Measles at the Super Bowl: One month later

Posted by ERV on March 7, 2012
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One month after some grossly irresponsible parents let their measles-infested offspring roam about the Super Bowl festivities, here is the end result:

16 cases of measles

I dont know about the last three, but the first 13 were unvaccinated:

According to Larkin, the first 13 individuals infected had all chosen not to be vaccinated.

Im sorry, but that statement doesnt jive with this one:

State health officials have reported a total of 13 confirmed cases of measles in Central Indiana, involving children and adults.

Children cannot ‘choose’ not to be vaccinated. If they could, the vaccine rate would be even lower, because shots are scary and children would choose not to get them based on that. Children do not ‘choose’. Their parents choose for them. And in this case, it was the childrens irresponsible parents who chose not to vaccinate their children, and put other people at risk of contracting diseases.

In this particular instance, we got lucky. Enough people were vaccinated to protect the people who could not get vaccinated, or were underprotected from the vaccination, thanks to herd immunity.

But I still have two questions–
1. How many of these anti-vax wacos will accumulate before something worse happens?
2. Do these irresponsible parents feel any remorse, at all, for the pain and suffering their stupid decision caused their children?

Oh, and there are actually at least 17 cases of measles in Indiana right now. Some other asshole, a grown ass unvaccinated adult, brought it back from a trip abroad. *raaaaaaaaaaaaaage… RAAAAAAAAAAAAGE*

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  1. #1 Prometheus
    March 7, 2012

    Just settled on a pediatrician on the basis of her:

    “Failure to vaccinate on schedule = Find another pediatrician, hipster”

    I told the mother of a 10 year old that the CDC was recommending HPV vaccine for boys now.

    She responded that her conspiracy theory websites were reporting vaccinated kids were exploding or some bullshit.

    I told her to do what she wanted, I mean the kid can’t yell at her ….

    …..at least not after esophageal cancer eats the bottom half of his face.

    Gotta love Mommy intuition.

  2. #2 Todd W.
    March 7, 2012

    Just glad that it appears the outbreak is over. Figure enough time has passed, now, that there shouldn’t be anymore new cases. When I was writing about it, the maddening part was trying to get confirmation on the vaccination status of the people involved. The PR flack I contacted wouldn’t give concrete numbers, so I ended up getting them from an NPR piece.

    This outbreak, the one in northeastern IN last year and the one in MN all give the lie to anti-vaccine claims that it’s the vaccinated that are responsible for these outbreaks.

  3. #3 Joe
    March 7, 2012

    It is surely a matter of beating a dead horse by now, but it looks like there is another paper about XMRV contamination out.

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22363509

  4. #4 Justicar
    March 7, 2012

    It is surely a matter of beating a dead horse by now, but it looks like there is another paper about XMRV contamination out.

    How long until we start seeing a ‘leave Judy alone’ video on youtube?

  5. #5 Zyzle
    March 8, 2012

    In other news, mumps is making a comeback at The University of Glasgow

    http://news.stv.tv/scotland/west-central/296090-mumps-outbreak-hits-glasgow-university/

  6. #6 Alice
    March 8, 2012

    Its really sad and there are far more idiots out there then you might think. This anti vaccine idiocy has really grown out of proportion.

    Its now so far that there are quite a few people even saying vaccines ONLY harm. That all vaccines are poisons from the Evil Pharmacompanies.
    And im not talking about Unabomber style rednecks im talking about people that dont look stupid (they are but thats another issue).

  7. #7 TechSkeptic
    March 8, 2012

    “2. Do these irresponsible parents feel any remorse, at all, for the pain and suffering their stupid decision caused their children?”

    This has been answered and answered often. No, they don’t feel even the smallest bit of remorse. In fact they thnk they did these folks a favor by giving them natures industrial strength vaccine….measles.

  8. #8 Woden
    March 9, 2012

    And im not talking about Unabomber style rednecks

    I wasn’t aware that “Harvard graduate with a PhD in Mathematics, and former assistant professor at a university” and “redneck” could accurately describe the same person. Particularly since “redneck” is, if I am not mistaken, derived from the sunburned necks that physical laborers can get when working outdoors.

    Redneck is not the same as crazy. I should know; I happen to both live near quite a few rednecks (the Appalachian region of Georgia is chock full of them), and interact with a few “crazy” people in my profession (working at a pharmacy).

  9. #9 Extremejor
    March 12, 2012

    Simple minds without a personal living memory of the devastation these diseases once caused instead think they’re smart cuz they can google-up what it is they want to hear rather than an inconvenient truth (in their minds).

    Sigh. Humankind doomed to “repeat” history because the masses are, unlike the wise, not even willing to learn from the mistakes of others. I put repeat in quotes because if they’d had a cure for the plague way back when – the cure was definitely better than the disease and the masses would have clamored for it. Here we are now with preventative cures and there is no history to repeat. I suppose these types are just launching into the absurd.

    It’s just baffling.

  10. #10 me346
    March 12, 2012

    Please write an article about:

    http://www.acancer.info/

    Thanks!

  11. #11 William Wallace
    March 13, 2012

    I guess you don’t exhibit the same vitriol when a child dies due to a vaccine for a disease that is only a minor inconvenience for most parents.

    Their parents choose for them.

    And the children suffer any adverse reactions that might occur.

    Here’s an idea: Don’t like freedom to say no? Don’t go out in public.

  12. #12 kamizushi
    March 25, 2012

    The anti-vaccines people are probably the most dangerous non-violent movement right now. Their misinformation is probably responsible for millions of death, when you consider all sicknesses that could be prevented by vaccines.