Measles is a 'heat-seeking missile' experts warn as Florida outbreak grows

MicroWave@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 406 points – Measles is a 'heat-seeking missile' experts warn as Florida outbreak grows
nbcnews.com

A seventh case, the first in a child under age 5, follows the state’s controversial surgeon general’s decision to let parents decide whether to quarantine children or keep them in school.

The Florida measles outbreak is expanding. On Friday, health officials in Broward County confirmed a seventh case of the virus, a child under age 5.

The patient is the youngest so far to be infected in the outbreak, and the first to be identified outside of Manatee Bay Elementary School in Weston, near Fort Lauderdale.

It’s unknown what connection the youngest measles case has to the school, but the spread beyond school-age kids was expected.

Cases are “not going to stay contained just to that one school, not when a virus is this infectious,” said Dr. David Kimberlin, co-director of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

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Reminder that Florida's Surgeon General, hand-picked by DeSantis, is an anti-vaxxer.

And he's telling parents of kids without measles vaccinations to send their kids to school during this outbreak.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/joseph-ladapo-florida-ron-desantis-measles

Anyone whose kid catches measles because of this should sue the surgeon general for malpractice. Maybe also drop a complaint to the medical board, see if they can get his medical license revoked.

As much as I'd love to see that, the likelihood of it happening is low. The boards move on public opinion and consensus. The public they care about may be only other doctors, but as we've seen since covid, there are plenty of doctors who listened to Ozzy and boarded the crazy train.

Public consensus is that vaccines for diseases like measles, polio, etc., are a good thing. Even most of the people and doctors who were against taking the covid vaccines seem to be in agreement with this, or at least the ones I have heard speak on the subject. Its just an extremely small outlier that claims otherwise.

Still, I feel like you are sadly right about the likelihood of any sort of prosecution happening. I would also love to see logic prevail, every once in a while.

MMR was the boogeyman jab that started the whole modern antivax movement. I wouldn't say it's rare for antivax people to be opposed to getting the measles vaccination.

All of the unvaccinated children's parents should be charged with child endangerment.

Here is the problem as I see it and I don't know a way around it:

*There are some kids who cannot get vaccinated for legitimate reasons such as allergies or being immunocompromised.

*There are highly unethical anti-vax doctors willing to give anti-vax parents fake exemptions based on those legitimate reasons that their kids don't actually have.

So how do you get around that?

A brief search indicates that only 1-2% of children are unable to receive traditional vaccinations due to allergies or immunocompromised conditions.

I'm willing to bet that the unethical doctors writing exemptions likely have an unbalanced amount of child-vaccination exemptions to administered child-vaccinations ratio. Such discrepancies should be thoroughly investigated.

In other words, if more than 2 out of every 100 children, a particular doctor consults with, are given vaccination exemptions, then something is suspicious.

That might work. In a sane state. Unfortunately, Florida would likely just let doctors get away with it if some such law astoundingly got passed. Their surgeon general is an anti-vaxer.

Yeah. It's truly bat-shit crazy watching what's going on. What a miracle vaccinations are, a true testament to mankind's prowess. Then Florida does this (Alabama - lookin' at you too, bruh).

There's a lot off distance between "something is suspicious" and "this individual is criminally liable".

Criminally dubious, indeed. But here we are, where laws in this and many other regressive states are breaking and bending in ways that befuddle the mind - the educated mind at least.

That doesn't work. Doctors specialize in specific things. There are probably doctors who legitimately have 100% vaccine exempt patients for medical reasons.

The real problem is that doctors can't be "fired". Stop asking the government to do something when it's really the AMA licensing board that is the problem.

It's a private organization that is run by doctors. Obviously doctors are not going to prioritize making it easier to take away someone's license. Demand the AMA do something about "killer doctors" or something. If their brand is associated with sickness, then they might take action.

Investigate those exemptions and make sure they are legit. Fire any doctor who gives out fake ones.

and then when it gets too hot down there, all of the snowbirds migrate out and start an insane summer spread for the rest of the continent

The vast majority of snowbirds would be vaccinated.

The antivax movement wasn't as big when they were kids, they would have gotten their shots back then.

Mmr does wear off though. Some older Americans got titers drawn and showed they were no longer immune so they got a third shot.

Not sure what he acip recommendation on that is though.

If this continues (and given this dumbass surgeon general and the antivax movement it will), we might start getting recommendations to get your MMR checked after X years or even for everyone to get it checked.

Florida, Florida, Florida.

Mmm! Very stupid. Much wow.

Good luck!

I wouldnt be shocked if we're at 50+ cases in 2 weeks.

Even if they don't die now, there's complications that can kill them that happen 2 months later (for the more dangerous one), or 7-10 years later (for the sneaky one). Measles is a nasty virus and there's a long list of damn good reasons why everyone who possibly can should be vaccinated against it.

Is there any way to know if you've been vaccinated against it that doesn't cost an arm and a leg?

I don't see why you couldn't just get vaccinated. No harm even if you were previously.

My mom's record keeping of my vaccinations as a kid was a shit show so I ended up just getting the ones I wasn't sure about later in life when I found out she might have skipped some 🙄

I would start with checking out your local health department, or potentially even Planned Parenthood or similar community clinics that offer low-cost primary care services.

Search "{state} vaccination records" for every state you've (might) have received in it and hope you don't live in a shit hole state that doesn't maintain records

Getting a titer shouldn't be very expensive.

I'm so sorry for the kids who are the victims of this insanity, and to some extent the victims of disinformation that created the situation even though they are dumb fucks. What a disaster. Children who aren't vaccinated because of disinformation should be taken by CPS for medical neglect IMO.

I might agree if CPS didn't have such horrible outcomes.

So people don't vaccinate their kids, and then they don't quarantine them when they are sick? What the fuck is broken in the US?

Society, maybe just empathy. A large percentage of the populace simply doesn’t care about anyone other than themselves.

There's certainly some of that, but I don't think it's as widespread as you think. I think the base problem is actually a breakdown in social trust.

Not everyone can be a doctor, or economist, or scientist. So we rely on experts to tell us what's up. The trust in the very idea of expertise has been eroded, in part due to legitimate fuckups by top officials, in part due to a rise in "Facebook experts" and conspiracy theories, and in part due to a concerted effort by conservatives to destroy that trust for their own gain.

Basically, these aren't people thinking "I don't care if these kids die." These are people thinking, "The medical establishment is full of liars and thieves, so these so called vaccines don't even work."

To piggy back on what you said, the distrust comes from the money. If you ask any of them they think the money leads other places. Which it does. So it just reinforces the distrust because we all know that there is funky healthcare costs. That insurance companies charge 500 dollars for an aspirin and they get it with medical billing.

I'm a victim of "chickenpox parties" from the 80s. Some parents are just stupid assholes that refuse to accept you don't have to make the immune system a punching bag to make it stronger

Now I'm at a higher risk for severe shingles. Yay!! Thanks mom!

I mean, that was the recommendation at the time. Chickenpox can be deadly to adults, and it was considered best to expose children to it when it wasn't life-threatening. This was well before there was a vaccine available, and letting your kid get the virus was basically like giving them an inoculation.

What's bullshit is that you can't get the shingles vaccine if you're under 55 (in the US.)

Is it that you can't, or insurance won't cover it?

Idk about chicken pox, but I know you can't get the RSV vaccine if you're not elderly or in a very specific window of pregnancy. Like 34 to 36 weeks. My OB was out of it, I missed the window and then none of the pharmacies would give it to me at 37 weeks, even though my OB still recommended it.

The chicken pox vaccine was developed in Japan in 1974, but not available in the US until 1995.

I’m SO glad we got our whole family out of that shithole.

Eh well this is how it goes. People aren't really all that intelligent and we operate mostly of emotion, or rationalization.

Florida reaps what it sows. Hahahah Hahaha

It's not those kids' fault and they're the ones suffering.