Measles outbreak in Minnesota linked to anti-vaccination fake news.

Courtesy of Live Science:  

A recent measles outbreak that has thus far sickened dozens of Somali-Americans in Minnesota — nearly all of them children — can be traced to anti-vaccination campaigns that targeted Somali-Americans and suggested that vaccines are linked to autism, health officials said. 

On Friday (May 12), the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) announced that it had confirmed 54 measles cases, 51 of which were in children age 17 or younger — and the majority of those infected were unvaccinated, according to an MDH report published online.

Just a reminder that misinformation has real world consequences, and can even lead to death.

And just in case you were wondering, yes Donald Trump is also an anti-vaxxer.

Autism rates through the roof--why doesn't the Obama administration do something about doctor-inflicted autism. We lose nothing to try.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 22, 2012

Yet another reminder that we need smart, scientifically literate people running our country.

Reliance on faith is killing our children. Literally.

Courtesy of Slate:  

Forty-eight states—all except West Virginia and Mississippi—allow religious exemptions from vaccination. (California would be the third exception if its bill becomes law.) A similar deference to religion applies to all medical care for children. As the National District Attorneys Association reports, 43 states give some kind of criminal or civil immunity to parents who injure their children by withholding medical care on religious grounds. 

If your faith mandates spiritual healing and your child dies because you offer prayer instead of insulin or antibiotics, your chances of being charged with a crime are slim. There are religious exemptions for child neglect and abuse, negligent homicide, involuntary manslaughter. Several states allow parents to use a religious defense against charges of murder of their child—and in some places they can’t be charged with murder at all. And even when parents are prosecuted, acquiescence to religious belief often leads to their being acquitted or given light sentences, including unsupervised parole. None of this, of course, applies to parents who refuse medical care on nonreligious grounds; those individuals get no immunity from prosecution. 

Some states allow religious exemptions from required testing of newborns for metabolic disorders, such as the inability to break down fats or amino acids, that can kill an untreated child but are perfectly treatable if caught early. Some states allow exemptions from giving newborns hearing tests or prophylactic eyedrops that can prevent blindness in infants infected with herpes. Seven states allow religious exemptions from testing children for lead levels in their blood, and six even allow religious exemptions to students learning about disease in school. In perhaps the most bizarre and potentially dangerous law, public school teachers in California can legally refuse to be tested for tuberculosis on religious grounds. 

These exemptions have produced the expected result: Hundreds of children have gotten sick and died because their parents resorted to faith rather than medicine.

We live in the 21st Century. There is no longer ANY excuse for this kind of negligent child abuse to be allowed to continue. 

The rights of your religion, or superstitious beliefs, end when it potentially causes injury, or possibly death, to your chld.

Period!

Anti-vaxxer mom has a change of mind, but not soon enough to prevent her seven children from catching the Whooping cough.

Courtesy of the CBC:  

An Ottawa mother of seven "defected" from the anti-vaccination movement, but then her youngest — a 10-month-old son — contracted whooping cough before she could get all of her children their shots. 

Tara Hills told CBC News that since all her children, aged 10 and under, were showing symptoms of the contagious disease, they have been advised to take antibiotics and stay inside their Kanata home for five days. 

Her first three children were partially vaccinated, she said. But she decided to stop after the fourth was born because she was suspicious of the medical community. 

"I just got scared. I got spooked. I thought, 'There's a lot of smoke, there must be fire.' We stopped vaccinating," she said. Three of Tara Hills's seven children peer out the window of their Kanata home in Ottawa, isolated as they get over whooping cough.

Hills said she had recently started rethinking her position on vaccinations. Before her youngest was diagnosed with whooping cough, she said, she met with her family doctor to put together a "catch-up vaccination schedule" for her children. 

"It's very sobering and it's very raw because we had just made a more fully informed decision about vaccinations. We had just defected from the anti-vaccination camp," she said. 

"It was too late. It's so ironic and I'm not beating myself up for it. I just hope we can use this very painful experience to encourage other people like us to maybe re-examine the issue."

Whooping Cough is no joke, as this poor woman has learned the hard way:  

My youngest three children were coughing so hard they would gag or vomit. I’d never seen anything like this before. Watching our youngest struggle with this choking cough, bringing up clear, stringy mucus – I had heard of this before somewhere. My mom said I had it when I was a kid. I snapped into ‘something is WRONG’ mode.

So thanks to the ignorance of this mother her children are forced to suffer.

Kind of sad that this woman was so slow in realizing that vaccinations are not something evil the medical community inflicts on our children,  but rather something positive that they provide to protect all of us from harm.

But that is the result of people spreading false information on places like Facebook and Twitter to an impressionable populace who have been conditioned to panic by media outlets like Fox News.

It may seem a little politically incorrect, but in my opinion the comparison is accurate.

While in England Chris Chirstie cancels several media appearances after saying stupid things about vaccinations.

Courtesy of Reuters:  

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a possible 2016 presidential contender, cancelled three scheduled media appearances in the UK on Tuesday, amid a controversy over his comments on measles vaccinations. 

The Republican governor said on Monday parents needed some choice on whether to vaccinate their children, drawing criticism from political opponents who said such a policy could threaten public health. 

His comments came a few hours after President Barack Obama said parents should have their children vaccinated, saying the science was "pretty indisputable." 

Christie cancelled two question-and-answer sessions and a press statement he was due to make after meeting UK finance minister George Osborne. 

"We just decided we're not going to have availability today," said Maria Comella, Christie's head of communications, after the last scheduled appearance was cancelled.

Oh yeah they just "decided" suddenly to have no press availability when the sole reason Christie was in the UK was to talk to the press and get his name out there before launching his bid for the GOP presidential nomination.

Here is how he responded to one reporter who did not get the memo about Christie not taking questions and continued trying to do his job.

When I asked Christie about ISIS and his UK meetings, he said, "Is there something you don't understand about 'No Questions'?"
— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) February 3, 2015

Yeah what part of "I said something embarrassing on foreign soil making Americans look like nitwits and now I'm trying to lay low do you not get?"

Okay so should we consider the fact that the Christie team recognized that the vaccination response was ignorant to be progress on behalf of Republicans?

Here let me answer my own question.

Nope.

Courtesy of TPM:  

Yesterday, first Paul tried to get to the right (or perhaps just to the crazy) of Chris Christie by going further than Christie on Vaccine Choice. Then he came out a bit later in the day with his claim that vaccines can cause "profound mental disorders." Now it comes out that back in 2009 Paul told InfoWars channel 'Prison Planet TV' that mandatory vaccines could lead to "martial law".

Well okay then, it looks like the whole GOP clown car is now filled mostly with anti-vaxxers.

Good to know.

Another Republican Reality Star/Congressman comes out as an anti-vaxxer. Hang on I'm to go check my calendar and make sure it is REALLY 2015.

So Republican Sean "I can't live on a Congressman's salary" Duffy was on MSNBC this morning talking about Obama's new budget, when host José Díaz-Balart introduced a "gotcha question" about vaccination children.

Here is more courtesy of TPM:  

"I want that to be my choice as a parent," Duffy, a father of seven, said said during an appearance on MSNBC's "The Rundown With José Díaz-Balart." "I know my kids best. I know what morals and values are right for my children. I think we should not have an oppressive state telling us what to do." 

The Wisconsin congressman explicitly defended vaccine critics, saying: "I think a lot of parents who are smart, well-read — they're the ones who are choosing not to vaccinate. And oftentimes, those who may not be as well-read — they are vaccinating. So to say you just have a bunch of crackpots who are choosing not to do this to their children, I just don't think that's actually true." 

Duffy, a former attorney, said that he prefers to "pick and choose" which vaccines his children receive. 

"I vaccinate my kids on most things, but then there are some things where I'm like, 'This may not work for me and my values and my family,'" he said.

I have to wonder exactly which "morals" and "values" conflict with vaccinating his children?

Is he afraid that the vaccinations might make them live too long? Or perhaps he is simply worried that they may not be free to infect others if they are not allowed to catch the measles, small pox, or mumps?

I mean that would be a shame.

For instance does anybody remember the good old days before we had the polio vaccine?

Boy those were the days weren't they?

I have to admit I am completely flabbergasted by this sudden argument over vaccinations.

I used to work in an office at a child care facility and I remember that there was simply no discussion tolerated. No vaccinations, meant no childcare. Period!

And if you were late with a booster shot you were turned away at the door until you had an updated shot record in hand. There was no argument entertained, and there was no pass given to those whose "values" prevented them from inoculating their kids.

It is not fucking about you and your paranoia, it is about all of us.

Source

And all of us are going to kick your ass if your kid makes our kids sick.

P.S. By the way for all of you confused about my reference to reality shows in the headline, Duffy was indeed a participant in The Real World:Boston.

Which just goes to show that the line of separation for Republican politicians and reality shows is pretty thin. Either they come to politics from reality television, or they end up there after their political careers crash and burn.

Right Sarah?