Measles outbreaks

However, most insurance companies do not retain insureds for longer than the insureds stay at the same job providing their insurance. So a small near term cost to prevent a large cost in the future may not make sense for an insurance company when the large cost in the future is likely to be borne by a different insurance company (including Medicare).

The same can apply to large self-insured employers (that use insurance companies to handle claims processing). However, this may be a weaker incentive for employers, since employers bear additional costs of absenteeism or other loss of work when employees get sick or have to take care of sick family members.

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My neighbor’s parents didn’t vaccinate their kids. She had a polio when she was young and now she is learning that polio doesn’t stop at limping. It also weakens muscles in the organs. All her organs are weak. She is not happy at all.

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The TX outbreak has grown to 48 cases. It is apparently the worst in the last 30 years.

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Texas measles outbreak doubles, to 48 cases | CIDRAP says that 13 (27%) patients required hospital care, and that all were either unvaccinated or had unknown vaccination status.

The other thing that happens is some people are not particularly observant of quarantine periods. It will spread until it finds too many people who have immunity. There’s really no stopping it until that happens.

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Ugh, I never had chickenpox as a child. I got the shots when my DD was one and got hers.

But apparently the immunity has waned based on blood tests. My doc wants me to get the shot again. I don’t want chickenpox as an adult, that is for sure!

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According to this Associated Press article, the cases have mostly been in a community of under-vaccinated Mennonites in west TX.

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This page mentions the following:

  • People born before 1957 are generally assumed to have gotten measles in the pre-vaccine era (measles vaccine became generally available in the US in 1963).
  • People vaccinated before 1968 may have gotten a less effective measles vaccine, so they are recommended to get an additional dose.
  • People vaccinated from 1968 to 1989 were likely given one dose instead of two doses that are the usual today, so they may want to get an additional dose if in higher risk situations (work in college settings or health care, or contact with immunocompromised people, or traveling to where measles is present).
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Please don’t flag this (or just delete it) – simply for information on this very same topic, the vaccine review board (the federal entity that sets the commonly regarded vaccine schedule recommendations for doctors to follow) meetings have been cancelled “indefinitely”.

While that does not mean vaccines are restricted, insurers rarely cover any vaccines that are not on the schedule. This means any new vaccines, or modifications of existing ones, are unlikely to be discussed or added to the schedule until the committee resumes meetings. (This all from a WaPo article, should you want to find the original information)

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I don’t know much about this - does the board not meeting mean the schedule falls away, or does it just mean the existing schedule remains in place until it gets changed or abandoned?
(I cancelled my wapo sub so can’t access the original article)

My daughters both got some of the infant vaccines twice. They’re adopted from China and we were provided a list of vaccines that they were given along with the dates. But their pediatricians thought it best to repeat, as the effectiveness of China’s vaccines couldn’t be trusted. I didn’t give the decision a second thought.

We even all got rabies (and some other) vaccines before an international trip bc the country had lots of street dogs. That was recommended by the State Dept.

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I sent my internist a message asking whether we should get a booster of MMR in light of outbreaks even though we had the diseases decades ago. G will ask his internist same Q later this month.

Here is a thread specifically on this topic (which does not appear to involve measles or measles vaccine):

Plenty of sources exist on the matter that are not The Washington Post or paywalled.

Yes, the thread is new. I have access to our cancelled WaPo until mid April. Thank you for the additional links.

An update found here indicates that there are 90 known cases (up from 58 three days ago) of measles in the west Texas / New Mexico outbreak:

More here:

I have a message to my internist asking if there is any good reason NOT to get a booster MMR shot, just in case, as we had these conditions many decades ago when we were very young. I don’t know how long the immunity lasts, even though it’s SUPPOSED to be lifetime. I’d rather have a little preventative poke than a very nasty condition that could have been prevented.

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can your internist order a titer? may be easier and cheaper just to get a booster, but a blood test coudl tell how much protection you still have.

Have no idea on whether a titer woudl be covered by insurance. OTOH, it looks like MMR booster is covered by Medicare.

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I had my booster a while ago when I signed up for classes at our big state U. Insurance would not pay for a titer but gladly covered the shots.

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Insurers are weird about covering titers but tend to cover shots with no problem. That was something we encountered when the allergist was concerned about how well protected our kids were.