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Measles Outbreak in Minnesota Caused by Vaccine Skeptics

Accepted submission by DeathMonkey at 2017-05-09 15:14:53
Science

Doubts about vaccines helped fuel Minnesota's biggest outbreak of measles in decades, and attracted determined vaccine skeptics eager to exploit fear, health officials say.

But the outbreak has not only caught people's attention; it has helped demonstrate that anti-vaccine activists are wrong, state and county health officials say.

At least 48 people have been infected, nearly all of them children, and 11 kids are in the hospital with pneumonia and other dangerous complications, the Minnesota department of health says. They expect more.

"We've seen that the vaccine rates in the community that's being affected right now were once about the same or even a little higher than our average. They've dropped to about half of that," Johnson added.

"And unfortunately now we are seeing the result. Measles is spreading rapidly in the community and 11 children are hospitalized. And at the same time there is no evidence of any corresponding drop in autism in the community."

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/measles-outbreak-minnesota-caused-vaccine-skeptics-n756246 [nbcnews.com]


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