Samoa Shuts Down in Unprecedented Battle Against Measles
Samoa shuts down in unprecedented battle against measles
Samoa began a two-day shutdown on Thursday as authorities embarked on an unprecedented mass vaccination campaign to contain a deadly outbreak of measles that has killed 62 people, mostly small children, in the Pacific island nation.
Officials suspended non-essential government services to allow civil servants to support the vaccination drive, and ordered all businesses to close. Inter-island ferry services were also cancelled.
"No one is being permitted to drive unless they are going to hospital or they have special permission," Al Jazeera's Jessica Washington said from the capital, Apia. Behind her wide streets were all but empty of people and cars.
"The ban is to make it as simple as possible for the medical teams to travel throughout Samoa and access as many families as possible."
Red Flags To Mark Homes Of Unvaccinated In Samoa, Officials Say
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
People who have not been vaccinated against the measles virus should mark their homes with red flags, Samoan officials announced Tuesday.
The outbreak has flourished after the vaccination rate of infants plunged to an estimated 31 percent last year. Health officials linked the drop in vaccination to the tragic deaths of two infants, who were given measles vaccines tainted with fatal doses of muscle relaxant. Two nurses were convicted in the cases and sentenced to five years in prison. Despite the convictions, anti-vaccine advocates have used the cases to drum up fear of vaccines.
As the outbreak took off last month, the Samoan government declared a state of emergency. It has closed schools, banned children from public gatherings, and begun a mass vaccination campaign. Samoa has since vaccinated over 58,000 people.
NB: The population of Samoa is just under 200,000 people.
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At least 63 people, most of them children, have died since the outbreak began in mid-October and the country on Friday entered a second day of lockdown as it administers compulsory vaccinations in a desperate bid to stop the virus.
Al Jazeera's Jessica Washington, reporting from the Samoan capital, Apia, on Friday said that so far, an estimated 16,000 people have been vaccinated during the first day of the mass immunisation on Thursday.
[...]"The anti-vaxxers, unfortunately, have been slowing us down," he told TVNZ.
"We've had children who have passed away after coming to the hospital as a last resort, and then we find out the anti-vaccine message has got to their families and that's why they've kept these kids at home," he said.
He warned anti-vaxxers "don't get in the way, don't contribute to the deaths".
"We will advise police to act when we have no choice," Attorney General Lemalu Hermann Retzlaff added in a statement.
The government-backed its tough rhetoric by arresting vocal anti-vaccination campaigner Edwin Tamasese late on Thursday and charging him with incitement.
Officials said Tamasese had been warned about his activities previously but posted a message to social media regarding the immunisation drive saying: "I'll be here to mop up your mess. Enjoy your killing spree."
The government has additional powers after declaring a state of emergency to deal with the measles crisis and the Samoa Observer reported that Tamasese could face two years in jail.
It also said that US-based anti-vaxxers were swamping government websites with material that Tupai described as "nonsense".
He said the first day of the shutdown was a success, with more than 10,000 people, or five percent of the entire 200,000 population, receiving their jabs.
Previously:
Samoa Shuts Down in Unprecedented Battle Against Measles
Measles Cases in Samoa More Than Double Over Past Week as Death Toll Rises
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Thursday December 05 2019, @08:06PM (5 children)
Given the small population, and the high rates of the unvaccinated, wouldn't it make more sense just to vaccinate everyone?
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 05 2019, @09:01PM
This would calm the situation down, or at least relax people's muscles.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 06 2019, @05:08AM (3 children)
That would give them autism.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Friday December 06 2019, @08:37AM (2 children)
I don't have strong feelings on the matter, beyond thinking mass vaccination is generally a good thing.
Autism, ADHD, allergies, and asthma have become remarkably more prevalent than they've ever been in the United States. It stands to reason that something is behind it. For example, we have good evidence that childhood obesity and diabetes track back to the debate in the 70's and early 80's about which was worse for you, fat or sugar. Sugar won, and all products and foodstuffs became low-fat, high in sugar. Now everyone is suffering the consequences. So I wonder if we're doing the same thing to ourselves with regard to aforementioned maladies.
The trouble is, it took so long to figure out the fat vs. sugar causality because companies and their surrogates in government worked so hard to bamboozle the public. They bought off researchers in the field with grant money and think tanks with donations. They have actively short-circuited the subject matter experts who should be studying and examining threats to public health.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 06 2019, @03:46PM
You also don't even necessarily need maliciousness.
The problem with macro-scale things, especially as society is changing so radically fast is that you really can find compelling arguments to the contrary. For instance the past 3 decades have seen genetically engineered products in the US become ubiquitous, the rise of the internet, super-hyper-exponential usage of psychotropics, a substantial decline in IQ in developed nations (even controlling for e.g. immigration), sharp declines in fertility in most places, and a million other factors and effects. And then take things like the recent discovery [sky.com] that psychotropics in fish can cause multi-generational effects that don't cause any significant impact on the individual level, yet cause potentially catastrophic effects on a population level.
The world was a much simpler time when our only extravagances were some insecticide, cigarettes, and leaded fuel. Part of the reason I think people should give the prevalent views sufficient weighting, but people should do what they think is right. The odds of us not effectively poisoning ourselves, one way or the other, right now are probably very close to 0.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Friday December 06 2019, @04:13PM
The culprit for obesity was the use of corn sugars as sweeteners. Cheaper isn't necessarily better. We're not cows or pigs, the hormones that govern our appetite are disrupted by corn-based sugar. But the farm lobby can continue producing it cheaper because of massive subsidies.
The increase in fine particulates in the atmosphere, and spending more time indoors, are both probably causes of the increase in asthma. All our furniture continuously out-gases volatile organic chemicals (VOCs), as does the paint covering our walls, the various floor coverings, and that new car smell.
It was only after the Apollo 1 fire that engineers figured out the lunar module would have outgassed enough toxic material that it could have killed the astronauts, and materials were engineered to limit outgassing.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by FatPhil on Thursday December 05 2019, @08:51PM (1 child)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 05 2019, @08:59PM
And let's not forget, they must also put up gold stars on their doors. And, what the hell, it's Christmas, make 'em put up a wreath too.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Thursday December 05 2019, @09:02PM (3 children)
So how are the anti-vaxxers going to spin this one? I'm sure they'll find a way -- if they haven't died of the measles.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by FatPhil on Thursday December 05 2019, @09:09PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Thexalon on Friday December 06 2019, @12:07AM
Real easy: "That's all fake news, as part of the conspiracy of big pharma and the government to force you and your kids to ingest poison that will give everybody autism."
It doesn't matter that that sentence was complete hogwash from beginning to end, it confirms the antivaxxers prejudices, so they'll believe it to be true.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Bot on Friday December 06 2019, @10:23AM
The anti vaxxer here says this is a good scenario for mass vaccination and that measles never resulted in 60 deaths out of 200000 people back in the time that nobody got vaccines. I know because I was there and 30 people out of 100000 in the town or 300 out of the 1000000 in the region being dead in a year would have made headlines and commemorations till the present day. But I am sure vaxxers can blame antis for having made the pathogen mutate, in a remarkable lack of causal linking acrobatics. In a nutshell, before vax you did not vax and virus did not mutate. After vax you did not vax therefore virus mutated because of your inaction.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 05 2019, @09:30PM
Anti-vaxers better run!
https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/ct-ent-dwayne-johnson-hobbs-shaw-samoan-culture-20190729-ysaqvogvrrdk3dgmvnd6s6xpuq-story.html [chicagotribune.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Snotnose on Thursday December 05 2019, @11:32PM (6 children)
A couple days ago I saw a headline on a site I follow (think Fark) that said unvaccinated Samoans should wear a red flag so people know to avoid them.
I actually agree with that, and would extend it much further. If you aren't vaccinated, or your kids aren't vaccinated, then you are a health problem and right thinking people like myself should be warned of your approach.
Ooops, did I say unvaccinated? I meant sex offenders. My bad, he was just a felon. He got acquitted? My bad, we should just apply it to $PoliticalParty.
Of course I'm against DEI. Donald, Eric, and Ivanka.
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 06 2019, @12:06AM (3 children)
In the US, we make infected stupid people wear red hats, not flags, and the have the letters M-A-G-A, for Maybe Always Got it Again. We stay far away from such people, mostly to avoid the spittle and ticks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 06 2019, @12:51AM (2 children)
Who is this 'we'? Do you have a hamster in your pocket?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 06 2019, @01:00AM (1 child)
That's a Norwegian rat.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Friday December 06 2019, @07:59AM
No, it's really a hamster, Siberian strain.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday December 06 2019, @12:59AM (1 child)
Alt-righter spotted!!
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 06 2019, @09:08AM
Rummyway1956, he's the Typhoid Mary of Fox News, Brietbarf, and OANN (of the sin of onan, wankers!). He usually wears the Red Cap of Quarantine, avoid if at all possible. Oh, and beware the spittle. Is he is going on about Clintons or SJWs, the unsafe zone is within 25 yards. Handle with extreme caution. May have arms.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Friday December 06 2019, @01:07AM (3 children)
I grabbed the first search result - other articles are far more scathing of New Zealand and Robert Logan. Samoa remained influenza free during the worst pandemic in recent history, right up until some arrogant sumbitch ignored common sense protections.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 3, Interesting) by driverless on Friday December 06 2019, @08:08AM
What the above doesn't mention is that American Samoa avoided the problem by taking proper precautions, they had zero deaths. It was NZ-(mis-)administered Samoa, recently seized from Germany so NZ could become the major colonial power it dreamed of being, that had the catastrophic death toll. The Americans even offered medical assistance, which the NZ side declined.
It was an absolutely colossal fuckup. Bet the Germans wouldn't have allowed that to happen...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 06 2019, @04:58PM (1 child)
Yeah, right! The Influenza pandemic in Samoa was the result of anti vaccination agitprop on the internets! This has nothing to do with the story. You are thread-jacking agian, Runaway.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday December 06 2019, @09:12PM
Yeah, because, Samoa had the internet in 1918. They were 80 years ahead of the rest of the world!
Aren't you that chick from the supermarket? Ima Idjit? You're related to Idjit Pai, aren't you?
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz