Apparently, Arizona and Utah have a major measles outbreak and it appears it’s headed to Salt Lake City. And that’s going to be a problem:
Salt Lake County likely has a new one, too—the first for the county this year—as well as possible exposures. But, they can’t confirm it.
County health officials said that a health care provider in the area contacted them late on Monday to tell them about a patient who very likely has measles. The officials then spent a day reaching out to the person, who refused to answer questions or cooperate in any way. That included refusing to share location information so that other people could be notified that they were potentially exposed to one of the most infectious viruses known.
“The patient has declined to be tested, or to fully participate in our disease investigation, so we will not be able to technically confirm the illness or properly do contact tracing to warn anyone with whom the patient may have had contact,” Dorothy Adams, executive director of Salt Lake County Health Department, said in a statement. “But based on the specific symptoms reported by the healthcare provider and the limited conversation our investigators have had with the patient, this is very likely a case of measles in someone living in Salt Lake County.”
Measles is extremely infectious. It is spread through the air and can linger in the airspace of a room for up to two hours after an infectious person has left. Among unvaccinated people, 90 percent will become infected if exposed. Two doses of measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR) are 97 percent effective at preventing the infection, and that protection is considered lifelong.
I had measles and I don’t remember it being “fun” like these right wingers are saying. Neither was chicken pox which is probably what RFK Jr is remembering. Not that it was fun but it wasn’t as miserable as measles. (And the shingles virus, which lingers in the body once you have chicken pox, definitely isn’t fun.)
But sure. Let’s go back to the dark ages and refuse to vaccinate your children but then refuse to cooperate with public health officials as they try to trace it and warn people who’ve been exposed. Great.
Support among US adults for the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine has dropped from 90% to 82% in just a few short months, while confusion reigns over whether Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—the top US official spearheading prevention efforts—recommends that children be vaccinated against measles, according to the latest poll from the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) at the University of Pennsylvania.
The poll also found that most Americans correctly believe that the MMR vaccine does not cause autism, though that number has slipped, while over half of those surveyed weren’t sure whether a mercury-based preservative in some vaccines increases the risk of autism, despite studies showing no link.
The results come as US measles cases surpass 1,600 and outbreaks across the country grow.
The poll was conducted August 5 through 18 among 1,699 adults, 28 of whom took the survey in Spanish. It has a margin of error for the entire sample of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
In a normal world I would say that once a few kids die people will have to wake up. But then I remember that 1.2 million Americans died during COVID and these throwbacks have all doubled down. They are impervious to reality. And apparently, they just don’t care.