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posted by mrpg on Friday February 08 2019, @05:50PM   Printer-friendly
from the will-this-end? dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

'It will take off like a wildfire': The unique dangers of the Washington state measles outbreak

[...] "You know what keeps me up at night?" said Clark County Public Health Director Alan Melnick. "Measles is exquisitely contagious. If you have an under-vaccinated population, and you introduce a measles case into that population, it will take off like a wildfire."

[...] Anti-vaccination activists, for their part, contend that state officials are twisting facts to stoke public fear.

"It shouldn't be called an outbreak," Seattle-area mother Bernadette Pajer, a co-founder of the state's main anti-vaccine group, Informed Choice Washington, said of the measles cases, arguing that the illness has spread only within a small, self-contained group. "I would refer to it as an in-break, within a community."

[...] Clements eventually changed her mind, deciding to give her kids the shots after a doctor at a vaccine workshop answered her questions for more than two hours, at one point drawing diagrams on a whiteboard to explain cell interaction. He was thoughtful, factual and also "still very warm," she said.

[...] In Washington, state lawmakers supporting tougher vaccine requirements are mounting their second effort in the past three years to make it harder for parents to opt out of vaccinations.


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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by bob_super on Friday February 08 2019, @10:45PM (4 children)

    by bob_super (1357) on Friday February 08 2019, @10:45PM (#798573)

    The risk/reward math always falls on the "reward" side, for those highly-transmissible killers.
    At the society level.

    At the personal level, it really sucks when you're the one with the adverse effects.

    But that makes it even more important that anyone who doesn't have a strong reaction to vaccines DO get them, to protect the ones who can't.
    No non-medical exemptions.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by sonamchauhan on Saturday February 09 2019, @04:45AM (2 children)

    by sonamchauhan (6546) Subscriber Badge on Saturday February 09 2019, @04:45AM (#798704)

    Good point.

    Typically, you won't know you need a medical exemption until after the adverse reaction hits.

    In the meantime, you can take sensible precautions. Wait until older. Spread out doses. Never combine vaccines. Read ingredients, and select less harmful versions. Don't immunise against low risk illnesses (e.g., the flu, if you're not going to die from having it)

    • (Score: 2) by Dr Spin on Saturday February 09 2019, @09:13AM

      by Dr Spin (5239) on Saturday February 09 2019, @09:13AM (#798760)

      I don't know about America, but in most of the world, all the related risks are very low, however the risks of delaying the vaccine (and thereby increasing the time you are a potential victim of the disease) are considerably greater than the reduction in risk of the vaccine, at least in part because if you are at risk from the vaccine, you are at much higher risk from the actual disease.

      --
      Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
    • (Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 09 2019, @02:09PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 09 2019, @02:09PM (#798817)

      Read ingredients, and select less harmful versions.

      This is what is referred to as paranoia or border line delusional schizophrenia. In a world where you are surrounded by chemicals of all sorts, that you eat and breathe or otherwise absorb, you are worried about a mass-fucking-produced tiny vaccine that has been checked and verified for safety? You are seriously worried about "harmful ingredients" there?? But I guess you are also one of these people that doesn't buckle seat belts because they will trap you in a burning wreck and prevent your miraculous escape?

      Rational fucking thinking - go get some.

      Don't immunise against low risk illnesses (e.g., the flu, if you're not going to die from having it)

      Except the flu is not a vaccine that actually works well, so you picked the worse fucking example. And every disease is low-risk, until it kills you.

  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 10 2019, @08:08PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 10 2019, @08:08PM (#799196)

    you wouldn't be such a suck ass if you had kids or grand kids that were vaccine damaged. except that you probably do, you just don't know it b/c they were only damaged enough to drop their iq by 20 points.