It doesn't matter whether it is a granola-crunching, Vitamin A swilling, New Agey liberal, or a libertarian "don't push your government on my kids," or a conservative "get your nanny state out of my decisions." Measles doesn't care about your anti-science political positions.
From a CDC report in 1999:
At the beginning of the 20th century, infectious diseases were widely prevalent in the United States and exacted an enormous toll on the population. For example, in 1900, 21,064 smallpox cases were reported, and 894 patients died. In 1920, 469,924 measles cases were reported, and 7575 patients died [my emphasis]; 147,991 diphtheria cases were reported, and 13,170 patients died. In 1922, 107,473 pertussis cases were reported, and 5099 patients died.
In 1900, few effective treatment and preventive measures existed to prevent infectious diseases. Although the first vaccine against smallpox was developed in 1796, greater than 100 years later its use had not been widespread enough to fully control the disease (4). Four other vaccines -- against rabies, typhoid, cholera, and plague -- had been developed late in the 19th century but were not used widely by 1900.
http://www.cdc.gov/...
http://www.azcentral.com/...
An anti-vax libertarian Arizona family went to Disneyland, and brought back measles to the town of Kearney, Arizona. The link goes to the Arizona Republic with an interview.
Before it became obvious their children had measles (but after they became sick), they ran around trying to get a diagnosis. They also ran around town. (Measles is contagious four days before it becomes apparent.) When Dad took his children to an urgent care clinic in another city, he lied about the children being vaccinated (so the clinic did not test for measles).
That is wilfully causing harm. So much for libertarian personal responsibility; anti-science nonsense and distrust of government research is the cause of this.
The school nurse made the connexion between the children’s illness and their trip to Disneyland.
The rest of the town figured it out shortly thereafter, and the family is being mercilessly pilloried on Facebook as “the Measles family.”
Now with over a thousand people in Kearney and other towns exposed to the wildly contagious virus (including infants and a three-year old child with leukaemia), Mom has researched the vaccine on the Internet. This time, she stayed away from wingnut anti-vax sites that show up near the top of searches, and realises she was wrong and "is sorry." (I suggest sticking her with all the other people’s medical bills, or lawsuits if someone is permanently injured, loses time at their job, or dies. My suspicion is she is sorry they got caught.)
See that's the thing: I ain't hurting anyone (until I do). Is this not the argument used for justifying drunk driving, for plinking with guns, &c?
You know where else they have a measles outbreak? The libertarian paradise of Somalia.
As Daily Kos member Annieli notes in her February 21 diary here, the conservative think tank The Cato Institute describes a society that fits the description of Somalia to a "T."
What Cato fails to mention in its article is that such a society cannot protect itself from the wolves that ensconce themselves within the society.
Sure, a person who does not like the communal rules adopted (and that would qualify as governance, not libertarianism) is free to leave, but how do you get an undesirable person to freely leave? Unless you have enforcement capabilities of those "freely agreed upon" principles, they have no teeth.
Over at Huffington Post in the article on this issue, there are folk throwing around the idea in the comments on their article, they would use "II Amendment solutions" (vigilantism) if a family member were killed or maimed by this woman spreading the measles through her wilful ignorance. Gaaaaaa. I guess that is the libertarian solution.
I had measles (3 and 10 day), scarlet fever, whooping cough, chickenpox, and mumps as a child. The vaccines did not exist then or were not widely distributed.
Since that time, I have had chickenpox, scarlet fever, and mumps again (the mumps almost killed me the second time around - you would have been spared my creating diaries here if I had not survived my 2013 case of the mumps).
Even if I had wanted a II Amendment solution to the little girl that gave me the mumps (or her parents), I would not have been able to.
Of course, I want no such thing. I want vaccinations for all, and no religious, woo, or philosophical objections to them. No liberal, conservative, or libertarian anti-science arguments against them. Exceptions only for medical reasons, not because "I know better than over three hundred years of scientific endeavour."
I have a VA appointment coming up in a couple weeks on an unrelated matter. Nebraska is part of the measles outbreak now (fortunately on the other side of the state from me). Considering my past history with childhood diseases, I will enquire about a booster shot for measles.
In the meantime, the USA is now exporting measles to Germany and Mexico. I am sure those countries are thankful for our libertarian principled citizenry.
Fri Feb 27, 2015 at 11:07 PM MT: There are those that argue there are "toxins" in vaccines. You know what else is a toxin? Measles.
2:51 PM MT: Another update: I was called out in the comments below for conflating "toxin" with "virus."
I do understand the difference, but for those that hold anti-vaccine positions, anything they don't like seems to fall into the category of "toxin." For those that understand the difference between the two words, my comparison is hyperbole.
For those that don't, maybe using the word "toxin" will sink in (but I doubt it).