent scarring.
And fukk anti-vaxxers tbh, I'm not here to try and scrub their image clean, they're a scrounge on intellectualism here in the US, and smear campaigns are a beautiful thing.
I see what you mean though, they shouldn't have been hired.

 

[David_TheMan]

Measles can have severe complications, and leads to permanent scarring.
And fukk anti-vaxxers tbh, I'm not here to try and scrub their image clean, they're a scrounge on intellectualism here in the US, and smear campaigns are a beautiful thing.
I see what you mean though, they shouldn't have been hired.

Measles can have complications, everything can, but to act as if these is a public threat is a joke, measles, mumps, chicken pox should never be compared to smallpox like that article.

Hey if you embrace smear campaigns that tells a lot about the faith you have in your stance.
Also there are some real issues with the medical establishment that need to be discussed and talked about, but instead get disregarded by the person being labeled anti-vaxxer and that isn't good for anyone, it is actually harmful, like the black kids linked to autism study with the date of vacination.