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Thanks to Anti-Vaxxers, There's Another Measles Outbreak in Washington State
Thanks to Anti-Vaxxers, There's Another Measles Outbreak in Washington State
by Katie Herzog • Jan 23, 2019 at 1:00 pm
Officials in Clark County, Washington, have declared a public health emergency after an outbreak of measles infected at least 22 people. Nineteen of the 22 confirmed sick were not vaccinated.
Just across the Columbia River from Portland, which is having a measles outbreak of its own, vaccination rates in Washington state have plummeted over the past decade. As KATU2 News reported, 91.4 percent of kindergartners were vaccinated during the 2004-2005 school year. By the 2017-2018 school year, the rate was down to 76.5 percent.
Measles is a highly contagious disease. Symptoms include fever, rash, cough, and flu-like symptoms, and it can also be deadly, especially in young children. In the early 1980s, millions of people across the world died from measles each year, but as global vaccination programs spread, that number was down to 73,000 by 2014. Most cases of measles today are found in the developing world, but while rates are going down everywhere else, in the U.S., they're actually going up thanks to parents who refuse vaccinate their kids because their astrologer told them it causes autism.
Vaccines work—particularly the measles vaccine, which has prevented millions of deaths every year. And yet, for the last couple of decades, otherwise not-crazy people have been refusing to vaccinate their children because, against all evidence, they've bought into anti-science propaganda. And these aren't just people who watch Alex Jones and voted for Trump; they're people who send their kids to Waldorf Schools and donate to Planned Parenthood in Mike Pence's name. This latter group may believe in climate change, evolution, and other things right-wingers refuse to admit are real, but when it comes to vaccines (and GMOs), all reason goes out the window.
....
by Katie Herzog • Jan 23, 2019 at 1:00 pm
Officials in Clark County, Washington, have declared a public health emergency after an outbreak of measles infected at least 22 people. Nineteen of the 22 confirmed sick were not vaccinated.
Just across the Columbia River from Portland, which is having a measles outbreak of its own, vaccination rates in Washington state have plummeted over the past decade. As KATU2 News reported, 91.4 percent of kindergartners were vaccinated during the 2004-2005 school year. By the 2017-2018 school year, the rate was down to 76.5 percent.
Measles is a highly contagious disease. Symptoms include fever, rash, cough, and flu-like symptoms, and it can also be deadly, especially in young children. In the early 1980s, millions of people across the world died from measles each year, but as global vaccination programs spread, that number was down to 73,000 by 2014. Most cases of measles today are found in the developing world, but while rates are going down everywhere else, in the U.S., they're actually going up thanks to parents who refuse vaccinate their kids because their astrologer told them it causes autism.
Vaccines work—particularly the measles vaccine, which has prevented millions of deaths every year. And yet, for the last couple of decades, otherwise not-crazy people have been refusing to vaccinate their children because, against all evidence, they've bought into anti-science propaganda. And these aren't just people who watch Alex Jones and voted for Trump; they're people who send their kids to Waldorf Schools and donate to Planned Parenthood in Mike Pence's name. This latter group may believe in climate change, evolution, and other things right-wingers refuse to admit are real, but when it comes to vaccines (and GMOs), all reason goes out the window.
....
