Negligible? Even setting aside the thousands of people who have died in various measles outbreaks in Africa in recent years, there were 83 deaths in American Samoa's 2019 outbreak. The vast majority of them were children. Call it negligible if you want, but that's more than Columbine, Sandy Hook, and Parkland combined.
Negligible? Even setting aside the thousands of people who have died in various measles outbreaks in Africa in recent years, there were 83 deaths in American Samoa's 2019 outbreak. The vast majority of them were children. Call it negligible if you want, but that's more than Columbine, Sandy Hook, and Parkland combined.
This is misleading, too. Why go to examples of measles mortality from developing countries when we are discussing policy in the US? Available treatments and medical care, hygiene, and nutrition play into the severity of something like measles and thereтАЩs just no way that the death rate of measles in American Samoa should dictate policy in the US.
Disclaimer because apparently it needs to be said: stating the above does not mean that I think the deaths of people in the developing world donтАЩt matter or are acceptable. They are just simply not relevant to discuss as statistics in a conversation about vaccine policy in American schools.
I picked American Samoa because it's American. Poorer than the 50 states, yes, but still a part of our country. And vastly wealthier than, say, the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Okay, fine, but 1) a developing region being annexed by a developed one does not automatically make the demographic situation identical and 2) why not compare apples to apples by using United States (contiguous 48) stats to discuss a domestic situation in the United States? It paints a more accurate picture.
Negligible? Even setting aside the thousands of people who have died in various measles outbreaks in Africa in recent years, there were 83 deaths in American Samoa's 2019 outbreak. The vast majority of them were children. Call it negligible if you want, but that's more than Columbine, Sandy Hook, and Parkland combined.
This is misleading, too. Why go to examples of measles mortality from developing countries when we are discussing policy in the US? Available treatments and medical care, hygiene, and nutrition play into the severity of something like measles and thereтАЩs just no way that the death rate of measles in American Samoa should dictate policy in the US.
Disclaimer because apparently it needs to be said: stating the above does not mean that I think the deaths of people in the developing world donтАЩt matter or are acceptable. They are just simply not relevant to discuss as statistics in a conversation about vaccine policy in American schools.
I picked American Samoa because it's American. Poorer than the 50 states, yes, but still a part of our country. And vastly wealthier than, say, the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Okay, fine, but 1) a developing region being annexed by a developed one does not automatically make the demographic situation identical and 2) why not compare apples to apples by using United States (contiguous 48) stats to discuss a domestic situation in the United States? It paints a more accurate picture.