The funniest part of the measles debate for me is that my child got full blown measles as a side effect of the MMR vaccine (high fever, rash, the whole thing...). I know of at least one other child who also got measles after the MMR shot. It is not super-uncommon. So, the argument of getting a vaccine to avoid getting sick does not quite…
The funniest part of the measles debate for me is that my child got full blown measles as a side effect of the MMR vaccine (high fever, rash, the whole thing...). I know of at least one other child who also got measles after the MMR shot. It is not super-uncommon. So, the argument of getting a vaccine to avoid getting sick does not quite work...
I also grew up in a country that, at that time, did not use MMR or varicella vaccines. Got all of these diseases as a child. All the children I knew got them. I am not aware of any single one of the children in my family/school/church circles dying or having any serious side effects as a result of measles (or mumps or rubella or varicella). If those were such a horrible diseases killing millions of children, I should have known at least one dead child.
I believe the numbers reported from Texas are skewed. First, it is likely they had more than 355 cases (for example, I did not take my child to doctor with measles as I knew what it was and could treat it at home - there is nothing else that the doctor could have done for us). Second, you do not know the overall health condition of those who died, there may have been other contributing factors.
You're probably right that there may be more than 355 cases. But the historical data are clear. Your personal anecdotes don't override the statistics. Yes, measles had worse outcomes in poorer countries. But American children died of measles before the vaccine was developed, and presumably they died in just about every other country, too.
The historical data is clear on the fact that the childhood mortality decreased predominantly thanks to better hygiene and nutrition. This also applies to the decrease in mortality to communicable diseases such as measles, as I have observed in my home country in the 1980ies when essentially no one died of measles despite the lack of vaccination program.
The funniest part of the measles debate for me is that my child got full blown measles as a side effect of the MMR vaccine (high fever, rash, the whole thing...). I know of at least one other child who also got measles after the MMR shot. It is not super-uncommon. So, the argument of getting a vaccine to avoid getting sick does not quite work...
I also grew up in a country that, at that time, did not use MMR or varicella vaccines. Got all of these diseases as a child. All the children I knew got them. I am not aware of any single one of the children in my family/school/church circles dying or having any serious side effects as a result of measles (or mumps or rubella or varicella). If those were such a horrible diseases killing millions of children, I should have known at least one dead child.
I believe the numbers reported from Texas are skewed. First, it is likely they had more than 355 cases (for example, I did not take my child to doctor with measles as I knew what it was and could treat it at home - there is nothing else that the doctor could have done for us). Second, you do not know the overall health condition of those who died, there may have been other contributing factors.
You're probably right that there may be more than 355 cases. But the historical data are clear. Your personal anecdotes don't override the statistics. Yes, measles had worse outcomes in poorer countries. But American children died of measles before the vaccine was developed, and presumably they died in just about every other country, too.
The historical data is clear on the fact that the childhood mortality decreased predominantly thanks to better hygiene and nutrition. This also applies to the decrease in mortality to communicable diseases such as measles, as I have observed in my home country in the 1980ies when essentially no one died of measles despite the lack of vaccination program.