SoylentNews

Texas Lawmaker not Worried about Measles because of ‘Antibiotics'

posted by mrpg on Thursday February 28 2019, @04:11AM   
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.

---

Original Submission

• Re:He is right... Re:He is right... (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 28 2019, @05:06PM (2 children)

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 28 2019, @05:06PM (#808189)

  Pointing out an achievable goal is not "promised". "Mexico will pay for my great wall" is a promise. "We can eradicate measles by 1967" is a goal, so your "they promised us this and they didn't do it so now they are liars" line is hogwash.

  Parent

  Starting Score:	0		points
  Moderation		+1
  Insightful=1, Total=1
  Extra 'Insightful' Modifier		0
  Total Score:		1

• Re:He is right... (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 28 2019, @05:15PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 28 2019, @05:15PM (#808194)

  No, they believed and told people measles would be eradicated. They called it the "End Measles" campaign:

  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1919948/ [nih.gov]
  http://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/Object/Show/object_id/10232 [nysed.gov]

  This is from 1980 from one of the authors:

  The Center for Disease Control (CDC) led in mounting the program with a formal paper at the American Public Health Association annual meeting in Miami in the fall of 1966. Two colleagues and I wrote the “official statement” which outlined in detail unqualified statements about the epidemiology of measles and made an unqualified prediction. My third position in the authorship of this paper did not adequately reflect my contribution to the work.14 I will make but two quotes:

                  1. “The infection spreads by direct contact from person to person, and by the airborne route among susceptibles congregated in enclosed spaces.” (Obviously the ideas of Perkins and Wells had penetrated my consciousness but not sufficiently to influence my judgment).

                  2. “Effective use of (measles) vaccines during the coming winter and spring should insure the eradication of measles from the United States in 1967.” Such was my faith in the broad acceptance of the vaccine by the public and the health professions and in the infallibility of herd immunity.

          [...]

  There are many reasons and explanations for this rather egregious blunder in prediction. The simple truth is that the prediction was based on confidence in the Reed-Frost epidemic theory, in the applicability of herd immunity on a general basis, and that measles cases were uniformly infectious. I am sure I extended the teachings of my preceptors beyond the limits that they had intended during my student days.

  In the relentless light of the well-focussed retrospectiscope, the real failure was our neglect of conducting continuous and sufficiently sophisticated epidemiological field studies of measles. We accepted the doctrines imbued into us as students wikout maintaining the eternal skepticism of the true scientist.

  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6939399 [nih.gov]

  Parent

• Re:He is right... (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday February 28 2019, @07:58PM

  by DeathMonkey (1380) on Thursday February 28 2019, @07:58PM (#808324) Journal

  "Mexico will pay for my great wall" is a promise.

  However, Mexico CAN pay for a wall.... They're jut not gonna.

  Parent