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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.
(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.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(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?
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.