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Emergency declared near Portland for measles outbreak in anti-vaccine hotspot
Health officials in Clark County, Washington have declared a public health emergency for a measles outbreak in an area with a high rate of unvaccinated children.
[...] Nearly eight percent of children in Clark County were exempt from standard vaccination for the 2017-2018 school year, according to state records reported by the Washington Post. Breaking down that eight percent, about seven percent of kids had personal or religious exemptions and the remaining one percent or so had medical exemptions. Factoring in the rest of the population, the county is below the 92 percent to 94 percent range some experts consider required to prevent the spread of highly contagious diseases such as measles.
[...] “It’s really awful and really tragic and totally preventable,” Peter J. Hotez told the Post. Hotez is a professor of pediatrics and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “Portland is a total train wreck when it comes to vaccine rates,” he added.
[...] Correction: This article has been updated to correct the state in which Clark County resides. It is in Washington State, not Oregon.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Thursday January 24 2019, @03:58PM
Actually - I grew up with measles, mumps, chicken pox, and rheumatoid fever. I mean, personally - I got all four of those. I seriously have never met anyone who suffered serious complications from any of that. Uhhhh, yeah, I guess it happened, from time to time. But, also, from time to time, people suffer complications from the vaccinations. I share the opinion that vaccinations are mandatory, because SOMEONE MAKES MONEY OFF OF THEM!!
No, you don't get to compare measles with polio. I knew several people who were seriously and permanently debilitated by polio. Probably everyone my age met a couple people who were crippled by polio. When you've met them, you don't forget them.