Measles strike the unvaccinated in Washington

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/01/18/measles-strike-the-unvaccinate.html

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I kind of have a hard time caring about the ones where the kids can be vaccinated but the parent is an anti-vaxxer…don’t vaccinate your kids and this is the result.

But they can also infect kids who cannot be vaccinated which…if it happens that another kid dies from some anti-vaxxer’s dumbass idiocy, how quick will criminal charges or law suits potentially happen I wonder?

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Won’t someone think of the children (unless our narrative overrides that, in which case, fuck it)?!

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We were recently joined by a fairly virulent and profoundly ignorant antivaxxer who I will not cite for fear of drawing them here and generating more flags and work for the mods, but this is exactly the evidence they needs to see (and would promptly reject) in response to the whole “vaccines never prevented any disease” trope.

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Clark County has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the state, with more than 22 percent of public school students having not completed their vaccinations

22%?! What are the demographics and psychographics of this county where more than 1/5 of the parents are ignorant idiots?

I see what you did there (fortunately, the account seems to have been wiped along with the idiotic comments).

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I care, when it’s hardly the kid’s fault.

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That’s because

Anti-vaxxers are the moral equivalent of serial mass random murderers of mostly children

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And those are the good outcomes. Fortunately the #1 killer outcome (measles pneumonia) is rarer now thanks to oxygen and antibiotics (while they still work.)

Measles encephalitis? Roll the dice. In my lifetime (until the 60s) measles was the #1 cause of deafness and blindness in the USA. Now we’ve closed the schools for the deaf and blind, but with a little work they could open again. Of course the encephalitis doesn’t always cause deafness and blindness. Sometimes it just plain kills, but also some survive it. I don’t have the stats on that.

And then there’s Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis ( SSPE ) – no cure, often fatal. You look it up if you like, I don’t need it before lunch.

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SW Washington has some very nice people, but also a significant population of backwoods, backwards, undereducated and addicted weirdos. I’m not surprised about the anti-vaxxer undercurrent.

And also infect other inmunodepressed/inmunosupressed people, such as people undergoing cancer treatment. Those parents should go to jail.

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Ironic fact: Clark County is home to the active schools for the deaf and blind of Washington State! I am profoundly saddened that my stomping ground is inundated with such misguided parents!

Are those schools in danger of closing? Or should I have written “were those schools?”

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Officials say the disease is highly contagious and can cause fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes and rash.

…and death. Did I mention death? 'Cause it’s all mild disease up until the point where it kills you.

Kills you dead.

Well, not you luckily, just your baby.

But s/he’s worth sacrificing on the altar of google-search-science, right?

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One has to wonder what the reaction of the disease-riddled majority of human history would be to the concept of discretionary pestilence. Probably good that vengeful ghosts aren’t a thing.

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There is a percentage of children who can be vaccinated but the vaccine does not take, and there’s no way of telling who they are.

Thus “herd” immunity is needed to protect these vulnerable individuals as well as the people who just haven’t been vaccinated.

It all comes down to statistics. And with the MMR, the statistics are very much in your favor, on the order of 97% or better. But that 3% of around 300 million people is not negligible. This is why the antivax jerks will frequently point to outbreaks like Disney and say “Vaccinated kids got sick too, that proves they don’t work.” No, it proves that 3% of a huge number is bigger than 100% of a small number. But math is hard.

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Updated stats. Just FYI.

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I’d rather leave visiting the sins of the parents on their abused children in the Old Testament.

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