In April, the measles outbreak across the country reached the dismal achievement of becoming the second-largest since 2000. The Centers for Disease Control just released numbers that include 41 newly confirmed measles cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases from the start of 2019 to 880. This makes this the largest outbreak since 1994, when 958 total cases were reported. The overwhelming majority of cases include children and, more specifically, children who have not been vaccinated against the disease. According to the CDC, 24 states have reported cases of the disease. The main reason for the outbreak is people traveling into the United States from abroad, then coming into contact with “communities with pockets of unvaccinated people.”
The driving force from Washington State to New York has been anti-vaxxer misinformation, leading to parents getting more and more exemptions from providing their kids with routine immunizations. With childhood vaccination rates dropping in some areas, it was only a matter of time before an outbreak like this would take place. One unvaccinated child’s exposure in a New York City classroom with a low vaccination rate led to 21 children becoming quickly infected. This is why scientists and medical professionals call diseases like measles and chicken pox “infectious.”
Even with these outbreaks, anti-vaxxer parents have had the hubris to try and sue various municipal boards of health in order to allow their unvaccinated children to roam free in public schools and spaces. And it is hubris. Frequently, their arguments consist of saying these outbreaks are small and do not warrant action like suspending unvaccinated students from school during an outbreak. Of course, junk science is what’s underpinning most anti-vaccination sentiment. These incude theories that have been debunked numerous times, including a pervasive belief that vaccinations like MMR cause autism in children.
For the record: it doesn’t, never has, and will not in the future.
