841 replies to this topic

[LFC]

CDC update: Measles cases up to 839.

[LFC]

Monday's CDC Update: We're up to 880 cases now.

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The worst measles outbreak in the United States in 25 years has spread to Oklahoma, federal health officials said on Monday as they reported 41 new cases nationwide, raising the total number sickened this year to 880 people.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a 4.9% increase in the number of measles cases from May 10 to May 17 in an outbreak that has now reached 24 states. The agency has been providing weekly updates every Monday.

The CDC said there had been one confirmed case in Oklahoma.

Most of the new cases were in New York, CDC spokesman Jason McDonald said, with 21 cases recorded in New York City and nine in Rockland County.

Health experts say the virus has spread among school-age children whose parents declined to give them the vaccine, which confers immunity to the disease. A vocal fringe of U.S. parents, some in New York’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, cite concerns that the vaccine may cause autism, despite scientific studies that have debunked such claims.

[LFC]

The U.S. is zeroing in on 1,000 confirmed cases.

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The United States risks losing its measles “elimination status” if current outbreaks continue, US health authorities said Thursday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Thursday there have been 971 cases of measles reported in the US so far this year, which means more people have caught the disease in the last five months than in any entire calendar year since 1992, which saw 963 reported cases.
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Authorities declared measles eliminated in the US in 2000, a goal set in 1966 with the introduction of the vaccine.

Measles is considered eliminated when there is an absence of continuous disease transmission for 12 months or more in a specific geographic area, according to the CDC.

An ongoing outbreak in and around New York City that started last fall is threatening the US’s “elimination status” — if it continues for four more months, the country will no longer be able to say it has eliminated measles.

[Rich T Bikkies]

LFC, on 31 May 2019 - 12:03 PM, said:

The U.S. is zeroing in on 1,000 confirmed cases.

Me, I'd call adding more zeros zeroing out.

[LFC]

The U.S. has broken 1,000 measles cases.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday that 1,001 cases of measles have been reported so far in the U.S. throughout 2019.

That number is all but certain to continue climbing in the second half of the year. Last week, the CDC warned that U.S. measles cases had reached a 25-year high—with more measles infections reported than any year since 1994, when 958 cases occurred. The CDC said at the time that if the outbreaks continue to spread, the U.S. risks losing the elimination status it has held since 2000, when the agency declared that measles was effectively eradicated in the country due to the “absence of continuous disease transmission for greater than 12 months.”

Per CNN, more than half of states have reported cases so far in 2019. But most of them have been in New York state, with major outbreaks centered around Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens (566 since September 2018, according to the New York City Health Department) as well as Rockland County further upstate. Nearly 700 of the cases reported this year are located in New York. Washington state’s Clark County had the second largest outbreak at more than 70 cases, CNN added, while another outbreak of 44 cases in Michigan (all but four in Oakland County) was recently declared over by health officials.

Measles was once a terror, with the CDC estimating that three to four million individuals in the U.S. came down with the virus annually before a vaccine was released in 1963, resulting in 48,000 hospitalizations and 400-500 deaths a year. Close to all children had a measles infection by the age of 15.

In 2014, the CDC estimated that vaccinations administered to children born during the 20-year era since the beginning of the Vaccines for Children Program in 1994 had stopped 21 million hospitalizations and 732,000 deaths in their lifetimes. That program was partially launched in response to hundreds of deaths from the measles virus over the years 1989-1991.

So in other words vaccines destroyed the good old days.

[LFC]

Another moron celebrity comes out of the No Data / No Thought Zone to spout anti-vaxxer nonsense.

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On Tuesday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental activist whose recent work has focused increasingly on baseless allegations that vaccines are unsafe and can injure a statistically minuscule population of “medically fragile” children, appeared at the California State Assembly beside an unlikely scene partner: actress Jessica Biel. In a series of Instagram posts, first reported in Jezebel by Anna Merlan, the two posed with activists, legislators, and miscellaneous bureaucratic architecture. In the caption, Kennedy called Biel “courageous.”

The duo had come to lobby against SB 276, a California state bill that would limit medical exemptions from vaccinations without approval from a state public-health officer. The bill has been decried by anti-vaxx advocates like Kennedy and vaguely critiqued by Gov. Gavin Newsom, over official estimations that it would reduce medical exemptions by nearly 40 percent.

Although reports circulated in 2015 that Biel and her husband, Justin Timberlake, did not plan to vaccinate their kids (“She feels that vaccination could cause complications,” a source told In Touch Weekly), Biel has never publicly commented on the vaccination debate. But on a phone call with The Daily Beast, Kennedy confirmed that the actress, whose past controversial opinions include insisting it is a “struggle” to get roles because she is too sexy, was “upset about this issue because of its particular cruelty.”

Kennedy, who takes issue with the label “anti-vaxx”—which he deems “pharmaceutical propaganda” and “a lie”—declined to align Biel with the controversial movement. “I would say that she was for safe vaccines and for medical freedom,” Kennedy said, before echoing an anti-vaxx rallying cry: “My body, my choice.”

[LFC]

More on Jessica Biel's attempt to murder children, the elderly, and the immunosuppressed by making vaccines less effective in our society through broad opt out loopholes. (Too harsh? Yeah I don't think so either.) I thought this first paragraph below was a good description of the "I'm not an anti-vaxxer but..." defense.

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In a statement on Instagram early Thursday morning, Biel attempted to refute the label “anti-vaxxer,” despite having lobbied alongside Kennedy, the founder of the Children’s Health Defense, an alleged medical organization which devotes significant efforts to making factually-incorrect claims about the levels of mercury in vaccinations and their safety for infant use. “I am not against vaccinations” Biel wrote. “I support children getting vaccinations and I also support families having the right to make educated medical decisions for their children alongside their physicians.” (As NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny noted of Biel’s statement, “Important for those not versed in anti-vaxx talking points: anti-vaxx activists say ‘I am not against vaccines,’ preferring language like ‘pro-choice’ or ‘skeptic’ etc etc. Biel’s Insta post isn't a walk back and it isn't ‘setting the record straight.’ It's a basic confirmation.”

Meanwhile, Jezebel’s Anna Merlan spoke to a legislative staffer who attended Biel’s meeting with California State lawmakers, and who said that “some of what Biel discussed did center around her own personal concerns regarding vaccines.”

“Jessica said that her doctor recommended the regular vaccine schedule for her kid and she refused,” the staffer told Merlan, adding, “She practically admitted to doctor shopping, which SB 276 is trying to prevent. She said she wants safe vaccines and mentioned ‘corporations’ a lot.”

[golden_valley]

The CA state senator that authored the bill Jessica Biel opposed and one in 2015 has a recall petition filed against him. I doubt enough signatures will be gathered this time. Last time around he got death threats too.

[D. C. Sessions]

For those of us who don't remember, measles epidemics came around roughly every five years in the USA as the susceptible population rebuilt after the previous one.

[LFC]

As of June 5 there were 1,0001 reported cases of measles. As of June 24 it's up to 1,077.

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Thirty-three new measles cases were recorded in the United States last week, most of them in New York, federal health officials said on Monday, bringing the number of confirmed cases this year to 1,077 in the worst U.S. outbreak of the virus since 1992.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the cases of the highly contagious and sometimes deadly disease rose 3% in the week ended June 20 from the prior week. The 2019 outbreak, which has spread to 28 states, is the worst since 1992, when 2,126 cases were recorded.

All but three of the 33 new cases occurred in New York, with 20 in Rockland County and 10 in New York City, a CDC spokesman said. According to New York City and State health officials, the state has recorded hundreds of cases of the virus since September.

Health experts say the virus has spread among school-age children whose parents declined to give them the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine, which confers immunity to the disease. A vocal fringe of U.S. parents, some in New York’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, cite concerns that the vaccine may cause autism, despite scientific studies that have debunked such claims.

[LFC]

They can actually predict where measles cases are most likely to appear and yet the federal government seems to do nothing with this data.

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At the end of February, a team of researchers submitted a paper to the medical journal The Lancet that predicted the top 25 U.S. counties most at risk for measles in 2019. Now, almost halfway through what is on track to be the nation’s worst year for measles outbreaks since 1992, their study is looking rather prescient. Of the counties named in the paper, published in May, 14 have had cases of measles. At least 12 counties on the list are adjacent to counties that have ended up with measles cases this year. This includes two of the counties in the largest ongoing outbreak: Nearly 500 confirmed cases in Queens and Kings counties, New York.

But that was not what’s special about this forecast. In the 19 years since measles was eliminated1in the U.S., experts say domestic outbreaks have followed a reliable pattern that should be easily traceable in epidemiological data. Everybody knows the pattern exists, so it’s no surprise that someone could use it to make predictions about where measles is most likely to turn up. Instead, experts say, the county list is notable because of who made it. It came from independent researchers, and not the government, which collects the data.

There are basically two things you need to make a measles outbreak in the U.S. The first is a local community with a low vaccination rate. Although 91 percent of Americans nationally are vaccinated against measles, isolated pockets can have much lower rates — 70 percent, 50 percent, or even less. Insular communities connected around shared culture, religion or a single school provide a place where measles can incubate and spread, said Peter Hotez, professor of pediatrics and molecular virology at Baylor University. If a measles outbreak is a fire, you can think of this as the tinder.

But you still need a lit match, and that’s where international travel comes in.

[LFC]

Holy crap! There's a crank who is spreading this garbage and idiots who believe it. F***, humans can be so stupid!

[LFC]

As of July 3 we're now up to 1,109 measles cases, up 1.3% from last week.

[LFC]

New measles cases are still coming in but much more slowly.

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The United States recorded 14 new measles cases between July 3 and July 11, federal health officials said on Monday, signaling a slowdown in the spread of the disease, which has infected 1,123 people this year in the worst U.S. outbreak since 1992.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the new cases represented a 1.3% increase since the previous week and that it has recorded cases of the highly contagious and sometimes deadly disease in 28 states.

In recent weeks, the CDC has reported smaller increases in the number of measles cases, compared with a surge of more than a hundred cases reported in a single week earlier this year.

Disease outbreaks have not been reported in any new states since June 10.

[LFC]

The current CDC count for measles is 1,203. With the school year starting it's suspected that this will climb.

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With 21 new cases recorded in the past week, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today reported that 2019 measles totals rose to 1,203 in 30 states.

The number of people who have been hospitalized this year due to measles in the United States remains at 124, with 64 people having reported complications, including pneumonia and encephalitis.

The CDC is currently tracking six outbreaks (defined as three or more cases) in Texas, California, Washington state, and three separate outbreaks among religions communities in New York state. More than 75% of the cases this year are linked to outbreaks in New York state and New York City, the CDC said.

From the same link they note that the UK has lost its measles free status.

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In other measles news, the World Health Organization (WHO) stripped the United Kingdom of its measles-free status, just 2 years after the country earned the designation.

Public Health England (PHE) said today the WHO determined that measles transmission was re-established throughout the UK after 2018 saw 991 confirmed cases in England and Wales—double the number of cases recorded in 2017. The same strain of measles virus was also detected in 2017 and 2018, which connotes established virus transmission, PHE said.

[LFC]

A computer simulation predicts that Texass could see the next big measles outbreak.

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Texas could be hit by large measles outbreaks in which up to 400 people fall ill at a time, according to a forecast by researchers investigating low vaccine rates. Between 2003 and 2018, the number of children exempt from vaccines before attending school spiked from 23,000 to 64,000, according to existing research.

In the new paper published in the journal JAMA Network Open, the authors wrote: Decreases in vaccination rates in schools with undervaccinated populations in 2018 were associated with exponential increases in the potential size of outbreaks: a 5% decrease in vaccination rate was associated with a4 0% to 4000% increase in potential outbreak size, depending on the metropolitan area."

The team warned of "dramatic increases in the probability of large outbreaks" totaling more than 100 cases if trends continue.

In Austin and Dallas-Fort Worth, where vaccination rates are lower than 92 percent in a small number of schools, up to 400 cases could occur at a time, modelling predicted. An estimated average of 36 percent of those sickened in outbreaks involving at least 25 cases could happen in people other than unvaccinated children, the authors warned.

However, limiting the number of pupils who can be exempt from vaccination could tackle the problem, the researchers argued.

On a side note I heard on the news that measles is so contagious that they are recommending people with the disease not be brought to an emergency room where it has the potential to spread. But yeah, vaccines are dangerous because ... why again?

[AnBr]

I love poetic justice.

[Beelzebuddy]

AnBr, on 22 August 2019 - 10:24 AM, said:

I love poetic justice.

My favorite
kind of justice
y'all

[LFC]

AnBr, on 22 August 2019 - 10:24 AM, said:

I love poetic justice.

Unfortunately it's the unvaccinated children of vaccinated parents who will suffer. It's a lot easier to take a "principled stand" when you aren't the one risking illness, pain, potential lifelong health problems, or even death.

[LFC]

The number of cases is up by a dozen to 1,215. It may have made it into Disneyland.

The U.S. is now on the verge of losing its measles elimination status. Ditto for 4 European nations.

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There's a "reasonable chance" the United States will lose its measles elimination status in October because of ongoing measles outbreaks in New York, according to Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

"It certainly is incredibly frustrating and upsetting to the public health community that we may lose measles elimination status, because we do have a safe and effective vaccine," Messonnier said.

When the World Health Organization declared in 2000 that the United States had eliminated measles, it was hailed as one of the biggest public health achievements in the nation's history. Losing that elimination status would be a black eye to the United States, public health experts said.

"We're embarrassed. We're chagrined," said Dr. William Schaffner, a longtime adviser to the CDC on vaccine issues.

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Measles has returned to four European nations previously seen as free of the illness, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The disease is no longer considered eradicated in Albania, the Czech Republic, Greece and the UK.

"We are backsliding, we are on the wrong track," said Kate O'Brien of the WHO's Immunization Department.