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.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2015, @02:20AM
If your "free speech" leads to the death of others, then yes I want you held accountable.
It's illegal to yell fire in a theater unless there actually is a fire.
If you cause people to panic and someone gets trampled to death, the blame lands at your feet.
Oh, please. Even people who agree that your example demonstrates that certain speech should be outlawed should realize the flaw with this comparison. The flaw here is that there is no imminent 'danger'; anyone who listens to this person can calmly do their research in a timely manner. If they fail to do so properly, and take harmful actions, that's completely on them. There is also no demonstrable intent to harm others with the speech. I doubt even our courts would agree with you here, and that's saying something.