As Measles Outbreaks Continue, States Consider Revoking Religious Vaccine Exemptions
Meanwhile, one new patient with measles recently visited some of LA’s trendiest spots!
The number of states with measles cases continue to expand during this historic outbreak. The cases climbed past 760 this week.
The number of confirmed U.S. measles cases this year has climbed to 764, more than double the number a year ago and the highest total in 25 years, federal health officials announced Monday.
Sixty additional cases were reported last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Most of those were in New York City and its suburbs.
Pennsylvania became the 23rd state where measles cases have been confirmed.
Ogbonnaya Omenka, an associate professor and public health specialist at Butler University, found some encouraging news in the report. He noted that the number of cases rose about the same in the past two weeks, less than previous gains. But authorities dare not get complacent, he said.
“This outbreak is an indication that the traditional methods of addressing measles outbreaks in the United States may not suffice any longer,” Omenka told USA TODAY. “Public health authorities need to quickly recognize this and adapt accordingly.”
Many health authorities have thought about eliminating vaccine exemptions on religious grounds. The legislature in Oregon, the epicenter of one of the larger outbreaks, has a bill that will eliminate religious exemptions:
Currently, parents in Oregon and most other states can cite religious or philosophical reasons if they don’t want to vaccinate their kids. According to the CDC, Oregon kindergartners claim vaccine exemptions at the highest rate in the nation.
But a bill in the state Legislature would do away with those nonmedical exemptions. Parents who didn’t secure a doctor’s permission would face a choice between vaccination or not sending their kids to school.
If passed, Oregon would become the fourth state to eliminate nonmedical exemptions. Opponents are keen on preventing that. In the two months since the bill was filed, it has spurred thousands of letters and phone calls, and hours of passionate testimony.
“This issue has been one of the most emotional issues that I’ve seen in all my years on the Legislature,” said state Sen. Lee Beyer, who has served as a lawmaker for nearly two decades.
Similar debates are being held all over the country.
Legal Insurrection readers with long memories may recall our report on a California measles outbreak that started with exposures at the iconic Disneyland Park in 2015. After that crisis, the state legislators limited vaccination exemptions to those related to medical issues.
Since the law took effect, California’s measles vaccination rate has begun to climb.
…It seems that some parents have found doctors who will write them suspect medical exemptions from vaccines. Physicians have been accused of writing exemptions because a child has asthma or psoriasis. Though vaccination rates have gone up, so have medical exemption rates.
California legislators are weighing a bill that would force the state to track each medical exemption, in an attempt to tamp down on fraudulent ones.
The other two states with the limited exemptions, Mississippi and West Virginia, have reported no measles cases so far.
Los Angeles has experienced an outbreak with six confirmed cases, including one that hit some major LA hot-spots during the infectious stage of the disease.
The measles outbreak in Los Angeles has spread to two more people including one person who recently spent time at crowded LA hotspots including The Grove, the Los Angeles Farmer’s Market, Whole Foods and shops along Melrose and Fairfax.
The other new case stems from yet another international traveler who passed through Los Angeles International Airport.
Meanwhile, I am on my way to get a titre test, as I am in the age bracket in which a second vaccination may be needed.
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Comments
Right… elephant in the room, illegals, nah!!!
Illegal aliens, legal aliens and visitors, marginally vaccinated, vaccinated carriers, and an ineligible minority.
My mother had to pass many health tests after WW2 in order to get into this country after she married my father in Germany. Heck, you should have seen what Dad & my uncle had to go through to get their war brides into the US.
If she had to meet all the rules, why can’t everyone else?
And – when she was alive, you better not have gotten her started about the nazis, soviets, and all those creeps.
AZAR: While most parents are getting their children vaccinated, the vast majority of these cases involve children who have not been vaccinated.
STEIN: And have gotten exposed to measles by people who caught the virus in countries like Ukraine, Israel and the Philippines, where big outbreaks are underway and have brought the highly contagious measles virus into communities with lots of unvaccinated kids. Here’s CDC Director Robert Redfield.
ROBERT REDFIELD: Measles is incredibly contagious. A person who has measles can make other people sick four days before they get a rash. If an infected person enters a room of 10 unvaccinated people, nine of them will get measles.
–Measles Cases In The U.S. Reach Highest Count In 25 Years : NPR
–https://www.npr.org/2019/04/29/718394046/measles-cases-in-the-u-s-reach-highest-count-in-25-years
-RETRIEVED-Wed May 08 2019 08:47:11 GMT+0200 (Central European Summer Time)
No, it has nothing to do with illegal immigrants. The hotspots are not where illegal immigrants are concentrated, and in most cases the transmission vectors are known and they are not illegal immigrants. For instance in the recent Michigan outbreak the carrier identified himself as soon as he was diagnosed, and told the authorities everywhere he’d been. He was a perfectly legal visitor to the USA, doing everything he was supposed to do.
The main outbreaks have been in communities closely associated with my own, so I know something about this. It is not Latin Americans. And it’s not even low vaccination rates; our rate is actually higher than the national average. But revoking religious exemptions would get it much higher, especially since the vast majority of these exemptions are bogus. There is no variant of Judaism that has any objection to vaccination. The people using religious exemptions to get out of vaccinating their children are lying; their true objections are based on the ridiculous anti-vaxx propaganda, not on religious grounds. But saying it’s religious gets them out of it, and it shouldn’t.
Wrong milhouse
Look, idiot, this is something I know something about and you don’t. It’s my broader community that this is happening in. Partly due to a tiny number of paranoid idiots who refuse to vaccinate their children, and partly due to bad luck and other factors. It has nothing whatsoever to do with anyone crossing the Mexican border.
Look Sir Idiot, I’m actually a practicing RN. Your wrong and your calling people names who disagree with, constantly b the way, you shows what a weak person you are.
Yes, do force the paranoid idiot orthodox Jews in NYC to vaccinate. Or perhaps put yellow “I refused to vax” stars.
gonzo, I don’t care what you are, you are stating things that are simply not so.
tz, as I wrote several times above, the vaccination rate in this community is higher than the national average. There are a tiny number of anti-vaxxers, which is distressing and annoying, but no more than anywhere. The chances are very good that your community has more of them.
The Kennedys dissing their brother Robert… notice the words “ unvaccinated citizens”
Lol don’t make me laugh!!!
The trio continue: “Americans have every right to be alarmed about the outbreak of measles in pockets of our country with unusually high rates of unvaccinated citizens, especially children
Milhouse is both right and wrong.
This outbreak is predominantly among two classes of individuals, those who have not been vaccinated and those who have been vaccinated [or infants who should have temporary immunity from the mother]. The non-vaccinated group is broken down into those who choose not to be vaccinated or have their children vaccinated, and those who do not get vaccinated because of legal status or economics [though economics is not really a factor as free vaccinations are provided for the indigent].
But, what people do not seem to understand is that, if the vaccine is effective, the only people who should contract the disease are those who choose not to be vaccinated. The vaccinated CAN NOT BE INFECTED, if the vaccine is effective. That is the purpose of administering the vaccine, to create immunity to a disease. And, while we can argue the accuracy of the arguments of the non-vaccination group, the fact that they are not vaccinated should have little or no effect upon the vaccinated population; which is over 91% of the US population. Blaming the non-vaccinated is a red herring to hide the fact that the vaccine does not do what it was advertised to do. Oops.
Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. The vaccine is only 97% effective. Vaccinated people can and do get measles. Not nearly as often as the unvaccinated do, but it happens.
Then there is a huge population of the insufficiently vaccinated, because when they were children and getting their shots only one dose was given rather than the two that are now considered necessary, and also because in the ’60s there were some ineffective batches of vaccine that got used. A lot of such people are catching measles now.
Once again you are both right AND wrong.
Yes, there are a significant number of people who received only one dose of measles vaccine, though this changed in 1990, 30 years ago. There were also some vaccines which used, prior to that time, which were of limited effectiveness. But, the CDC now acknowledges that many people in their late teens and 20s are showing diminished immunity to measles and there have been several studies which show that the titer levels and the strength of resultant antibodies from MMR vaccinations are less than those from exposure to wild measles. And, there have been several cases of infection in vaccinated individuals in that category. As to the efficacy rate for immunity after 2 vaccinations, it has a range of from 97% to 99%.
This is what always happens with these manufactured crisis designed to push a specific agenda. Facts undermine the argument for those who manufactured the crisis. In this case, the “crisis” was blamed upon the voluntarily unvaccinated, who were labelled “antivaxers”. But, just as with the manufactured Global Warming crisis, inconvenient facts soon reared their ugly heads. The vaccinated are contracting the disease. So, now we hear other excuses pop up; faulty vaccines, single dose vaccinations, a 1-3% failure rate, etc.
But, what we are seeing is what often happens with medical theories, they are are proven to be deficient over time. Initially, the vaccines were touted as giving life-long immunity, from a single dose. Then, 15 years later, it was found that two doses were needed and that some vaccines did not provide life-long immunity. Now, 30 years later, we are finding out that even two dosages do not provide life-long immunity, as well as lower titer levels and weaker anti-bodies than exposure to wild measles. While this is not unusual over the course of vaccine use, the reaction of the public health and governments are. It would be one thing if this was a more deadly disease, such as small pox or even diphtheria [which requires four initial doses and a booster every 10 years to maintain immunity], but this is measles. So, why the overwhelming push to force everyone to become vaccinated against measles? Because, these outbreaks undermine the theory of herd immunity. Not among the populous, most of whom have never even heard of the herd immunity theory, but among members of the medical profession. No longer can the failings of that theory be swept under the rug. So, a concerted effort to paint measles as the Black Plague and any outbreak as the fault of the unvaccinated [in a population with a 91% vaccination rate]. If the outbreak was limited to the unvaccinated, we would see none of this.
Very difficult to get an exemption in my State and the data shows the results: very few cases of contagious disease. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if uterine cancer doesn’t disappear in 20 years as students are required to get a physical to continue school and that physical consists of a vaccination review and an hvp vaccination.
I found my 1st grade health records recently – I had measles & rubella way back in 1958. I sent the pdf of the report to my doctor. She still recommended getting the shot; the pharmacy which has the vaccine, recommended an immunity test since I am half way through the shingles shots.
I am still waiting for the MMR results. But, my doctor is open/curious to hearing the results.
If you have any question – get tested. I went through Quest Diagnostics Lab and they offer a self pay options for many tests. Or in other words – you get the results, not the doctors.
Save youyr money, Leslie. The CDC that positive titer levels do not guarantee immunity for adults. You have to get a vaccination in order to have a 95% chance that you are immune to measles.
Here is the problem. The measles vaccine was originally supposed to provide life-long immunity for 95% of the people who were vaccinated. 20 years after the vaccine was certified, the CDC came out and said that @ vaccinations were required for life-long immunity and they raised the percentage of those gaining immunity to 97-99% of those vaccinated. Now we have discovered that the vaccine DOES NOT provide life-long immunity. There is a significant attenuation of immunity after 10-15 years. So, a booster is needed, probably every 10 years, to maintain effective immunity levels. We have also discovered [check the CDC Pinkbook for measles] that the attenuated virus used in the MMR vaccine does not produce the titer levels or antibodies which are as robust as those produced due to exposure to wild measles. This means that infants, who are born to women who were vaccinated, rather than being exposed to wild measles, are not being born with the levels of temporary immunity, to measles, and not maintaining effective levels of immunity while breast feeding.
To sum up, you have an ever increasing population whose measles immunity is attenuating to the point where they can contract the disease [and, therefor, spread the disease] and an enlarged infant population which does not have effective secondary immunity by virtue of the mother being exposed to an attenuated form of the measles virus. This is the reason for the panic among public health officials, as well as the producer of the MMR vaccine. The vaccine simply does not do what they have been claiming it does, for the last 50 years.
This is what the pink book actually says:
And here is what the CDC main site says:
“Some people who get two doses of MMR vaccine may still get measles, mumps, or rubella if they are exposed to the viruses that cause these diseases. Experts aren’t sure why; it could be that their immune systems didn’t respond as well as they should have to the vaccine or their immune system’s ability to fight the infection decreased over time. However, disease symptoms are generally milder in vaccinated people.
About 3 out of 100 people who get two doses of MMR vaccine will get measles if exposed to the virus. However, they are more likely to have a milder illness, and are also less likely to spread the disease to other people.
Two doses of MMR vaccine are 88% (range 31% to 95%) effective at preventing mumps. Mumps outbreaks can still occur in highly vaccinated U.S. communities, particularly in settings where people have close, prolonged contact, such as universities and close-knit communities. During an outbreak, public health authorities may recommend an additional dose of MMR for people who belong to groups at increased risk for mumps. An additional dose can help improve protection against mumps disease and related complications.
While there are not many studies available, most people who do not respond to the rubella component of the first MMR dose would be expected to respond to the second dose.” – https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/mmr/public/index.html
You can also find links to other medical studies which show evidence that the efficacy of the immunity granted from the MMR vaccine wanes over time, often to the point of being ineffective after 10-15 years. And, as noted on the CDC site, that body is now recommending that booster vaccination be acquired by adults, especially those with a high risk of exposure.
It all comes back to that herd immunity theory, developed in the early 1920s. That theory has been embraced by the medical community, especially the public health segment. It became an article of faith that vaccination of a sufficient percentage of a population would guarantee the elimination of a specific disease. But, that requires that the population remain effectively immune to that disease agent. And, that requires initial immunization to produce effective levels of antibodies as well as periodic booster shots.
Now, we have people being fined and or confined to their homes for not having documentary evidence of measles vaccination, after only 600 cases of the disease. Yet, we heard NO outcry concerning vaccination for pertussis [whooping cough] in 2013 [2539 cases in California alone], 2014 [10,000 + nationwide & 3500+ cases in California] or in 2010 [9000 cases in California]. Where was the clamoring for banning the unvaccinated from public venues or fining them? There wasn’t any. Why? Because the medical community, especially the public health sector, and the vaccine manufacturers did not see any threat to them.
Only for mumps, not for measles.
Again, inaccurate. There are a whole list of adults who the CDC recommends be revaccinated against measles. Also, there have been several recent articles where CDC spokes people have acknowledged that immunity may be waning over time, for measles vaccine recipients, due to the use of attenuated virus cultures used in the vaccine. While the CDC is downplaying the fact that vaccinated adults are contracting the disease, they are still acknowledging that it is occurring.
MMR vaccine isn’t as effective as the old vaccine. Surprise. If there were no new vectors, legal illegal, sideways, we wouldn’t need to discuss this. But we have a joke for immigration policy.
What are you talking about?
No, the current MMR vaccine is quite effective, as much or more so than previous vaccines. What changed is the fact that it has not proven to be as effective as it was touted to be.
Again, this would not have been noticeable to the American populous, except for the fact that the public health community has made such a big deal about it. This was amplified by the media and now government agencies are running around illegally restricting a person’s right to travel within his own community or fining a person for not being able to prove he was vaccinated against a common childhood disease.
populace
Note that one of the outbreaks is in the Orthodox Jewish community in New York.
Yes, lets drag all Jewsish children and do “medical treatment” and put their parents into prison or fine them.
The overwhelming majority of the community would be just fine with that.
That is one of the most intriguing features of the reporting on this current outbreak of measles. A specific community was identified as being involved and specifically identified by religious affiliation. And, surprise surprise, it was the Jewish community. Makes you wonder why, doesn’t it?
Um, because we’re the ones getting sick, that’s why. There’s no antisemitism involved here, though antisemites are now starting to notice and use it for their own purposes.
There most certainly is anti-Jewish, anti-citizen, anti- White AND PRO illegal unvaccinated going on here!!!
So, what were the religious affiliations of the patients who were not Jewish? And, what relevance is there of the religious affiliation to the fact that these patients were unvaccinated? In other words, why was the religious affiliation even mentioned, let alone harped on by the media?
Washington just eliminated a bunch of the exemptions.