Before 1963, when the measles vaccination was first introduced, an estimated three to four million people contracted the disease per year in the U.S. alone, resulting in thousands of hospitalizations and around 500 deaths annually.
In 2000, the virus was declared eliminated in the United States. That doesn’t mean we can’t still get it; in fact, it’s a dangerous bit of data, because people have become complacent about vaccines and, when it’s an option, often decide they’ll forgo having their children get them – because…what are the chances? Sadly, the chances have become all too high. Last month alone, over 100 cases of measles were reported in the United States.
The CDC defines measles elimination as the “absence of continuous disease transmission for 12 months or more in a specific geographic area.” The thing is, people can contract measles here, when unvaccinated travelers (American or foreign) bring it back with them and spread it to other unvaccinated people. In December, around 100 cases of measles originated out of Disney parks; officials believe a foreigner brought it in. So, let’s blame the foreigner! Some politicians are even trying to pin the outbreak on “illegal aliens.”
But WE are the idiots for not protecting our children against this deadly virus. In the United States, some 28% of children under the age of five with measles were hospitalized between 2001 and 2013, so the reality is that it has not been eliminated. Last year, there were 644 reported cases of measles in America. Adults born before 1985 may not have received the now-recommended booster shot of MMR (a packaged vaccine that additionally wards off mumps and rubella). Globally, measles is still a “major killer of children,” according to the World Health Organization.
In addition to complacency, there’s a lot of misinformation out there about alleged links between vaccinations and side effects like autism. Actually, a 1998 study suggesting the autism link has long since been debunked, thus no research exists that backs up the unfortunate myth. According to experts, a “small but growing” number of people are opting out of vaccinations. Twenty of our United States allow exemptions from immunization based on “personal beliefs” outside of religious reasons (48 states allow religious exemptions). California, one of the 20 states that offer philosophical exemptions, was the epicenter of December’s outbreak and accounts for 92 of the reported cases for 2015. The two states that only provide exemptions for medical reasons, Mississippi and West Virginia, have no reported cases in 2015.
Ninety percent – 90 – of people who aren’t immune to measles and are near a person who has it will also get infected. The disease is considered highly contagious because: 1) an infected person can spread it four days before developing a rash, i.e. knowing he has it 2) it’s airborne, and 3) it can live on infected surfaces for two hours. Hence, the danger in opting out of the measles vaccine for you or your child is that your decision not only affects your family, but other families as well.
New York does allow religious exemptions, so apparently, if you subscribe to MeaslesIsOkicism, you can opt out. It’s true that if the stars are aligned, a child who contracts measles is unlikely to die from it, though pneumonia, brain damage, and deafness are also possible outcomes. And according to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, you’re 100 times more likely to get struck by lightning than to have an adverse reaction to a vaccine of any sort.
So if you’re not parading your babies out in fields during thunderstorms, you probably shouldn’t avoid getting them vaccinated, either.
