The Very Simple Reason Why Measles Outbreaks Are Getting Harder to Control
The Real Truth About Vaccines
It is no secret that measles outbreaks in the United States are getting bigger and harder to control.
Measles outbreaks that are breaking records that had previously been held for over thirty years!
Measles Outbreaks Are Getting Harder to Control
Can you guess the reason?
Sure, part of it is that fewer people are vaccinated and protected, and vaccine hesitancy is up.
And of course, global measles cases are up.
Combine all of that with less money going to public health to control outbreaks, and it’s a recipe for big measles outbreaks.
But there is one more explanation for the very large measles outbreaks we have been seeing.
“As cases spread across Utah, local health districts avoided using the word “quarantine,” fearing it would trigger negative feelings from lockdowns and restrictions during the covid pandemic. Some places used the term “school exclusion” instead to encourage unvaccinated children to stay home after exposures, Nolen said. But that phrasing likely dulled the urgency of the message, public health experts say.”
Why U.S. measles outbreaks have grown harder to extinguish
Well, one thing in addition to the fact that the biggest outbreaks have been in states where they may not have been as aggressive as they could have been with messaging and working to get people vaccinated.
For example, during the big measles outbreak in Texas, which reached at least 762 cases, put 99 people in the hospital, including 12 ICU admissions, and led to the deaths of two unvaccinated children, Gov. Greg Abbott never once called for Texans to get vaccinated to help stop the outbreak.
The Very Simple Reason Why Measles Outbreaks Are Getting Harder to Control
So what’s the reason measles outbreaks are getting harder to control?
It is the simple fact that the pockets of susceptible people we have long warned about have been getting bigger and bigger.
These are the large groups of intentionally unvaccinated children and adults in communities that make it likely that measles will spread out of control.
And why are they getting bigger?
Because more and more parents have fallen prey to the misinformation and propaganda of anti-vaccine influencers and have chosen to skip or delay vaccinating their kids.
“None of her kids are fully vaccinated against measles. She stopped immunizing her first two as infants after hearing stories about others who had bad reactions to the shots, and she approved no shots for her third.”
Blamed for the nation’s historic measles outbreak, West Texas Mennonites have hardened their views on vaccines
Even in religious communities that have suffered large outbreaks, there has been no religious ban on getting vaccinated!
“Vaccine hesitancy has been brewing for the last 20 years among Mennonites, a cloistered Christian sect with a historical distrust in government.”
Blamed for the nation’s historic measles outbreak, West Texas Mennonites have hardened their views on vaccines
Instead, it has just been easy for anti-vaccine influencers to move into these communities and scare them away from getting vaccinated and protected.
And there are still many more of these communities primed for outbreaks of measles.
“A measles outbreak is like a forest fire throwing out sparks, Moss says. If a spark lands in a state such as Maryland, which has a 97% measles vaccination rate, it will just fizzle out.”
Measles is surging in the US: how bad could it get?
They are full of unvaccinated children and young adults who, like kindling in a forest fire, provide fuel to start outbreaks and help keep outbreaks going.
What’s next?
As measles spreads endemically once again in the United States, there will be no more free-riding, as intentionally unvaccinated children and adults lose their ability to hide in the herd, and then, cases and outbreaks will get even bigger.
Bottom line - get vaccinated with two doses of the MMR vaccine and help stop these measles outbreaks.