@Sue22, that is a great link, but then I scrolled down to this - ugh…
Hopefully they don’t grant too many waivers.
http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/202/10/1520.long#F2 is a very dry recounting of the postelimination measles era from 2000 through 2008.
“Clustering of susceptible persons in such communities may result in population immunity below the herd immunity threshold of 93%–95% [36] and an increased risk of outbreaks [37, 38]. In the measles postelimination era, a majority of the measles outbreaks that occurred in the United States were among personal belief exemptors [28, 37, 39–41]. Salmon et al [42] found that the most common reason that parents claimed vaccine exemptions was fear that the vaccine might cause harm.”
I know some virulent anti vaxers. Can’t discuss the subject with them. Most of them purely and simply believe that the chances of serious harm from the vaccine to their children are higher than the chances of their children and anyone else coming to serious harm from their not getting the vaccine. One woman has a daughter who has uncontrolled seizures and has the cognitive abilities of a baby, with the seizures starting shortly after vaccination. No straight out proof the vaccines caused the seizures and the setbacks; no proof they did not. it’s apparently acceptable to the medical professionals to exempt the child and her siblings from further vaccines.
It comes down to being fiercely protective of ones own to the disregard of the risks to others. My one son infected about 30 kids with chicken pox because i unknowingly sent him to preschool and Eurhythmics class when he was coming down with it. He had a relatively mild case that started under his heavy hairline, and I discovered it only that night when I popped him in the bath tub with his little brother (who got the same in exactly 2 weeks as did about 30 other exposed kids). Had this happened a few years later, it could have been fatal to that little brother who was undergoing , heavy duty chemotherapy for high risk leukemia. I know a number of people who died from these diseases when they got them. So my outlook is different form the anti vaxers.
I’ve heard that chicken pox is most contagious just before symptoms appear so don’t knock yourself out for not noticing those symptoms for a few hours. They might have all caught it the day before.
“Interesting that there is no personal belief waiver for people applying for US visas.”
Just a minor clarification. This only applies to people seeking immigrant visas. Non-immigrants (visitors) do not have to go through a medical exam or provide proof of immunizations.
You know, there is no personal belief waiver for parents who decide not to feed their kids, or to beat them with an iron rod, or to keep them out of school with no education at all, and lots more. Why should there be a personal belief exemption for vaccinations? Simply put, there shouldn’t be. I’m not even sure why there should be an exemption for a religious belief. We don’t allow people to perform human sacrifice on their children, even if it’s part of their religion.
OMG! Just discovered that my childhood pediatrician was one of the developers of the measles vaccine!! Dr. Thomas Peebles, who along with Dr. John Enders created the vaccine licensed in 1963, had a pediatric practice at his home in Weston, MA. I remember getting inoculations at his office at a young age, but being willing to go because it meant we got to visit the goats he kept in a large pen behind his home/office. He was an incredibly kind and gentle doctor and we kids all loved him.
Great article in today’s NYT.
Is this measles “outbreak” a wild strain or is it a strain from the live (weakened) virus vaccine?
It’s not an “outbreak,” Palomina. It’s an outbreak.
@Palomina, it looks like CDC thinks it came from overseas, maybe from the Phillipines.
Thank you @marie1234 and @Hunt.
http://www.cdc.gov/measles/lab-tools/genetic-analysis.html
So, the vaccine doesn’t cover this strain?
Where did you get that idea, Palomina?
Yes, it does cover it, but many of the people coming down with measles in the current outbreak are unvaccinated. The vaccine is 99% effective, but measles are highly contagious, which means that some fully vaccinated people who didn’t seroconvert are getting them as well.
The link on the CDC web site says that the strains in the vaccine are A strains. The strain circulating now is a B strain. Or am I misreading it?
The vaccine comes from A strains but they cover all strains. This isn’t like the flu where different strains need different immunizations.
Different viruses work differently.
The measles out there is ‘wild’ type (and certainly not originating from the vaccine), and covered by the vaccine.