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Texas Lawmaker not Worried about Measles because of ‘Antibiotics'

posted by mrpg on Thursday February 28 2019, @04:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the Brawndo-Has-What-Plants-Crave dept.

DannyB writes:

Texas lawmaker says he's not worried about measles outbreak because of ‘antibiotics'

Texas state representative Bill Zedler says a resurgence of measles across the U.S. isn't worrying him.

Zedler, R-Arlington, is promoting legislation that would allow Texans to opt out of childhood vaccinations.

“They want to say people are dying of measles. Yeah, in Third World countries they’re dying of measles,” Zedler said, the Texas Observer reports. “Today, with antibiotics and that kind of stuff, they’re not dying in America.”

There is no treatment for measles, a highly contagious virus that can be fatal. Antibiotics treat bacterial infections and can't kill viruses.

It could be funny if it weren't so tragic.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 28 2019, @03:35PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 28 2019, @03:35PM (#808151)

    The relatively weak immunity gained from vaccination wanes over time (that period varies from months to about 20 years at most).

    Source? I have seen that the antibody response wanes, but not that extreme:

    To examine the persistence of vaccine-induced antibody, participants of a vaccine study in 1971, with documentation of antibody 1–7 years after vaccination, were followed up in 1997–1999 to determine the presence and titer of measles antibody. Of the 56 participants (77% were 2-dose recipients), all had antibodies detected by the plaque reduction neutralization (PRN) antibody assay an average of 26–33 years after the first or second dose of measles vaccine; 92% had a PRN titer considered protective (>1:120).

    https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/189/Supplement_1/S123/821041 [oup.com]

  • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday February 28 2019, @05:21PM (1 child)

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 28 2019, @05:21PM (#808200) Journal

    Also, the immunity wanes in everybody. Not just in those that were vaccinated. If you develop a stronger immunity to start with, of course, it takes longer to wane into ineffectiveness...but it still wanes.

    FWIW, I've recently had a shingles vaccine, because the immunity to chicken pox wanes as you get older, but the secondary form is a lot worse than the original.

    --
    Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 28 2019, @05:45PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 28 2019, @05:45PM (#808215)

      The waning may also "speed up" (actually not be "boosted") if the person is never exposed to circulating measles:

      Somewhat concerning are the results of the most recently vaccinated group 3. Those in the group have lived their lives in an environment that can be considered completely free of natural boosters. As soon as 5 years after the second dose of MMR vaccination, 4% of the individuals were seronegative and 14% low positive for measles.

      https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22966129 [nih.gov]