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.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 01 2019, @03:48AM
Actually the measles vaccine gives ~18% of children a 100 F fever, and 5% a measles-like rash. About 1.5% get "measles-like illness" which is a combination of those symptoms plus some other minor ones:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6343620/ [nih.gov]