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Health officials on Thursday confirmed the country's first measles death since 2003, and they believe the victim was most likely exposed to the virus in a health facility in Washington state during an outbreak there. The woman died in the spring; a later autopsy confirmed that she had an undetected measles infection, the Washington State Department of Health said in a statement. The official cause of death was announced as "pneumonia due to measles."
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 178 people from 24 states and the District were reported to have measles from Jan. 1 through June 26 of this year. Two-thirds of the cases, the CDC noted, were "part of a large multi-state outbreak linked to an amusement park in California."
Measles were effectively eliminated in the United States in 2000, according to the CDC. Health officials have said that the disease made a comeback recently, in part because of a growing number of adults deciding to delay or abstain from vaccinating their children. Last year brought the highest number of recorded measles cases since 2000, according to the CDC. Earlier this year, President Obama acknowledged the concerns some have about effects of vaccines but said: "The science is pretty indisputable." "You should get your kids vaccinated — it's good for them," Obama said. "We should be able to get back to the point where measles effectively is not existing in this country."
takyon: Celebrity critics recently denounced California's new mandatory vaccine law.
Original Submission
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday July 05 2015, @05:54AM
"marginally profitable" means little when you have an entire population held captive, mandated by the legislative branch, and enforced by the executive and judicial branches to make the purchases.
I wish that I could simply mandate that every man, woman, and child in the US cough up a dollar to deposit in my account. Or half a buck. Hell, a single thin dime would make me a rich man. If I could only get one red cent from every man, woman, and child, I could retire with no worries.
"Marginally profitable" my arse.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by dusty monkey on Sunday July 05 2015, @11:22AM
I was going to basically say the same thing, but with the addition that a small lab could start producing that vaccine the grandparent says isn't in production anymore, and assuming there is some demand for it then it could easily be set up as a profitable addition to the business.
- when you vote for the lesser of two evils, you are still voting for evil - stop supporting evil -
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday July 06 2015, @12:22AM
Because the FDA has made things difficult. Go look up the death of Combiotic. 70 year safe track record, but hadn't been tested the way currently required, and not enough profit in it to cover the ~$1million it would have cost. So it is no more.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 05 2015, @02:08PM
what i don't understand about the war on anti-vaxers is that if those arguing for vaccination have their kids vaccinated, why worry about kids that aren't? is exposure to unvaccinated kids supposed to reduce the effectiveness of vaccines or something?
(Score: 3, Informative) by kadal on Sunday July 05 2015, @03:03PM
The vaccines aren't 100% effective. You can try to vaccinate your kids but there's a small change that the vaccine doesn't work for them. In that case, those kids are dependent on herd immunity to prevent them from getting exposed.
There are also kids with other diseases that have to take medication that suppresses their immune system.
(Score: 3, Informative) by cmn32480 on Sunday July 05 2015, @04:15PM
Part of it is that the debilitating side effects of some of these childhood diseases can impair you for life. It isn't about exposing the vaccinated to the unvaccinated, it is about protecting those that CAN'T be vaccinated. Some people have reactions to the vaccines, or are on medication for other medical problems that prevent them from being vaccinated. It isn't so much that anti-vaxers are risking the health and safety of their own children (and they are), but putting at risk those that want to be vaccinated but cannot, and not giving those unable to be vaccinated a choice in the matter.
From the CDC [cdc.gov]:
There is a much higher cost to treating people with any of those side effects than the cost of the vaccine. And quite frankly, I would rather my tax dollars didn't pay to fix your mistakes when there is a preventative available at nearly zero cost.
I don't like that the government is starting to mandate some things (Healthcare is one of them), but in this instance, this actually IS somebody thinking of the children and trying to do what is best for them and for the rest of us.
Herd immunity is only a workable plan when most of the herd is immune. Once the herd stops being immune (as can be seen in some of the pockets of anti-vaxers that all live together), it can become a public health problem.
"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear" - Norm Peterson
(Score: 1) by steelfood on Tuesday July 07 2015, @09:50PM
I wish that I could simply mandate that every man, woman, and child in the US cough up a dollar to deposit in my account.
If you were "the government," that'd be called a tax.