Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Friday May 03 2019, @11:02AM   Printer-friendly
from the problem-with-close-quarters dept.

The Caribbean nation of St. Lucia has quarantined a cruise ship on the island after identifying a confirmed case of measles on board, a health official said.

Passengers and crew members aboard the large ship were not permitted to leave, Dr. Merlene Fredericks-James, the nation’s chief medical officer, said on Tuesday. The highly infectious disease, which can be mostly prevented by a common vaccination, is in the midst of its largest outbreak in a quarter-century in the United States, with more than 700 cases reported.

“Because of the risk of potential infection, not just from the confirmed measles case but from other persons who may be on the boat at the time, we thought it prudent to make a decision not to allow anyone to disembark,” she said in a statement.

Dr. Fredericks-James did not name the ship. But Victor Theodore, a St. Lucia Coast Guard sergeant, told NBC News that it was identified as “Freewinds,” which is reportedly owned and operated by the Church of Scientology. A ship by the same name was moored in St. Lucia on Thursday morning, according to online records.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/02/world/americas/measles-scientology-cruise-ship.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Friday May 03 2019, @02:25PM (35 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 03 2019, @02:25PM (#838409) Journal

    How long before foreign ports, or even entire countries start to restrict visitors (regardless of religion) from the United States?

    After all the US is seeing new cases of diseases that have been largely or completely eradicated in other developed countries.

    And all due to ignorance and conspiracy theories.

    The US is devolving.

    What does the Venn Diagram look like for the sets of:
    * conspiracy theories
    * main stream media (not FoxNews)
    * "Fake" News
    * FoxNews
    * InfoWars
    * Breitbart
    * Anti Vaxers (not referring to digital equipment)
    * Major US political parties

    (any other interesting items to add?)

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Interesting=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @02:48PM (11 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @02:48PM (#838422)

    After all the US is seeing new cases of diseases that have been largely or completely eradicated in other developed countries.

    And all due to ignorance and conspiracy theories.

    Yep, I think you figured it out.

    Let's start with your premise. Here are some selected (I scrolled through and grabbed "developed" countries I saw, I am sure I missed some) stats for 2019 (rate per pop for 2018-2019 in parentheses):

    Canada: 34 (.77)
    USA: 387 (1.15)
    Belgium 104 (10.56)
    Denmark: 6 (1.4)
    Finland: 6 (2.73)
    France: 313 (45.01)
    Germany: 155 (6.62)
    Israel: 411 (383.31)
    Italy: 332 (45.2)
    Netherlands: 7 (1.41)
    Norway: 1 (2.28)
    UK: 106 (14.49)
    Australia: 40 (4.19)
    Japan: 260 (2.18)

    https://www.who.int/immunization/monitoring_surveillance/burden/vpd/surveillance_type/active/measles_monthlydata/en/ [who.int]

    And guess where all the cases in the US are said to come from?

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday May 03 2019, @03:46PM (8 children)

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 03 2019, @03:46PM (#838434) Journal

      Thank you for that information.

      I guess the US needs to continue our anti-vaccination efforts to catch up to other countries.

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @04:28PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @04:28PM (#838451)

        I guess the US needs to continue our anti-vaccination efforts to catch up to other countries.

        How would you conclude that the US needs to "catch up to other countries"?

      • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday May 03 2019, @05:58PM (6 children)

        by bob_super (1357) on Friday May 03 2019, @05:58PM (#838484)

        The Measles vaccine is not that old. People older than 50 were not vaccinated as kids. In some countries, people in their 30s or 40s did not have it either available, or not on the mandatory vaccination schedule (many just ended up with the disease years ago as a result and are now immune).

        Given that it mostly kills kids, what really matters is the vaccination rate for the under-20s crowd, which would be over 90% as required if the anti-vaxxers weren't so fucking good at ruining it for everyone.

        • (Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @06:09PM (5 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @06:09PM (#838492)

          How do people manage to just keep pumping out falsehoods about measles? It is ridiculous.

          The vaccination rates in the US are already over 90%, every time a target is reached they have to move it up because the theory of "herd immunity" is based on flawed assumptions (every person is equally likely to meet every other person, measles spreads only via direct contact, etc).

          Also, measles kills almost no children in developed counties, it is a rounding error (like 1/10k to 1/100k cases)

          And measles only mostly affects children because you only get it once, and obviously the first time you get it is likely to be when you are young. In fact people used to have measles parties because they saw it was much worse when adults or teenagers got it.

          The amount of BS you managed to include in one post is impressive.

          • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Osamabobama on Friday May 03 2019, @06:29PM (4 children)

            by Osamabobama (5842) on Friday May 03 2019, @06:29PM (#838508)

            You neglected to mention the long term effects that could occur, including brain damage, hearing loss, and immune suppression.

            The amount of BS you managed to include in one post is impressive.

            I'm not impressed by your bullshit.

            --
            Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @06:41PM (3 children)

              by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @06:41PM (#838516)

              You neglected to mention the long term effects that could occur, including brain damage, hearing loss, and immune suppression.

              You neglected to mention these are also very rare, and actually measles improves the immune system. That is another case of medical researcherse misinterpreting their data to fit their per-conceived notions. Both the vaccine and wt measles lead to higher survival rates in at risk children.

              When the present study was planned, measles was be- lieved to be associated with delayed excess mortality [2,3,10] and the study was initiated to identify the risk factors for severe disease and its long-term consequences. However, in the interim, reanalyses of other data set have made these assumptions untenable. When the analysis adjusted for immunisation status, measles infection was not associated with long-term excess mortality [10–14] nor was there any indication of persistent suppression of T-lymphocyte sub- sets [10,11]. Surprisingly, studies from Guinea-Bissau [10], Senegal [12], and Bangladesh [14] found that post-measles cases had lower mortality than children without measles infection. In epidemics with a high case fatality, the lower mortality after measles could be due to frail children having died of measles. However, measles immunisation is also associated with lower mortality that cannot be explained by prevention of acute measles infection and its long-term consequences [6] and measles immunisation may therefore be associated with a beneficial immune activation [6,15]. Available data are consistent with post-measles cases hav- ing a similar beneficial effect and we therefore predicted that the total impact of measles infection could be benefi- cial in areas with low acute measles mortality when there would be no selection of strong survivors because there was no acute mortality [12]. In rural Senegal, the measles case fatality for children under 7 years of age declined from 8% (97/1186) in 1983–1986 [11] to 1% (2/189) in 1992 [11,16]. We assessed long-term mortality after this epidemic to test the predicted beneficial effect of mild measles infection. We examined whether children who shared similar social conditions but had clinical measles had lower mortality than exposed children in the same families who did not develop clinical measles.

                [...]

                Though planned to examine the risk factors for excess mortality after measles [3,12], the study provided further support for the hypothesis that measles infection, like measles immunisation, may be associated with a beneficial effect. Measles infection was not associated with long-term excess mortality; among children exposed to measles at home, clinical measles cases had lower age-adjusted mor- tality than uninfected children.

              https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12443670 [nih.gov]

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @06:43PM

                by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @06:43PM (#838517)

                typo: "researchers misinterpreting their data to fit their pre-conceived [wtf is per-conceived autocorrect?] notions"

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 04 2019, @01:56AM (1 child)

                by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 04 2019, @01:56AM (#838667)

                "Surprisingly, studies from Guinea-Bissau [10], Senegal [12], and Bangladesh [14] found that post-measles cases had lower mortality than children without measles infection."

                Maybe measles killed off the weak.

                • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 04 2019, @03:18AM

                  by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 04 2019, @03:18AM (#838693)

                  And if you continue on to the next sentence:

                  In epidemics with a high case fatality, the lower mortality after measles could be due to frail children having died of measles. However...

    • (Score: 1) by Sulla on Friday May 03 2019, @05:38PM (1 child)

      by Sulla (5173) on Friday May 03 2019, @05:38PM (#838470) Journal

      Funny, Norway with its one case gets a worse rate than the US because of population size

      --
      Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @05:50PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @05:50PM (#838475)

        The rates included 2018, but number of cases was only 2019.

  • (Score: 2) by Whoever on Friday May 03 2019, @03:24PM (1 child)

    by Whoever (4524) on Friday May 03 2019, @03:24PM (#838432) Journal

    You forgot climate change deniers.

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday May 03 2019, @03:47PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 03 2019, @03:47PM (#838435) Journal

      I didn't think of that one.

      I thought of others, but decided not to continue the list.

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
  • (Score: 1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Friday May 03 2019, @04:03PM (16 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 03 2019, @04:03PM (#838440) Journal

    Surely, Shirley, you realize that we are importing diseases that have been eradicated in the past? https://sma.org/illegal-immigration-and-the-threat-of-infectious-disease/ [sma.org]

    Some of our members go into seizures because they don't like the sources of news. Anyone can do their own search, and choose their own sources from the results. My search term this time was "illegal immigrant disease". Unlike Google, the Duck doesn't tell me that there are fifty more hits, or fifty million more hits.

    https://www.wnd.com/2014/08/diseases-carried-by-illegals-coming-to-your-town/ [wnd.com]

    • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday May 03 2019, @04:17PM (13 children)

      by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 03 2019, @04:17PM (#838447) Journal

      Why do you assume that this is due to "illegal" immigration, when the legal immigration (including travellers, etc.) is much higher, and we no longer routinely quarantine incoming people? It seems an highly implausible assumption. I'll agree it's not impossible, but why choose the less likely option? And why have any degree of certainty without proof?

      --
      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 Friday May 03 2019, @04:38PM (4 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @04:38PM (#838453)

        Do you know what "traveler" means? It means you are nomadic (eg, ride the rails, backpackers, etc).

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @10:12PM (3 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @10:12PM (#838594)

          Nomad. - Someone who has no fixed home and moves from place to place as a permanent way of life.
          Backpacker - Someone taking an extended trip in as cheap a way as possible.
          Traveller - Someone who is currently travelling or has recently travelled.
          While these may be overlapping groups they are different.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @10:51PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @10:51PM (#838618)
          • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday May 04 2019, @01:23AM (1 child)

            by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Saturday May 04 2019, @01:23AM (#838660) Journal

            Irish Travellers [wikipedia.org]

            --
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 04 2019, @08:07AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 04 2019, @08:07AM (#838756)

              Somebody need to innoculate Runaway! I fear his ignorance may be contagious, or at least Trumpf inducing.

      • (Score: 1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Friday May 03 2019, @04:40PM (2 children)

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 03 2019, @04:40PM (#838454) Journal

        Because, by definition, legal immigrants submit to checkups, get their vaccinations, and ensure that they aren't communicable when they arrive. Or, alternatively, they promise (or contract) to get all of their inoculations within x number of days after entry into the US.

        Illegal aliens, on the other hand, bring whatever virus, germ, bateria, condition, and/or disease they have with them, with no intention to comply with the health requirements that legal immigrants do.

        • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday May 03 2019, @09:08PM (1 child)

          by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 03 2019, @09:08PM (#838566) Journal

          Me, the naive one lacking credibility, finds it amusing that ALL, absolutely all illegal aliens have no intention to comply with health requirements. Yet they want to come here for a better life. But they don't mind being sick.

          --
          People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @09:16PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @09:16PM (#838569)

            All anti-vaxxers don't mind being sick either according to your logic... So what is the problem?

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Friday May 03 2019, @05:38PM (4 children)

        by DeathMonkey (1380) on Friday May 03 2019, @05:38PM (#838471) Journal

        Most of those evil brown countries the asylum seekers are coming from have HIGHER vaccination rates than the US. [cato.org]

        The United States does not have the highest vaccination coverage rate for any vaccine reported below. ... for most of these illnesses below, you have more to fear from your fellow Americans than from Central Americans.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @05:56PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @05:56PM (#838481)
        • (Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @06:38PM (2 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @06:38PM (#838515)

          Disclosure: I'm not American, I'm a Canuck, and often enjoy poking fun at our Southern Brethren.

          However, in truth? Like most arguments American, both side's points are meaningless.

          It doesn't matter if the rates of vaccination is higher, or lower in Mexico. All that matters is that all people entering the US, or any country, are vetted by that country's laws.

          That includes medical, and democratically passed laws designed to enable the best outcome for the country itself. And as a Canadian, I say that with the MASSIVE numbers of immigrants I gladly see entering my nation -- but I'd never, ever, ever want them to enter if not vetted first.

          Why? Why would I want people just sneaking in?

          If people feel there should be "just as many immigrants, legal or not as now", then fine. Ensure the border is 100% sealed, and then up immigration numbers of LEGAL immigrants from Mexico.

          What's the problem? I don't get it.

          Who doesn't want people entering their country to be vetted first? Who?

          And why the hell do I have to talk to a US border officer, when I drive across the border to take a vacation in the US, if people don't think there should be a wall blocking people coming in from the South?!

          Why?

          Why do you even HAVE borders then?

          *I* *do* *not* *get* *it*

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @06:48PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @06:48PM (#838521)

            Don't try to make sense of it, it has nothing to do with logic or reason and everything to do with needing an excuse to be outraged about anything except the true cause of their problems (the corrupt and incompetent government that they asked for).

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 04 2019, @08:10AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 04 2019, @08:10AM (#838757)

            Canadian Trolls are the Worst Trolls. Like this Movie, only Canadians! [imdb.com]

    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by DannyB on Friday May 03 2019, @04:22PM (1 child)

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 03 2019, @04:22PM (#838448) Journal

      An anon poster above provided some numbers. So now I have little fear that other countries may restrict visitors from the US over concerns of disease. The Scientology ship may be a unique case, and because of crazy ideas.

      You introduce the topic of illegal immigrants. Whether legal or illegal, immigrants with diseases should be a concern. And if we are (as we should be) concerned with immigrants importing diseases, we maybe also should be concerned with anti-vaxers. Because . . .

      The highly infectious disease, which can be mostly prevented by a common vaccination, is in the midst of its largest outbreak in a quarter-century in the United States, with more than 700 cases reported.

      Not liking certain sources of news is a distrust problem and a different topic. I quit watching CNN in 2013 because of distrust, triggered by two issues: SOPA the year prior, and Snowden that year. CNN didn't even make a pretense of objectivity.

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @05:31PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @05:31PM (#838468)

        The highly infectious disease, which can be mostly prevented by a common vaccination, is in the midst of its largest outbreak in a quarter-century in the United States, with more than 700 cases reported.

        This is going to get worse too. Not this year, but in the coming decade this will go to millions of cases. Possibly 30 million in a single year.

  • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday May 03 2019, @04:14PM (2 children)

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 03 2019, @04:14PM (#838443) Journal

    I don't think that n-dimensional Venn diagrams are very practical.

    --
    Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday May 03 2019, @04:25PM (1 child)

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 03 2019, @04:25PM (#838450) Journal

      They are less practical to 3 dimensional dwellers.

      Of course the Venn Diagram could be done in 3D with weird enough 3D shapes. But then comprehension becomes a problem.

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
      • (Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Friday May 03 2019, @06:34PM

        by Osamabobama (5842) on Friday May 03 2019, @06:34PM (#838514)

        You just need to section the multidimensional diagram into a series of 2D representations. Take the time to flip back and forth between (among?) them, and the comprehension will follow, although the visualization might not.

        --
        Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @06:29PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @06:29PM (#838509)

    You should ask Friday (of Heinlein fame...)