Parents Blamed for Measles Outbreaks Due to Fear of Autism

Parents Blamed for Measles Outbreaks Due to Fear of Autism
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that from January to July of this year 131 cases of Measles were reported from 15 states. This is the highest number of Measles in the Unites States since 1996 and public health officials are blaming the growing number of parents who refuse to vaccinate their children due to the association of Measles with Autism.

Nearly all the cases of Measles resulted from people who had traveled abroad or visited from a foreign country. The CDC reports that most of those who contracted measles were either unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status. Sixteen of the sickened were under one, too young to have been vaccinated. No fatalities or serious adverse events were reported so far.

The CDC continues to state that since Measles is highly contagious it is often the first disease to reappear when vaccination rates decline. But a recent report from the CDC itself states that vaccinations rates for Measles are still above the 90% level (the percentage where “herd” immunity is maintained), the only vaccine dipping below that rate was Pertussis. Conflicting information?

It seems as if the CDC has quite a problem on their hands, wanting to blame the declining rate of vaccinations for the increase, yet statistically showing that vaccinations rates for Measles are high. The only choice they had to blend the two was raising the theoretical 90% immunity rate, something they just started clinging too, claiming that Measles needs a 95% vaccination rate to maintain herd immunity (As a side note the first percentage rate  devised for herd immunity was 65%).

There is also another logical way of explaining the phenomenon. How about the idea of a temporal coincidence? Maybe this year happens to be a very virulent year for the measles virus. Couldn’t the new global economy, where CEO’s and other employees fly across the countries on a daily basis, play a role? How about all the new war torn countries, where large masses of refugees gather together creating sanitation problems?

The CDC says no to those ideas, in their mind the increase in disease rates are always connected to decreasing vaccination rates.  Just another day at the office right.