Texas lawmaker says he's not concerned about measles outbreak because of antibiotics

[RandySF]

A Texas state lawmaker suggested that he is not worried about the recent outbreak of measles across the country because antibiotics can treat the virus.

Texas state Rep. Bill Zedler (R) made the comments Tuesday to the Texas Observer and said he had a case of measles when growing up, before a vaccine for it was developed.

"They want to say people are dying of measles," he told the Observer. "Yeah, in third-world countries they're dying of measles. Today, with antibiotics and that kind of stuff, they're not dying in America."

Since their invention, vaccines for measles have been largely effective. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates only about 2 to 5 percent of children who get the vaccine within the first 12 months contract measles.




https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/432145-texas-lawmaker-says-hes-not-concerned-about-measles-outbreak-because-of

[dalton99a]

1. A Z-Pak a day keeps measles away

[sorcrow]

2. Measles are viral

Measles are viral not bacterial. Antibiotics are no help.
Regards,
Crow

[struggle4progress]

8. +

[Ilsa]

3. Practicing medicine without a license, and he only has a

License for stupidity.

[RockRaven]

4. It's journalistic malpractice to fail to contradict his antibiotic claim IN THE SAME SENTENCE.

One's readers deserve that much. If your first sentence paraphrases a dangerous lie from a dangerous fool, you must point it out IMMEDIATELY, before the end of the very same sentence.

[Trenzalore]

5. Seriously

When someone says something so dumb the immediately next sentence should be "Antibiotics treat bacterial infections and measles is a viral disease."

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. Oh, dear lord. Did no one explain to him the difference between viruses and bacteria?

And just which of those things measles is? And just which one of those things can be treated by anti-biotics?

It doesn't help that too many doctors routinely prescribe anti-biotics for viral things like flu and cold, so perhaps we shouldn't be too hard on him.

[Liberal In Texas]

7. Gerrymandering. Gawd I hate it. It has given Texas such a bad name.

With idiots like this making laws and just spouting stupid shit.

We truly have too many legislators who have been purchased by the elite 1% who have no concept of science.

[struggle4progress]

9. Vaccination is vital

By Paul Duprex
February 16

... In the 1960s, measles infected about 3 million to 4 million people in the United States each year. More than 48,000 people were hospitalized, and about 4,000 developed acute encephalitis, a life-threatening condition in which brain tissues become inflamed. Up to 500 people died, mainly from complications such as pneumonia and encephalitis. This was why vaccine pioneers John Enders and Thomas Peebles were motivated to isolate, weaken and develop a vaccine against measles that is truly transformative for human health. Parents who knew the reality of the disease were quick to vaccinate their children. Uptake skyrocketed and the number of cases, and associated deaths, plummeted in the developed world.

By 1985, when Enders died, over 1 million of the world’s kids were still dying because of this infection. However, now measles was a disease preventable by vaccine, and there was a huge impetus to address that tragedy by the World Health Organization ...

When I started working on the virus in 1996, there were still over 500,000 children dying of measles each year worldwide. Such big numbers can be hard to digest. So to put it into perspective, if you’ve ever been on or seen a Boeing 747 jumbo jet, you will know it’s a pretty big airplane. Think of over three of these planes full of infants crashing every day of the year with 100 percent of the people on board dying. January, February, March .?.?. the summer solstice, the autumnal equinox .?.?. November, back to the winter solstice in December .?.?. one rhythmic year. That’s the reality of measles — over a half-million lives were lost globally every year in the 1990s.

Thanks to vaccination, however, between 2000 and 2016 there was an 84 percent decrease in measles mortality, and over 20 millions deaths were prevented due to vaccination ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/measles-why-its-so-deadly-and-why-vaccination-is-so-vital/2019/02/15/a452e5c4-2fd0-11e9-8ad3-9a5b113ecd3c_story.html?utm_term=.0ec876027eeb

[Hermit-The-Prog]

10. I'm not concerned about flooding

My fishing boat has a screen door in the bottom to let the water out.

[dalton99a]

12. +1

[MrsMatt]

11. Oh FFS

The stupidity is astounding.

Where the hell do these people get their science education?