Long-time Legal Insurrection readers will recall that we have been following the resurgence of measles for several years.
The disease, once of the verge of being eradicated, is now poised to make a big comeback.
While praying the worst days of the COVID-19 pandemic are behind us, global health officials warn to be vigilant about other potential outbreaks — this time, measles.Cases of the disease spiked 79% during the first two months of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021, according to a joint statement issued by the World Health Organization and UNICEF.Experts fear that all the time spent indoors during the pandemic — and people who aren’t vaccinated against measles — poses risks for the youngest among us, creating a “perfect storm” for outbreaks.
This surge can be directly tied to the covid lockdowns. Between the challenges of getting a medical appointment and disruptions to public health programs due to an intense focus on covid, childhood vaccination rates have plunged.
United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Health Organization have officially linked the surge in measles cases to pandemic-related disruptions to childhood vaccinations.
Some 23 million children missed out on basic childhood vaccines in 2020 that would ordinarily be delivered through routine health services, the agencies’ statistics show — 3.7 million more than in 2019.“Measles is more than a dangerous and potentially deadly disease,” Catherine Russell, executive director of UNICEF, said in a statement. “It is also an early indication that there are gaps in our global immunization coverage, gaps vulnerable children cannot afford.”About 17,300 measles cases were reported around the world in January and February 2022, compared with about 9,700 in the first two months of 2021, according to the new data, which probably undercounts the true number of infections.There have been 21 large measles outbreaks around the world in the last 12 months, the agencies said, most of them in Africa or the Middle East, including nations like Ethiopia, Somalia, Yemen, Nigeria and Afghanistan.
This situation was entirely predictable . . . and predicted. In fact, as of November of last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned of significant measles outbreaks around the world because an estimated 22 million infants missed measles vaccines.
Fortunately, in the U.S., there have been only two measles cases reported so far this year. Other regions are not faring quite as well against measles or other diseases for which there are vaccines.
Africa is facing an explosion of preventable diseases due to delays in vaccinating children, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday, with measles cases jumping 400 percent.Twenty African countries reported measles outbreaks in the first quarter of this year, eight more than in the first three months of 2021.The Africa region recorded almost 17,500 cases of the highly contagious virus between January and March.The WHO and the UN’s children’s agency UNICEF announced Wednesday in Geneva that measles cases surged by nearly 80 percent worldwide this year, warning that the rise of the “canary in a coal mine” illness indicates that outbreaks of other diseases are likely on the way.Most of the outbreaks were in Africa and the eastern Mediterranean.WHO’s Africa regional bureau said outbreaks of other vaccine-preventable diseases have also become more common on the continent.Some 24 African nations confirmed epidemics due to a variant of polio in 2021 — four more than during the previous year.Thirteen countries had epidemics of yellow fever last year, up from nine in 2020 and three in 2019.
The data is in, and it is transparently clear: The global experiment conducted by “expert” public health bureaucrats at the start of 2020 has been a failure that cost more lives than it has saved. Sadly, children are bearing the brunt of the devastating consequences of covid lockdowns and pandemic panic.
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