They’re moving pregnant women and babies too young to be immunized, from the shelter into hotels. Oh great. First of all, unless they’re stringently masked (try doing that with a baby), they’re exposing everyone on their way into the hotel room - and do you think they might come out of the room? Secondly, the article doesn’t mention that babies 6 months old can be immunized, have a 75% seroconversion rate, absolutely SHOULD be immunized under these conditions!
Illinois already has a state law requiring vaccinations for public schools. If the City Leaders have purposely chosen to not enforce existing state laws, that’s on them.
btw: isn’t this thread supposed to be about Florida?
The OP made the point that this Florida policy will most certainly cause spread throughout the country as tourists will bring it back home with them. I’d be interested to see if this comes to pass.
Many elementary students travel to places in Florida for their spring breaks. And most certainly have the potential to bring back measles with them, if not vaccinated.
Does Illinois have religious exemptions or medical exemptions for these vaccines? That’s off topic to this thread, but it could impact the spread of measles.
What are you talking about? Tourists bring their kids to Florida. Tourists have young children. Some of these tourists’ kids are too young to be vaccinated or are not vaccinated anyway. They can be exposed to measles and bring it home to their schools, day cares, churches etc.
The concept is not that a tourist visits an elementary school. It is that unimmunized children (and adults) visit Florida (a major center of tourism and especially child tourism) which is having an outbreak, and then contract and bring the virus home with them, to spread in their home communities, including their schools, where they may expose many more unimmunized children. But somehow, I think that gouf78 already understands this obvious concept.
We will see the results of this in April and May, because of the long incubation period for measles. If we get to late May and this hasn’t happened, we may have dodged the bullet, for now. Meanwhile, the elementary school in Broward County reports that over 21 days have passed since the last case, with no new ones, so hopefully, transmission there has been interrupted, even without the state surgeon general having imposed a quarantine on those exposed.
Hmmm…so Chicago as a sanctuary city with unvaccinated, undocumented people aren’t a problem? None of that is a cause. It’s all Florida’s fault because a tourist visited?
My parents are in their late 70s and have many friends and acquaintances with homes in FL, plus exposure to families in their community who vacation in FL. Thanks to this thread I asked them to talk to their GP about getting a vaccine booster. They were told that due to their age it was assumed they had immunity from childhood cases of measles (pre-vaccination) so there was no need for a booster.
I hope this is good advice. It makes me nervous for them.
And speaking of titres…if someone (fairly young – mid 20’s) only had one MMR but has really high antibody level to measles via titre…they’re fine, right?
Probably especially asking @parentologist who is very knowledgeable in this area!
so are you really suggesting that the measles outbreak in the migrant center (which then spread to Chicago public schools) is a result of unvaccinated Chicago residents visiting Florida and then bringing the measles bug back with them?
Of course, this is all speculation, but the CDC can track the virus DNA to see if it’s the same strain as in Florida.
I’ve read mixed messages on this. Some docs just say, instead of spending $150 for titer, just get a measles booster. Suggest any seniors check with their primary care doc.
First of all, I’m not the OP. Secondly, no specific point attributing any particular outbreak to Florida has been made, certainly not by me; simply that the current recommendations by the Florida surgeon general could absolutely result in a spread of this very contagious illness to other parts of the country.
Anyone born before 1957 is assumed immune to measles. It’s so infectious that almost no one would have escaped having it. It also has very long-lasting immunity as the virus does not mutate rapidly , which also means it would be very difficult to determine where a given person got it from. Regardless, there is obviously an outbreak and state policies - whether overcrowding in a shelter or misguided quarantine policies increase the possibility of spread. As someone who knows someone who was made deaf by measles at the age of 3 I would hate to see this happen when it is avoidable.
When there was an outbreak in So Cal in 2015, including at Disneyland, it did not sweep the country. It was not good, but it was not a world wide health crisis.
In the school in Florida, those most at risk are those not vaccinated. To enroll in school in Florida, you have to show proof of MMR unless there is a medical waiver OR if you entered school under the federal law (but most of those children are quickly vaccinated). I think there is more of a risk of transmitting measles in a public place where there could be unvaccinated children (kids who are home schooled, visiting from jurisdictions that don’t require vaccines to attend public schools, international children). LIke Disneyland (or WDW in Florida).
That probably makes sense for the general population. But for certain situations (e.g health care or emergency services workers), a titer may be needed in any case.