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from the '0'-days-since-our-last-measles dept.
UK steps up fight after losing 'measles-free' status
The United Kingdom says it will take steps to halt the spread of misinformation about vaccines as a result of losing its "measles-free" status after the highly infectious disease was declared eliminated in the country three years ago.
Measles, which is almost entirely preventable with two doses of vaccine, is making a comeback globally. In the first half of the year, there have been almost three times as many cases as the same time last year. Cases globally are at the highest level since 2006, according to the World Health Organization.
"After a period of progress where we were once able to declare Britain measles free, we've now seen hundreds of cases of measles in the UK this year. One case of this horrible disease is too many, and I am determined to step up our efforts to tackle its spread," Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a statement.
UK's Johnson slams 'mumbo-jumbo' about vaccines after measles rates rise
"The UK generally has a great record on fighting measles, but for the first time we're suddenly going in the wrong direction," Johnson said on a visit to a hospital in Truro, south-west England. "I'm afraid people have just been listening to that superstitious mumbo-jumbo on the internet, all that anti-vax stuff, and thinking that the MMR vaccine is a bad idea. That's wrong, please get your kids vaccinated."
See also: UK to pressure social media companies to fight anti-vax info
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday August 20 2019, @03:09PM (2 children)
Just to clarify, I'm not one of those who believe that the natives led a peaceful, idyllic life before white people showed up. Also, white people didn't actually kill off so very many natives as many seem to believe. It was the disease that the white man introduced that decimated the native population, then came back and decimated what was left, then again, and again, and again.
If the population of North America had not suffered such terrible losses to disease, there is no way that the English, French, Spanish and Dutch could have mustered enough force to defeat the various tribes and nations in such short order. More so, seeing as those four nations frequently were fighting each other, like in the Revolutionary War.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday August 20 2019, @03:55PM (1 child)
So basically, War Of The Worlds has it backwards. It is not the diseases of Earth that will kill the Martians. But vice versa.
If we ever find a convenient, Earthlike, habitable planet, and have technology to colonize it; it seems more likely to kill us (war of the worlds style) because we are not adapted to the microorganisms of that planet. But maybe we carry microorganisms that the native biology is similarly not adapted to.
I wonder why there weren't native diseases in the Americas that devastated the nice well meaning visitors from the East?
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 20 2019, @05:37PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEYh5WACqEk [youtube.com]
CGP Grey covers this, and long story short, the answer is: the Americas lacked livestock (except llamas).
Germs live in livestock. Livestock live in cities. Germs spread to people in cities. People die by the thousands. People develop immunities to germs.
Thing is, when it happens slowly over thousands of years, it is bearable by a population. When it happens with all the diseases at once (when Europeans went to America), it is... less bearable.