If using the law to corral antivaxxers doesn’t work at first, try, try again. At least, that seems to be the lesson learned by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. On Tuesday, he declared a state of emergency and mandated residents of the Williamsburg neighborhood, where an outbreak of measles has been raging since last fall, get vaccinated for the viral disease. Those who choose not to will risk the penalty of a $1,000 fine.
https://gizmodo.com/new-york-city-orders-williamsburg-residents-to-get-vacc-1833917175
(Score: 3, Disagree) by martyb on Thursday April 11 2019, @03:44PM (3 children)
Why can't they be compared? It is because of vaccinations in those countries that the number of deaths was dramatically reduced. What you are advocating could KILL people. Especially those who are immunocompromised or on anti-rejection drugs because of organ transplants. Those people depend on "herd immunity" to reduce the number of active cases and so protect them from coming into contact with this extremely contagious disease.
This is analogous to driving without a fastened seatbelt on the off-chance one would be in an accident where being flung from the vehicle would save one's life, ignoring the far more common cases where it would prevent/reduce injury or death.
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 11 2019, @04:18PM (2 children)
No, the deaths were drastically reduced before vaccinations.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1815980/ [nih.gov]
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1522578/ [nih.gov]
Not sure where I advocated anything. What I would advocate is either:
1) Go all out and eradicate measles and be done with it
2) Only vaccinate select people like healthcare workers, etc.
Right now, we are vaccinating just below the eradication threshold which is known to cause giant epidemics:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12176860 [nih.gov]
Meanwhile the immunity of hundreds of millions of adults is waning:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15106101 [nih.gov]
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22966129 [nih.gov]
Can you imagine what is going to happen when tens or hundreds of millions adults all get measles at the same time? Because that is what is going to happen if we keep doing what is advocated by the CDC. We should have never altered the epidemiology of measles to begin with if you ask me, but now that we have...
(Score: 3, Informative) by martyb on Thursday April 11 2019, @09:16PM (1 child)
Okay, maybe I am misunderstanding what you are advocating. Are you suggesting that, because of complications, people should not be vaccinated? Or that we should go all out and vaccinate everyone we can until we can eradicate the disease?
I sensed you were advocating for no vaccination. If you were advocating otherwise, I would appreciate a statement of what you are advocating.
According to the WHO (World Health Organization) in 2014 [archive.org] (emphasis added):
Their stated goal (emphasis added):
Unfortunately, recent reduced vaccination rates has precluded attaining that goal:
As I understand it, the World Health Organization is advocating for MORE vaccination participation with a goal of eradicating this disease. That makes sense to me.
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 11 2019, @09:27PM
First, there isn't a single reference on that page so I have no idea where those numbers are coming from. There isn't even an author to hold responsible, so I don't consider it a reliable source.
Read carefully, they talk about "eliminating" instead of "eradicating":
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15106085 [nih.gov]
This is a huge difference, because eradication means there is no longer any excuse for the vaccine. Elimination means buying the vaccine for every new generation forever.